The International Gaming Awards (IGA) is proud to announce Stella Dalton, Head of Business Development at Gamcare, as a new judge on the prestigious panel. The Socially Responsible Operator award for both the online and land based category will allow Stella Dalton to provide her expertise and knowledge in both hugely competitive categories.

Washington, DC (October 2, 2009) –The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide (nearly 10,000 in South Carolina), today lauded the ruling of a South Carolina court that confirmed that poker is a game of skill, and thus should not be considered gambling under the law.

SkyCity has been criticised by a senior judge after a drug ring used its VIP gaming lounge as part of its multi-million operation, but the casino company defended its systems for detecting illegal activities. Drug gang ringleader Ro Tong Zhou, 41, was jailed for 15 years in the High Court in Auckland yesterday on more than 30 methamphetamine drugs charges. He used SkyCity Casino’s VIP lounge to run the operation, which included the supply of more than NZD 3 million worth of P in two months.

Topeka, Kansas (AP) – A judge was told Aug. 29 that blocking Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. from going forward with plans to build and manage a state-owned casino in Sumner County could doom the project. But lawyers for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation argued that Harrah’s involvement in the south-central Kansas project would violate a noncompete agreement the company signed with the tribe in January.

Atlantic City, New Jersey (AP) — Dealers at the Trump Marina Hotel Casino will get a second chance to form a union after a judge threw out the results of a 2007 vote in which the United Auto Workers narrowly lost a campaign to unionize workers there. Administrative Law Judge Earl Shamwell Jr. set aside the results of the first vote, in which the union lost by eight votes out of 358 ballots cast.

A federal judge said he’s powerless to block the Seminole Tribe from offering blackjack at its casinos, rejecting a Pompano racetrack’s lawsuit while emphasizing the legal hurdles facing anyone tangling with the tribe. Lawyers for The Isle Casino & Racing at Pompano Park and its parent company, PPI Inc., attempted to sidestep the tribe’s sovereign nation status by suing only Gov. Charlie Crist and the federal government…

Buffalo (AP) – A judge has ruled that the Seneca Indian Nation does not have the right to build a casino on a site where it has started construction. The judge, William M. Skretny, of Federal District Court, set aside a decision by the National Indian Gaming Commission that allowed the casino, ruling in favor of opponents who sued to stop it. Judge Skretny said that land the Senecas purchased in 2005 qualified as “Indian lands” under federal guidelines…

A bankruptcy judge is to decide this morning whether construction of Greektown’s permanent hotel and casino will continue. The project’s general contractor and about 90 subcontractors have threatened to stop work and some have already walked off the job citing nonpayment from as far back as February. On Tuesday, attorneys for Greektown Casino asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Walter Shapero to immediately approve a USD 44-million loan to pay contractors.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary Cooper sent two very clear messages to the online gaming industry last week: 1. The courts are not going to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) because the law is either ineffective or unwise. 2. The iMEGA case has very little chance of overturning the UIGEA. The only glimmer of hope Cooper gave iMEGA was she granted it „standing“ on certain issues.

A judge rejected last Friday two ballot initiatives to raise taxes on Nevada’s biggest casinos to about 20 percent and generate up to USD 2 billion a year for teachers’ pay, highway construction and other projects. Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox said the initiatives, filed by Las Vegas lawyer Kermitt Waters, don’t comply with a state law requiring an initiative to be limited to one subject.

A Harrison County judge has ruled a Biloxi woman did not win the USD 1 million jackpot she claimed at the IP Casino. The ruling this week by Circuit Judge Roger Clark overturned a Mississippi Gaming Commission decision that sided with Florida Eash in her dispute with the casino. The IP Casino argued Eash was owed only USD 8,000 – the top winning amount showed on the machine’s sign. The casino said a technician for International Game Technology mistakenly programmed the slot machine to be a stand-alone progressive.

Atlantic City Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino has lost its appeal to overturn the results of a spring election where more than two-thirds of dealers voted to join the United Auto Workers union. On Friday, a National Labor Relations Board judge has overruled Trump Plaza’s objection to an election in which its dealers voted 324-149 for union representation and is recommending that the United Auto Workers be certified as the employees’ collective bargaining representative.