Officials from Crawford County have been engaged in last-minute attempts to preserve the revenue that they receive from area casinos, it has been revealed.

The Louisville Courier Journal reports that leaders “pleaded” with Harrison County Council prior to a decision being taken on whether the amount of money the council shares with its neighbour should be reduced.

Currently Crawford County, one of the poorest regions in the state, receives over $1.5 million a year as its share of the tax revenues garnered from Harrison’s Caesars riverboat casino.

The decision on the matter was delayed until December 11th, but some officials are standing firm on the issue, citing the new French Lick casino as a separate revenue source that could make up any potential shortfall for Crawford.

But Harrison commissioner James Goldman appeared to be on Crawford’s side, saying it would be “horrendous” were the county to lose its share of lucrative casino income.

“We ought to stay the course,” Mr Goldman confirmed, speaking to the Courier Journal.

The Global Gaming Expo (G2E), held earlier this month in Las Vegas, gave gamblers the opportunity to voice their opinions to casino managers and slot machine manufacturers, it has been revealed.

An hour long session saw over 40 gamers offer their thoughts on the state of their local casinos, with some interesting insights being given.

Complaints included the excess of junk mail being delivered to patrons’ homes, and special offers that are either simply too cheap or too reliant on the gambler rushing to the casino before the offer runs out, the Las Vegas Sun newspaper reports.

Others grievances include the mention that slot machines are incorrectly advertised as new products. But even true new technology aroused the suspicion of one gambler who was concerned about casino managers having the power to adjust payback percentages per game/player.

“It sounds like they’re trying to get people to gamble as much as possible. That’s not going to keep me coming back,” said Milwaukee resident Dick Doria, speaking to the Las Vegas Sun.

In an unusual move, some of the latest technology on display at G2E was not to do with gambling, but rather with the removal of second-hand smoke from casinos.

Public houses in the UK will be able to host poker games for limited stakes next year after the government gave its approval to new plans.

Traditionally home to games such as dominos and skittles, the English pub will find itself hosting to a more modern leisure pursuit when the new legislation comes into force next September.

A Labour party spokesman denied that the ruling would have a negative effect.

“The government does not believe that permitting people to play poker for very small stakes – we are talking about a few pounds per head – poses a risk to any of the three objectives of the Gambling Act: protecting the vulnerable, keeping out crime and keeping games fair,” the spokesman commented.

Games of chance had previously been banned in pubs and bars within the UK. With over six million players now playing online in the UK, poker is enjoying its most popular period in its history, with thousands of new players signing up to play online every month.

A painting depicting a strip-poker scene has sold for $1.7 million in a New York auction of Latin American art that took place earlier this week.

The auction, which took place at Sotheby’s, saw Fernando Botero’s piece sell as part of a variety of Latin artworks that collected $14 million in total.

Card Players II, Botero’s 1989 piece, depicts two men and two women in the middle of a strip-poker game. Both women are undressed, but the men are fully clothed and appear to be cheating. The painting is one of a series of Botero pieces focused on cheating.

The five foot tall work is thought to have been inspired by earlier gambling-based masterpieces such as Paul Cezanne’s The Card Players, which was painted approximately 100 years earlier, and Caravaggio’s The Cardsharps.

Botero, who has been painting, sculpting and drawing for several decades, describes himself as “the most Colombian of Columbian artists”.

One of Europe’s top poker players has praised new James Bond film Casino Royale’s poker scenes, describing the movie as “miles better” than other poker-based efforts.

Victoria Coren, who has just been nominated for two European Poker Tour awards, describes the film in the Guardian newspaper as ” better than Rounders, miles better than Maverick,” before drawing the line at Steve McQueen’s Cincinnati Kid.

However, unless Bond is attempting a particularly unwise bluff, Coren suggests that Daniel Craig’s play is not up to scratch.

“He gets lucky in a couple of situations where the hands are so big they play themselves,” she comments.

Casino Royale has been breaking box-office records around the globe since it was released on Friday. The centrepiece of the film, originally a game of baccarat in the Ian Fleming novel on which the movie was based, has been changed to a game of Texas Hold’Em poker in an effort to modernise the story.

