Campbell, 53, allegedly attacked his wife Olga Pleguezuelos, while she was sleeping, after reading a text message on her phone that her lover has sent.

Pleguezuelos was reported dead last year after police found her lifeless body in her London home. The trial of Campbell in the case is currently underway.

The prosecutions arguments lie with Pleguezuelos waking up in the middle of the attack and attempted to defend herself against her husband. Campbell then proceeded to stab his wife to death. Prior to calling an ambulance, Campbell has slit his own wrists.

A week prior to the murder, Pleguezuelos had reportedly told her husband that she would be leaving him and moving to Las Vegas, where with her new man and new job she would be “starting afresh”.

The prosecutor stated that there was “nothing sudden or temporarily about it; that one could see from his own writings recovered from a bin, that he has been rationalising this situation for a while”.

Proceedings in the trial continue.

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Daniel is facing charges of aiding offshore online gambling companies with the processing of banking transaction for US players. The estimated worth of these illegal transactions is said to be more than $543 million.

The official charge Daniel is facing is illegal gambling conspiracy as well as bank fraud and money laundering conspiracy, and money laundering.

If convicted, he could be facing more than 75 years jail time and fines totalling more than $543 million.

Sources claim that Daniels whereabouts in the US where know due to tip offs authorities received from certain internet gaming companies who are claiming that Daniel had stolen up to $100 million of their customer deposits in the US.

In the indictment, David had been laundering money for some time now (from February 2008 to March 2009); his laundering days were numbered when internet gaming companies stopped their work relationship with him due to his apparent theft.

David’s company, Intabill, Inc., has used Automated Clearing House transactions to move cash around from player accounts to various offshore shell companies. He then proceeded to move these funds into gaming accounts. He would also use these companies to shuffle player winnings made at internet casinos back to the bank accounts of US players.

David’s arrest comes off the arrest of another man, Douglas Rennick, a Canadian resident, who in August 2009 was charged with transferring a staggering $350 million to bank accounts in the US from accounts in Cyprus.

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Nominations for the awards can be made up until 10 April 2010; eleven days thereafter, the announcement of the official ballot will be made.

All potential female nominees are required to be an active poker player for more than 15 years as well as contributed to the poker industry in a meaningful manner.

2010 also marks a new nominating arrangement which sees candidates having to be a proponent of the women’s game of poker. Regardless of whether the candidate players are not, she only has to show her support. This year, the general public and not only members will have the opportunity to vote.

Upon completion of the final ballot of names, the voting process will also be open to the public. Public vote will count for about half the final determination, with members of the Poker Hall of Fame and enshrined members counting for the other half.

The final winners and newest inductees into the Hall of Fame will be announced on 3 September 2010 at a popular Las Vegas casino venue. Jan Fisher will also be on hand for the grand event as the Master of Ceremonies for the night.

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Police are currently investigating the death of Kenneth Weitzner, the founder of ThePrescription.com (therx.com); the company he sold eight years ago for more than $2 million. This followed with the inception of the online casino portal EOG.com (Eye on Gambling) which he founded. He was also a frequent punter of big sports books within Las Vegas; he was also a good friend of one of the states betting sharks, Billy Walters.

Initial investigations have revealed that both Kenneth as well as Jackie, his wife had committed a double suicide. Police officials have however also stated that the exact cause of the deaths had not been established, with investigations into the deaths still an ongoing process.

Rumours have circulated in various casino communities that Kenneth owed many people quite a bit of cash. The cause of this debt could possibility be due to gambling, but it is still up for debate as to why Jackie would have been considered a target.

As mentioned, Kenneth is the latest casino owner to be found dead. Andreas Oscarsson, the founder of pokerlistings.com was found murdered less than a year ago. It has been noted that Andreas had received a death threat due to the testimony he gave in the trial of a man attempting to extort over $2 million from him.

The news of Kenneth’s death is set to create a lot of buzz within gambling circles, and until police finalise their investigation into the couple’s deaths, the interest in the case is sure to continue.

