Casinos

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.

NEW YORK -- The Metropolitan Opera is putting the ring-a-ding-ding in “Rigoletto.” Since its premiere in 1851, Verdi's opera set in 16th century Mantua has been updated to countless locales, from Victorian England to the Planet of the Apes; but this week when the curtain rises on “Rigoletto” at the Metropolitan Opera, the action will take place in a Las Vegas casino circa 1960 under the guidance of stage director Michael Mayer. (The opera will screen in movie theaters nationwide on Feb. 16.)

WASHINGTON - A house that floats on the water and has no power to move on its own is a home, not a vessel, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The 7-2 decision upholds laws in California, Washington and other states that say floating homes that are attached to the shore and do not travel are governed by local laws applying to homes, not by federal admiralty law regulating ships and boats. The ruling will also affect operators of dockside casinos and restaurants, who will now be able to rely on the same state and local laws that protect property owners.

At dusk, driving north on Interstate 15 near the California-Nevada border, Loren Gill descends a graceful mountain straightaway and sees before him the twinkling lights of the Promised Land. But this isn't Las Vegas - that's still 40 miles away. Instead, Gill spies the stopover at Primm, Nev. With three casinos and sundry services, it's a roadside curiosity turned welcome mat to Nevada's casino culture. As the district manager of Affinity Gaming, which runs the three gambling establishments, it's Gill's job to make sure that a good number of the 40,000 cars, pickups, RVs and semis that pass here each day ignore the siren call of the Strip, if just for a moment.

How many Best Westerns does Las Vegas need? The number is apparently five, at least for now. The mid-range hotel chain in December took over and rebranded (sort of) the Casino Royale and Hotel on the Strip. The name lives on as Best Western Plus Casino Royale , and the sign and the cartoonish Victorian-style exterior haven't changed either.  If you've never been (I haven't), here's how Vegas Tripping describes the former low-roller casino: "Hidden in a little nook between Harrah's and the Venetian (we doubt Bond would ever show his face here)

Tacos & Tequila, meet your California cousin. The Mexican bar and restaurant, a.k.a. T&T , has been a mainstay at the Luxor in Las Vegas since 2008. A  second site opened Dec. 20 -- with a mariachi band celebration -- far from the Strip at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon, Calif. The "tequila" part of the name appears in margaritas and cocktails with freshly made ingredients that run $8 each; the "tacos" come in 11 combinations, from veggie to bear-battered tilapia ($12 to 15)

LAS VEGAS - Police on Saturday continued their search for a motive for a Friday night murder-suicide at a busy Strip casino in which a man shot and fatally wounded a woman and then killed himself as gamblers fled in terror. The incident unfolded about 8:30 p.m. near the front entrance of the Excalibur hotel-casino as a gunman shot the woman, who was a vendor at Excalibur's concierge desk. The man then turned the gun on himself and died at the scene. The woman was pronounced dead later at a local hospital, police said.

Casino mogul and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson laid out a litany of policy positions - pro-choice on abortion, in favor of eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants, supportive of “socialized” healthcare - that make him sound like America's most committed liberal. Adelson's remarks to the Wall Street Journal may have taken some by surprise Wednesday, given that he dumped somewhere between $70 million and $150 million into (mostly losing) conservative candidates in the November election.

Los Angeles police detectives Tuesday arrested four people at a Las Vegas casino in connection with a quadruple homicide at a Northridge house over the weekend. The four people were taken into custody without incident at the Silverton Hotel and Casino, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced at a news conference. Beck declined to answer specific questions about the case, including any possible motive for the slayings. Photos: Four killed in Northridge shooting But law enforcement sources told The Times the killings appeared to stem from a dispute over personal property, although they would not say what kind of items were involved.