A motion aimed at delaying the development of a Virgin Islands casino has been denied by a Superior Court judge, who said that the “economic boom” that the casino would bring was too important to ignore.

The motion was filed by local racetrack operators Traxco, who argued that the area granted to the casino owners for development was inaccurately marked out on official maps.

However, the judge’s ruling means that the $275 million casino is still on track to open on time. The resort, the brainchild of hotelier and investor Paul Golden, will require 800 workers and an estimated payroll of $30 million, with 1,200 permanent jobs to be created upon completion.

Speaking about his decision, judge Leon Kendall said: “When considering the depressed economy of St Croix and the economic boom this project is expected to bring, it does not appear to be in the public’s interest to grant injunctive relief.”

The Virgin Islands government has itself contributed over $30 million to the casino project.

A new survey by a leading web security firm has reported that there has been in an increase in the number of requests for gaming-related web pages.

ScanSafe’s Global Threat Report, which involves research largely centred around online viruses and instant messaging services, noted that the company had seen a 40 per cent increase in US-based requests for gambling sites in October.

Page requests, which occur when a web user clicks a link taking them to another website, are a strong indicator of online trends as they provide accurate assessments of which sites are popular with internet users.

The report indicates that online casinos and other gambling sites are still proving popular with US businesses despite recent legislation that limited such sites’ reach within America.

“Given the recent US legislation, we had anticipated a drop in visits to gambling sites. However, we actually saw an increase in web requests from the US for online gambling sites,” said ScanSafe product strategy vice-president Dan Nadir.

A Connecticut casino has announced multi-million dollar expansion plans as it seeks to cement its place as one of the most lavish casino resorts in America.

Mohegan Sun, founded in 1996 by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, already features over 300,000 square feet of gaming space and a 1,200 room hotel, and has now announced $740 million worth of further improvements.

A new 1,000 room hotel will be added, along with an extra casino and more shopping facilities, as the resort seeks to maintain its appeal to gamblers in the face of nearby Foxwoods, ongoing Atlantic City expansion and new state regulation allowing casinos to spring up across the country.

Further news sees poker being brought back to the casino floor, Mohegan Sun not having offered the game during the last few years of the online poker boom.

Last year the resort reported revenues of $1.4 billion from its gaming, hotel and shopping establishments.

Mohegan Sun also intends to team up with the House of Blues restaurant and music-hall establishments in an effort to appeal to younger gaming enthusiasts.

With poker’s popularity showing no signs of abating, one former government official is cashing in by offering his services to ambitious players.

Joe Navarro, a retired FBI counterintelligence agent, is set to use his espionage background as a means of providing high-quality poker advice to a group of gamblers who have cash to burn.

Costing $999, the eight hour long seminar at Caesar’s, Las Vegas, will instruct a group of 100 attendees on the art of poker tells, as Navarro demonstrates the difficult practice of how to find out what other players are thinking.

The tell, a subtle change in the behaviour or facial expression of an opponent that reveals how good their hand is, is widely considered to be one of the hardest parts of the game to master.

Navarro has experience of the topic, having previously given lectures on the subject at Camp Hellmuth, a poker academy established by World Series of Poker champion Phil Hellmuth.

Day one of the Foxwoods World Poker Finals main event in Connecticut saw numerous players come and go, but it was the famous faces who emerged to fight another day.

The current chip leader is Daryn Firicano, who racked up a formidable $340,000 by the end of play. While Firicano is not yet a household name, a placing at the World Series of Poker(WSOP) final table this summer means he is hardly an unknown.

Though $110,000 ahead of the rest of the field, Firicano will know he cannot afford to relax while names such as Hoyt Corkins, Kathy Liebert, Barry Greenstein and all-time money list leader Tuan Le are still in the contest.

With the final set to start at 14:00 local time on Thursday, the 150 players left in the draw seem set for a frantic few days of intensive competition.

Last year’s main event was won by Nick Schulman and featured over 780 entrants – more than the total number of players who entered in the first ten years of the competition.