More than a decade ago, over dinner at an exclusive Los Angeles restaurant, James Packer watched his late father and Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn haggle over how much Kerry Packer could wager on a single hand on his next visit to Sin City. Wynn won the argument, limiting Packer to USD 250,000 a hand because he knew the notorious hit-and-run whale could get on a streak, as he famously did at the MGM Grand one weekend in 1997, reportedly taking the casino for at least USD 20million playing baccarat.

James Packer’s Asian casino partner Lawrence Ho says its PBL joint venture made some early mistakes with its first casino project, Crown Macau. Mr Ho, son of casino billionaire Stanley Ho, said „Melco PBL didn’t get off to a good start.“ „We went away from my original vision – which was a high-roller, six-star, VIP property – and tried to squeeze in too many slot machines“, in order to boost profit margins.

Shareholders of Publishing and Broadcasting voted to approve the company’s split into separate gaming and publishing arms. PBL, controlled by Australia’s richest man, James Packer, has been expanding its interests in the lucrative gaming sector while cutting back its media interests. Under the split plan, which won 98 percent shareholder support, PBL will house its casino and international gaming assets in a company called Crown…

Costs on James Packer’s City of Dreams casino project continue to rise, with the estimate outlay now at USD 2.1 billion (AUD 2.26 billion) compared with USD 1.85 billion in June and USD 1.5 billion last December. The new costs for the casino/hotel project, now under construction, are given in a 190-page filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission by the US-listed Melco PBL Entertainment, which is seeking to raise USD 563.8 million in new shares.

The NSW Government is poised to announce its plans for a second casino within days, with James Packer’s PBL frontrunner to snare another gambling cash cow. It is believed the Iemma Government has warned Star City operators Tabcorp that it needs to pay more tax on its poker machines or face competition from a new rival. Industry insiders have said Tabcorp baulked at the higher tax regime — which would bring it to the level of regular clubs and pubs — and the Government has now got its trigger for a second NSW casino.

James Packer’s third Macau casino, Trinity, is expected to cost at least USD 675 million (AUD 767 million) and open in late 2010, according to investor presentations to analysts by Melco PBL Entertainment in Macau. Located in the main peninsula area of Macau, the third casino project of Mr Packer’s PBL and its joint venture partner Melco is expected to appeal to day-trippers arriving at the Macau ferry terminal or at border points from China.

James Packer’s Publishing & Broadcasting has told analysts that mass-market gambling at its newly opened Macau Crown casino is trading below expectations, prompting it to increase its focus on wealthier gamblers. The six-star casino had a strong start with VIP gamblers, with chip turnover rising significantly from last month, PBL executives reportedly said at a market briefing in Sydney yesterday. Crown Macau is the first of three casinos PBL and its partner Melco are developing in the former Portuguese colony. It has only been fully open for business for about three weeks.

Plans by James Packer’s Macau casino business to raise USD 2.75 billion (AUD 3.5 billion) to finance its expansion plans have been hit by the turmoil in US credit markets, which has shut off new lending for the casino business in the city. The nervousness in the US lending market has compelled the joint venture partners to shelve plans for the main USD 1.5 billion portion, which was to have been raised in the US markets in September as part of a three-tranche financing deal for their Macau investments.

Ten minutes by helicopter or one hour by hydrofoil from Hong Kong, the former Portuguese colony of Macau is crammed onto a couple of tiny islands and a peninsula jutting from the Chinese mainland. Only half the size of Sydney Harbour, it has just overtaken the Las Vegas Strip to become the gaming capital of the world. But the boom has only just begun. Cranes crowd the skyline as new casinos and hotels spring up on reclaimed land. And high-speed ferries stream across the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong like trucks down a busy freeway.

PBL’S Crown Casino in Melbourne and its Burswood Casino in Perth will be used to guarantee a bond issue to help prop up the price of listed US company Melco PBL Entertainment (Macau), it emerged yesterday. James Packer’s company plans to raise up to USD 250 million (AUD 290 million) in exchange tradeable bonds, as part of a move to to bolster the price of the Macau company, which has been badly hit in recent weeks by visa restrictions being imposed on gamblers by the Chinese Government.

Analysts have been surprised at the scale of new plans by James Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Limited for its North American gambling operations, after its Crown Las Vegas consortium lodged documents with Nevada authorities outlining plans to build the tallest casino on the famous Las Vegas strip.

There’s a new game down at the casino, it’s called „Play with Packer“. Yep, you can roll the dice with Australia’s richest man and share the spoils. Well, I exaggerate — but only slightly. The new game is not in the casino but on the stock exchange, and it’s going to be called Ellerston Capital, a hedge fund to be listed on July 3 by James Packer.