Casinos

An Apache casino reopened two months after it was forced to close or face government seizure of its gambling equipment. Three federal court rulings in the past year have found that 11 Indian casinos in New Mexico were illegal because the state-tribal compacts authorizing them were invalid. The Mescalero casino was the first to shut down in the face of a threat by U.S. Atty. John Kelly to seize its slot machines, gaming tables and other equipment and bank accounts. The U.S.

The Fair Political Practices Commission is suing California's largest poker casino, the Commerce Club, over political contributions the club allegedly made last year to defeat a ballot measure that would have established a rival casino just a few miles away in Pico Rivera. The lawsuit alleges that the club failed to report "independent expenditures" on a campaign and that it was late in disclosing other contributions to two committees.

Hilton Hotels Corp. and the parent company of Black Entertainment Television said Thursday that they will explore the possibility of opening a Las Vegas hotel and casino designed to lure more African American visitors to the nation's gambling capital. The joint venture would blend the entertainment savvy of BET Holdings Inc.

Serene amid blaring music and the roar of steel balls clattering through hundreds of upright pinball machines, college student Aiko Takano sat happily with her boyfriend, licking a lollipop and losing money. Takano, 19, was enjoying a Dutch-treat date at an upscale pinball parlor in Tokyo's trendy Shibuya district, and her losses neither surprised nor bothered her. She and her boyfriend play pachinko--Japanese-style pinball--about twice a week, she said, and lose about $800 a month.

Supporters of gambling in Hawaiian Gardens have begun chipping away at a lawsuit that has stalled construction of a voter-approved casino in the city. Lawyers representing the City Council and the casino landowner heralded last week's Los Angeles Superior Court ruling that the council did not violate state environmental laws when it licensed the card club.

To a surprising degree, the streets of this salt-air amusement park have maintained their relative real estate values since Charles Darrow, an out-of-work engineer from Germantown, Pa., carved their names into the American psyche with his Depression-era board game, "Monopoly." Boardwalk and Park Place remain the priciest addresses; Baltic and Mediterranean avenues are still low-rent. In the real-life city, as in the game, the only way to riches is by owning the hotels.

Patricia Moore's longtime campaign manager testified Tuesday that he laundered payoffs to her from backers of a card casino in Compton, and once delivered $10,000 in cash to her from the city's commercial waste hauler. "I was used, I feel betrayed," Basil Kimbrew told a federal court jury in the former Compton councilwoman's extortion trial. Moore is accused of extorting $12,334 from Compton Entertainment Inc.

ITT Corp. shares fell as much as 15% on Tuesday amid investor concerns that the acceleration of a $1.13-billion expansion of two Las Vegas casinos will crimp earnings until mid-1998. The hotel and casino company said late Monday that it plans to finish additions to Desert Inn and Caesars Palace in early 1998, about six months sooner than it planned. Analysts said the change will dent earnings starting in the third quarter.

PTA leaders at Bell Gardens High School said Thursday that they will refuse to award their 25 scholarships inside the luxurious banquet room of a local casino, not because they think that the gambling house is an inappropriate location, but because school officials are charging honorees $5 to attend. Instead, the group said it will hold its own senior awards ceremony--handing out nearly $6,000 in book scholarships--inside the more austere confines of the high school library.