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It seems there are plans to fast track the big spenders in Los Angeles to ‘Sin City’ Las Vegas.

There have been plans for a super fast train to transport gamblers and vacationers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for some time now but they have recently been delayed. The plans to construct a high-speed railway called the DesertXpress between Las Vegas and Southern California have been stalled because environmental approval is taking longer than expected but executives still believe construction will begin this year, albeit towards the end of the year.

Developers were hoping to start constructing the railway by summer 2010 but the project now seems to be running 3 or 4 months behind. The project is scheduled to take 4 years to complete and will provide rapid transport between LA and LV, therefore increasing tourism and gambling profits in Las Vegas.

There are various factors that need to be taken into account with regards to this railway and one of them is the impact it will have on the environment. The Park Service has become involved in approval of the railway line because it might pass through the Mohave National Preserve in California, just south of the Nevada border and therefore have an impact on the fauna and flora in this reserve. The agencies involved need to determine which alternatives present the least environmental impact.

The line is being paid for privately, and no taxpayer money will be used, although federal loans are still being considered.

It will be possible for passengers to board in Los Angeles and travel directly to Las Vegas, with the trip taking 2,5 hours. The parking lot at the proposed station, Victorville, will have parking spaces for 15,000 cars, making it 1,5 times bigger than Disneyland’s parking lot.

The vision is for the Las Vegas experience to start on the DesertXpress. Average ticket prices will be between $50 and $55 for economy seats, with higher ticket prices for first class seating on the train.

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Nevada USA is the home of many billion dollar casinos and hotels and relies on profit made from entertainment to keep its economy going. This industry is becoming more and more difficult to manage and stake holders are becoming more and more protective of their holdings since the advent of the recent worldwide economic crisis as well as the possibility of online gambling being legalised in the state.

In an attempt to control land-based and online casino operators, it has been reported that the Nevada Gaming Control Board is trying to create rules for casino operators who have business relationships with online gambling sites. Board members want to make sure that regulations for online gambling are in place for internet gambling should it become legal in the US. Presently, casino licensees have no restrictions with regards to online gambling and this means that some of them abide by the rules and others do not.

Issues surrounding the advertising of online casino sites and the use of dot net or dot com to attract players need to be resolved before online gambling becomes legal and the situation becomes uncontrollable. While advertising for land-based casinos follows strict rules, these rules will not necessarily apply to online casinos, should they become legalised.

It is at this point in time when the industry must make basic rules that keep it fair and transparent. So far, it has been these basic rules that have kept the land-based gambling industry in check and clear of dishonest operators and in order to maintain this standard, rules need to be set up for online casinos as well.

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The Consumer Electronics Association has obtained the trademark rights to establish a World Trade Center in Las Vegas. This center will be established for international trade

President and CEO of the association, Gary Shapiro, said he saw Las Vegas as an increasingly important city for international trade and business because it already hosts an abundance of conventions and trade shows that are of global interest.

Shapiro knows how important focussing on Las Vegas is first hand. He held his own International CES convention in Las Vegas this year. It attracted 25,000 delegates from foreign countries. This was out of the estimated 128,000 delegates that attended the show.

The World Trade Center Las Vegas would consist of a hotel, an office building and other facilities to be decided on at a later date.

While it is commonly thought that Vegas makes its money from the leisure crowd, the business side of things is the fastest growing and most stable part of the market. Worldwide recognition of Vegas being a business as well as a leisure destination will come with the establishment of the World Trade Center Las Vegas.

As it is, the World Trade Center Association does not limit itself to specific facilities. They range from trade information, to meeting facilities, to education agreements.

The announcement goes hand in hand with the signing of the Travel Promotions Act by President Obama last week. Las Vegas has acted quickly to take advantage of this.

It seems Las Vegas has learned from the terrible finacial set back it expeerienced last year in the midst of the world wide finacial crisis. When poeple don’t have extra money for leisure activities, cities relying on leisure acitivities for income will suffer. Las Vegas seems set to become a stable business city too.

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This spending spree is deemed one of the largest losing steaks in gambling history in Las Vegas, where Terrance had spend all of his time frequenting both the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos.

