Donald Trump, the US business tycoon, is planning to open a casino on Rhode Island.

The billionaire’s company Trump Entertainment Resorts will join with local developer David Nunes for the project.

The proposed casino site is a 100-acre plot in Johnston, Rhode Island, and will also feature a hotel and a 5,000 square foot entertainment centre.

Local councillor, Ernest Pitochelli, said the casino would be a $1 billion investment with 30,000 square feet of retail space and generate as much as $900 million in annual revenue, reports the Providence Journal.

The reality TV star’s attempt to build a casino in the area follows years of unsuccessful attempts by Harrah to build a $650 million hotel and casino in the location.

A Connecticut casino is offering an unusual drink for its customers, a signature cocktail martini worth $3,000.

The drink, named the Sapphire martini, has been pioneered by Foxwoods Resort Casino and has ingredients, which include Blue Curacao and Sapphire Gin.

And what might you ask is the reason for such a steep price tag?

Well, the rationale behind the $3,000 drink is that each one comes with a pair of custom-made blue sapphire and diamond earrings.

However, Foxwoods is not the only establishment at which you can order a drink with a little bit of bling, according to the Associated Press.

The Algonquin Hotel’s Blue Bar in New York sells diamond martinis worth around $10,000 but so far only two flushed patrons have decided to buy one since 2004.

George Clooney, former star of ER, is intending for some of the profits from his new casino venture to help the poor in Africa.

The Hollywood star is involved in a project to build a new hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada but is keen for it not to be a purely moneymaking operation.

Speaking on Larry King Live, Clooney said: “I’m taking 25 per cent and giving it to Africa.”

The new Las Ramblas development will boast an opulent $3 billion casino, hotel and condominium development, with 11 towers, interiors by Philippe Starck and a smart dress code, all in the style of Vegas back in its Rat Pack heyday.

With smart dress required to enter Las Ramblas, Clooney anticipates that the casino will rival the more laid-back options – such as nearby Sin City.

He added that the smart dress code relates back to his late aunt Rosemary Clooney who used to dress up to sing as a Las Vegas casino.

Phil Ivey took home three awards from the inaugural Poker Awards Show.

The event was hosted by Brad Garret from hit television show Everybody Loves Raymond and the Bodog CEO Calvin Ayre.

Having been nominated for a total of five awards, Ivey eventually walked away victorious in the categories for Best No-Limit Player, Best Heads-Up Player and also Most Feared Player.

The awards mark a winning run for Ivey who was recently named the 2005 Player of the Year by ESPN and Bluff Magazine.

Doyle Brunson was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award and gave an emotional speech in which he stated, “this country made me a poker champion. It made my dream come true”.

Other winners included Men “The Master” Nguyen who took the 2005 Card Player of the Year award and Jennifer Tilly in the Best Celebrity Player category.

Harrah’s New Orleans has reopened following the destruction of the city by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

The flooding that occurred in the city caused widespread damage but the casino has managed to coincide its reopening with the 2006 Mardi Gras celebrations.

Anthony Sanfilippo, Harrah’s spokesman, said that the casino’s reopening was an important stepping stone for New Orleans.

He said: “This is a magical city for our nation. We knew that Harrah’s coming back, employing some 1,500 people, reaching out to our customers throughout the nation and inviting them to New Orleans, was going to be crucial to restarting the city.”

The casino features a 115,000 square-foot gaming floor and over 2,000 slot machines. It also has more than 90 gaming tables and the largest poker room in the south of America.

There is also a $150 million project underway for a new 450-room hotel opposite the casino, which is due to open in September 2006.

One of VIP Casino’s most popular progressive jackpot slots, Millionaire’s Club, is nearing the magical $1.5 million mark.

The pot has been steadily building since the last winner netted themselves a considerable $1 million prize in the run-up to Christmas.

Millionaire’s Club is the hugely popular online casino slots game from award-winning software provider CryptoLogic, which recently announced strong financial results for the year ending 2005.

The game paid out an impressive three jackpots in 2005, two of which were over that special $1 million mark. It regularly pays out the biggest jackpots online and is a progressive nine-line and five-reel video slot machine.

One of the features which makes Millionaire’s Club so popular with the punters is the ability to switch the coin value up to $20 without changing to another slots machine.

VIP Casino also has ten other progressive jackpots so register online at VIP Casino today and try your luck on Millionaire’s Club for the fast approaching $1.5 million jackpot!

Canada is set to get its own version of Poker Night Live.

The programme is targeted at Canadian poker enthusiasts and will be broadcast everyday by CGTV and also during the Thursday and Saturday shows.

The show will be brought to our screens by River Belle and hopes to follow on from the success that the UK version of the programme experienced.

Poker Night Live will screen a virtual poker table and also have commentary from a number of industry experts.

Tim Johnson, chairman of Carmen Media Group, which owns Belle Rock Entertainment, said: “Poker Night Live will give online players the rare opportunity to showcase their poker skills on live television.”

Lee Nelson, fresh from his Aussie Millions win, is returning to his native country to play in a poker tournament.

He will take part in the New Zealand Poker Championships, which is set to attract over 150 players and amass a $134,000 prize jackpot.

The event will be held at Christchurch Casino, which has hosted the event for the past seven years.

The tournament’s major draw is that it is one of only a few poker tournaments held in the Southern Hemisphere and the winner is also offered a seat at the World Series of Poker main event taking place in Las Vegas.

CryptoLogic has released some impressive end of year and fourth quarter figures with overall revenue up by 40 per cent.

The revenue increase spearheaded some positive results for CryptoLogic, which included earnings rising by 54 per cent, poker fees up by 92 per cent and casino fees up by 20 per cent.

Lewis Rose, the CryptoLogic president and CEO, was understandably upbeat about the company’s performance and results.

He said: “For CryptoLogic, 2005 marked a decade of innovation and consistent performance.

“It was a milestone year of delivering the world’s most innovative games to some of the world’s most trusted gaming and entertainment brands.

“The results speak for themselves – we achieved all-time highs in revenue and earnings.”

He added that CryptoLogic had firmly established itself as an industry leader in the internet casino market.

Fourth-quarter revenue results were up to $25.1 million compared to $17.9 million for the same period in 2004 while there was an overall rise in revenue of $86.3 million across the whole year.

Casino’s currently using the Cryptologic software include award winning VIP Casino and InterCasino.

Freeze Out, an independently produced poker film financed out of poker winnings, has been attracting critical acclaim.

The picture was filmed on a tight $20,000 budget, three-quarters of which the director Mr J Loheed won from a few lucky hands of poker.

Starring Greg Behrendt and Laura Silverman, Freeze Out is about a small town home game of “dealer’s choice” poker which then escalates into a do-or-die “freeze out” tournament.

The movie has received a warm welcome from critics and is currently running in a festival on the Cinesquest website.

Mr Loheed is an independent filmmaker from Los Angeles and wrote, directed and produced the script for Freeze out on his own.