Gambling

ATLANTIC CITY — The stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists outside a casino hotel left tourism officials stunned and dismayed Monday, casting a shadow over the formal opening on Memorial Day weekend of the newest gambling palace and tripping up a $30 million-a-year campaign to rebrand and revive the sagging resort town. The two victims, women ages 80 and 47, were stabbed and killed during a robbery Monday morning outside Bally's Atlantic City casino hotel, just steps from where a police officer was sitting in a patrol car. Police declined to provide the names of the victims, or precisely where they were from, pending notification of family.

WHEN ATLANTIC City rolled out its "Always Turned On" tourism slogan in 2003, critics felt it was a little, well, risque. Nine years later, they've fixed that. The new slogan? "Do AC!" It's part of a $30 million casino-funded campaign to promote the nation's second-largest gambling resort through a group called The Atlantic City Alliance. Jeff Vasser, president of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority, said the slogan, written by an outside agency hired by the alliance, tested well.

GREAT EDITORIAL about the state's effort to transfer Philadelphia's zoning authority to the unelected Gaming Control Board in Harrisburg ("Harrisburg zoning-control freaks," Sept. 12). Politicians in Harrisburg and Philadelphia believe city residents don't much object to their waterfront being turned into Atlantic City without a public debate, citizen input, zoning authority or a good plan. But many of us do object. Act 71, the gaming law, was passed in the middle of the night, right before the 2004 July Fourth recess, just like the pay raise.

A New Jersey Assembly committee approved a bill Monday that will allow patrons to gamble outside the traditional gaming floors of Atlantic City's casinos. The measure lets the New Jersey casinos offer handheld gambling devices — patrons can use one while waiting in line at a casino restaurant, poolside, or sitting in a lounge area, as long as they remain on casino property. Lawmakers say it provides Atlantic City another way to generate gaming revenue and keep customers longer on the property as regional casino competition intensifies.

A former accountant in the Atlantic County Treasurer's Office faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison if a Superior Court judge accepts his guilty plea to charges of promoting gambling and possessing gambling records. Frederick T. Campo, 50, of Egg Harbor Township, had been indicted on charges of running a sports betting operation between August and December 1987. On Thursday, in criminal court in Mays Landing, Campo pleaded guilty to one count of promoting gambling and one count of possession of gambling records.

TIM Donaghy has a gambling problem? He's a victim now? Oh please!! How tired is the "Boo-Hoo, I'm a Victim" excuse? I guess when you have nothing else to offer, an uncreative attorney like John Lauro can't come up with a fancy dance for you. Betting on a game about which you possess privileged information or in whose outcome you have influence is no gamble. It's a crime of greed and opportunity. Tim Donaghy "expresses a great deal of remorse and concern about the pain that he's caused his family, his friends and his co-workers.

VEGAS VIC! Daily News picks the winners! (You wish). You hypocrites! You promote gambling every day in your newspaper and on your TV show, "Daily News Live!" I look in your paper and see seven NBA betting lines, 20 NCAA lines and betting lines for the NFL playoffs. Why don't you walk the walk and do away with all of that in your newspaper and TV show? Then you'll have some credibility when you talk about Pete Rose. And don't tell me how he should be held to a higher standard because he was a player/manager.

WE SUPPOSE it would be too depressing to have an actual Contempt-O-Meter installed in Harrisburg that measures just what some of our state lawmakers think of us lowly citizens. On second thought, we only have to look at their work product - the laws they write - to understand just how low their opinions of us can go. Case in point: a "casino reform bill" that is actually a vehicle to expand gambling to table games like poker, roulette and blackjack in the state. (And by "vehicle" we are thinking "Trojan horse.

Albert Haehner, 50, and his son Wayne, 22, bet the house that they could run a successful football-wagering operation from their home in Gloucester Township. And they lost. Yesterday, the two Haehners pleaded guilty to charges of illegal gambling and agreed, as part of a plea-bargain agreement, to allow the county to seize their home. The agreement calls for gambling charges to be dropped against Albert Haehner's wife, Barbara, and for both Albert and Wayne Haehner to be sentenced Nov. 20 to two years' probation each by Superior Court Judge A. Donald Bigley.