Eating through most of the personal fortune he had built up over 20 years, Terrance had made his money through his party-favour import company in Omaha, America. Within 2007 alone, a staggering 5.6% of all gross Las Vegas revenue made from gambling was due to the efforts of Mr. Watanabe.

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. who acts as the parent company for the casinos and Mr. Watanabe are battling it out at the moment over whether they can claim some responsibility for his impressive losing streak.

Mr. Watanabe claims in a recently filed civil suit in the Clark County District Court that the staff at both casinos would often give him increased amounts of alcohol as well as pain killers in their attempts to keep him spending his money at the casino tables.

Based on these allegations by the plaintiff, Mr. Watanabe, the Nevada’s Gaming Control Board have since opened up their own separate investigation in order to determine if Harrah’s did in fact violate any gambling regulations.

The Clark County District Attorney’s office charged Mr. Watanabe in April with 4 felony counts of fraud and theft against Harrah’s, which stems from a massive $14.7 million which is claimed to have been extended to him at the casinos as credit but has since been claimed to be lost by Mr. Watanabe. His refusal to pay more than the already paid $112 million is due to his apparent allegations against the casinos that they promised to give him cash back for some of the losses acquired, as well as their encouragement to gambling intoxicated. If found guilty, Mr. Watanabe could face as many as 28 years behind bars.

It has been reported by former and current employees however, that they should let Mr. Watanabe continue gambling at the Harrah’s casinos even though he appeared to be intoxicated; this despite the both casinos rules as well as state law which state that visibly drunk individuals should not be allowed to continue gambling. An investigation on this matter is till currently under way.

According to Mr. Watanabe’s lawyer, the Harrah’s group had preyed on the gamblers condition but did however go on to say that Mr. Watanabe did acknowledge his excessive drinking and had taken full responsibility for his actions.

Within the state of Nevada, all unpaid gambling debts are seen as criminal matters and are handled as such by a bad-checks unit within the District Attorney’s office. Prior to defendants being charged, most often than not, an agreements will be reach in which the debt will be paid off before charges will be filed.

It has also been noted in other court documentation that Mr. Watanabe had admitted to also being banned from the Wynn casino in 2007 due to an apparent excessive amount of drinking as well as gambling; although a representative from the casino declined to make a comment regarding this allegation.

In 2008, Mr. Watanabe was seen back in the Las Vegas gambling swing of things but has since entered a residential treatment facility, and as such, has not visited any casino since.

In the American Summer months, Mr. Watanabe will stand trial on all of the felony charges brought against him for his 2007 gambling debt. As it stands Mr. Watanabe has pleaded not guilty on all charges.

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Terminators - they travel light

Police found the 19-year-old wandering naked through a casino on the Nevada border and managed to subdue the culprit using not liquid nitrogen (as seen in T2) but garden-variety Tasers.

He was first spotted wandering across a highway, completely naked, by motorists who alerted the police.

Smith truly believed he was a character in the Arnold Schwarznegger  sci-fiction film franchise, but police believe he was merely delusional after taking too many drugs.

His arrest took place in front of a group of children (although what THEY were doing inside a casino is another question all together…).

Who knows, perhaps the Terminator was just trying to place a bet on roulette to buy back his clothes and return to the future?

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Veteran players say that one of the reasons may be because there are fewer free drinks offered these days. There has been a marked decline in complimentary drinks from 2009 to 2010. Unlike in the past, players will get their initial drink for free and then need to purchase the rest and it seems players are willing to do just that. Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts says that often alcohol sales will make bigger profits than blackjack. This has resulted in a number of nightclubs being opened to capitalize on this.

The bulk of the state’s alcohol is consumed on the Strip and beverage department revenue rose 5 percent in the last fiscal year while income in gambling, rooms and food departments fell 32 percent, 23 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

All this despite the fact that alcohol has the highest mark up of everything else offered on casino menus. It seems that in Las Vegas the one factor always worth  betting on is people wanting to drink through the good times as well as the bad.

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