Casino

LAS VEGAS - Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson looked relaxed. His arm was slung over the back of the courtroom witness chair with the cozy demeanor of a guest on an afternoon talk show. He was dressed impeccably in a gray business suit, blue shirt and red-and-white tie, but the look on his face was purely personal, a grandfather telling a story. He talked about his impoverished Boston childhood, his parents fresh off the latest immigrant boat. “I could have been a rags to riches story,” he said, smiling, congenially facing the jury.

LAS VEGAS - For years, he's been the Wizard of the Strip, an Oz-like character whose wealth and power have never been in doubt but who has stayed behind a curtain, away from public exposure. Sheldon Adelson, 79, who rose from impoverished roots in Boston to become one of the planet's richest men and chief executive of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. international gaming empire, has long kept his counsel exclusively to lawyers and other insiders, a trusted few. But on Thursday, the curtain parted.

Denver Broncos safety Quinton Carter is facing felony charges after the Texas Station casino in Las Vegas accused him of cheating at craps. Carter, 24, was arrested Thursday after he was allegedly videotaped adding a $5 chip to three bets after the dice already rolled. After the incident, Carter tweeted: "Regarding the matter that allegedly occurred during a brief trip to my hometown of Las Vegas, I am fully confident that when the facts come out I will be cleared. " Carter faces three counts of committing a fraudulent act in a gaming establishment, a felony in Nevada that carries a possible sentence of one to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The Las Vegas casino company headed by high-profile Republican donor and billionaire Sheldon Adelson said it probably violated a federal law that prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials. Las Vegas Sands Corp. said its auditors found that "there were likely violations" of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars Americans from bribing foreign officials to secure an advantage. The disclosure was made in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A spokesman for the Las Vegas casino owner who is owed about $30 million by Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis says the soft-core porn mogul's decision to have his business file for bankruptcy protection will not deter efforts to collect the debt. On Wednesday, Francis moved to place GGW Brands and other companies related to the infamous brand -- which specializes in videos featuring young women exposing themselves on camera -- under Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles.

LAS VEGAS -- Joyce Rhone didn't see the attack coming -- and certainly not at a blackjack table at the vaunted Bellagio Hotel and Casino, her attorney said. But in a scene that shocked onlookers, fellow Bellagio employee Brenda Stokes is accused of attempted murder in a box-cutter attack on Rhone. Stokes allegedly used two razors and repeatedly slashed the victim's face with cuts so deep to her cheek that they revealed Rhone's teeth. Now a lawyer representing Rhone in the December attack has filed a civil lawsuit against the Bellagio, claiming that the casino's security force failed to ensure "that its property was reasonably safe and to render aid to" Rhone.

The low-profile Downey company that is buying the aging landmark Trump Plaza hotel and casino in Atlantic City, N.J., for a bargain-basement $20 million is scrambling to improve the place and obtain a gaming license in time for the warm-weather tourist season, a company executive said. The Meruelo Group, which got its start selling pizzas in Latino neighborhoods in Southern California, has expanded into numerous businesses, including construction, engineering, real estate and private equity.

While working at Hollywood Park Casino, Tafere Haileselassie has been able to achieve what some say is the American Dream. The Ethiopian immigrant said he put his two children through college and bought a house in the Crenshaw district, all on the tips and minimum-wage salary he earned as a porter at the Inglewood card club. But come March, when a new manager is scheduled to take over the daily operations of the aging casino, Haileselassie and about 600 workers may be out of jobs.

SAN DIEGO - She married a fabulously wealthy man decades her elder, and became the first female mayor of San Diego. But when Maureen O'Connor left public life, she spent countless hours seated in front of video-poker machines. Over a nine-year period, she wagered an estimated $1 billion, including millions from a charity set up by her late husband, who founded Jack in the Box. That was the portrait that emerged in court Thursday as the frail former mayor tearfully acknowledged she skimmed more than $2 million from a charity founded by her late husband, Robert O. Peterson.

One New Jersey casino, catering to gamblers of the couch-potato variety, will start letting guests place bets right from their hotel room televisions. Starting Feb. 18, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City said it will be the first gambling establishment in the U.S. to allow guests to bet from the comfort of their beds, a step that could eventually lead to gambling on smartphones and tablet computers within the casino, according to the Associated Press. The E-Casino program will be equipped with slots and four kinds of poker games, with guests allowed to bet up to $2,500 per day. Customers use the TV remote control to play.