While New Jersey's political leaders tussle over whether to legalize Internet gambling in Atlantic City's casinos, another group of prominent Garden State residents is apparently taking full advantage of the profits available through online wagering. A federal racketeering case unveiled today in Newark and a state case pending for more than two years in Morris County make it clear: The mob has discovered the Internet. Thirteen alleged members of a Hudson County, N.J., crew of the Genovese crime family, including its 80-year-old leader and his 72-year-old top associate, were arrested today on racketeering conspiracy charges that focused on a multimillion-dollar sports-betting operation run through an Internet website and an office in Costa Rica.

A New Jersey Assembly committee approved a bill Monday that will allow patrons to gamble outside the traditional gaming floors of Atlantic City's casinos. The measure lets the New Jersey casinos offer handheld gambling devices — patrons can use one while waiting in line at a casino restaurant, poolside, or sitting in a lounge area, as long as they remain on casino property. Lawmakers say it provides Atlantic City another way to generate gaming revenue and keep customers longer on the property as regional casino competition intensifies.

Pennsylvania had one of the nation's largest gaming-revenue increases last year, while New Jersey — marked by Atlantic City's ongoing problems with new competition — reported the biggest decline in revenue, according to an economic-impact study released Wednesday. For the second year in a row, revenue from U.S. commercial casinos increased, rising 3 percent last year to $35.6 billion, to continue the recovery that began in 2010, according to the annual State of the States report by the Washington-based American Gaming Association.

New Jersey is again rolling the dice on Internet gambling from computer servers at Atlantic City casinos. An expanded measure passed a state Senate committee last week that would allow online wagers not only from state residents but also gamblers from other states and even other countries. Supporters say the second time might be the charm, as Gov. Christie has hinted he will sign the revised measure, as other states are angling for online gaming dollars and the Justice Department's interpretation of a key federal law just turned in its favor.

PENNSYLVANIA'S 11 casinos pulled in more than $233.1 million in gross slot-machine revenue last month, setting an all-time monthly high since the state's first casino opened in November 2006 and cementing the state's status as the nation's second-largest gambling market. The slots totals released Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board include revenue from two test nights and one day of operations at the state's 11th casino, Valley Forge Casino Resort, which opened Saturday.

WHEN ATLANTIC City rolled out its "Always Turned On" tourism slogan in 2003, critics felt it was a little, well, risque. Nine years later, they've fixed that. The new slogan? "Do AC!" It's part of a $30 million casino-funded campaign to promote the nation's second-largest gambling resort through a group called The Atlantic City Alliance. Jeff Vasser, president of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority, said the slogan, written by an outside agency hired by the alliance, tested well.

ATLANTIC CITY - This town isn't Las Vegas, but the $2.4 billion Revel Casino wants to take visitors there with A-list entertainment, posh rooms, and celebrity-chef restaurants in a luxurious setting where the champagne and water in 10 swimming pools are always flowing. The 20-acre resort - draped in silvery-blue reflective glass - literally curls to and fro like the ocean it embraces. Many see Revel as the lifeline for this down-on-its-luck gambling mecca in need of a revival.

WHO WAS THAT sweet lady passing out the Watchtower at 30th Street Station? And who would dare not take a copy from so earnest and charming a devotee of the faith? It was a devotion to the Jehovah's Witnesses that on many days led Ruby Gamble to hike from Stenton Avenue to City Hall with other witnesses, buttonholing passers-by and delivering their message of hope. Then she'd track down possible converts at the train station and other venues that might offer up interested people - or at least the curious.

Who was that sweet lady passing out the Watchtower at 30th Street Station? And who would dare not take a copy from so earnest and charming a devotee of the faith? It was a devotion to the Jehovah's Witnesses that on many days led Ruby Gamble to hike from Stenton Avenue to City Hall with other witnesses, buttonholing passers-by and delivering their message of hope. Then she'd track down possible converts at the train station and other venues that might offer up interested people - or at least the curious.