Report: Company plans colonial-era Singapore casino
Las Vegas Sands Corp. is proposing to spend more than $2 billion on a casino and resort in Singapore with a colonial-era theme, the Business Times said, citing President and Chief Operating Officer William Weidner.
The plans include a 40-storey Guggenheim Museum towering over a development shaped like a flower, the report said, with actors dressing as William Farquhar and other characters from the city-state's years as a British colony. Farquhar was an administrator who allowed gaming and cockfighting in the city. Other features of the proposed project include a cruise ship center, monorail, and a bridge of fireworks that explode in the shape of an orchid, the report said.
The plan is one of more than a dozen proposals requested by the government for two casino-resorts that it estimates may draw $3 billion of investments and create 35,000 jobs.
House OKs limiting casinos
The House gave initial approval Wednesday to legislation limiting the number of casinos in the state.
Missouri has 11 casinos with two more planned in St. Louis city and county. The bill would limit casino licenses to 13, said sponsoring Rep. Mark Wright, R-Springfield.
The bill also provides that new licenses could be issued only in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas, and if a license was revoked, another license could be granted only in the same county or city.
The constitution already limits casinos to being located along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
Last November, voters defeated a proposed constitutional amendment to allow a casino along the White River in the southwest Missouri town of Rockaway Beach.
The legislation endorsed Wednesday by the House still needs another vote to go to the Senate. Its chances of ultimate passage are uncertain.
House Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, supports the cap but opposes other changes to gambling laws, including removal of the $500 loss limit and raising taxes on casinos.
Slots bill unlikely this year
State lawmakers will likely not agree how to tax and regulate slots this year, Senate President Tom Lee said Wednesday.
"I would say it's less than a 50-50 chance," said Lee, R-Brandon.
The House and Senate have worked hard and long on legislation to oversee slots at four Broward County pari-mutuels -- an issue that won statewide voter approval last November and county voter approval last month -- but the two bills are "a long way apart," Lee said.
He said he didn't think the pari-mutuel industry would invest in facilities and slot machines despite arguments that the ballot measure was self-implementing. He said it was too much of a business risk, Lee said.
12 charged with racketeering
Police charged a dozen people Wednesday and seized over $2 million in cash and property as part of an investigation into an illegal gambling operation in Bergen County.
Each defendant faces racketeering-related charges related to gambling. The investigation began nearly a year and a half ago into an offshore gambling operation.
Nine suspects were arrested Wednesday; three remained at large.
Bergen County prosecutor John Molinelli said the investigation is continuing and additional arrests are expected.
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