Las Vegas Sands

History buffs practically salivate at the thought of being able to explore the massive ruins of Bethlehem Steel Corp., the industrial behemoth that armed hundreds of U.S. warships, provided the raw material for the Golden Gate Bridge and transformed the New York skyline.

Wynn Resorts Ltd., the owner of namesake casinos in Las Vegas and Macao, will pay shareholders a $609.3-million special cash dividend, almost a quarter of which will go to billionaire founder Steve Wynn. The dividend is worth $6 a share, Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts said Monday, and follows the company's sale this year of rights to develop a separate casino in Macao. The shares rose $6.48 to $88.67, a record high.

Nevada casinos won the most money from gamblers in a single month in July, raking in $1.146 billion as luck favored the house. The casinos' so-called gaming win was up 10.3% from a year earlier and beat the previous record of $1.144 billion in May. The state's "hold" percentage, or the amount won by casinos as a percentage of the total amount wagered, was 15%. A year earlier, the hold percentage was 13.4%, which is normal, Gaming Control Board analyst Frank Streshley said.

It's all about swing states in today's presidential election. So here's another swing-state nugget, courtesy of Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank. Swing-state stocks have outpaced the Standard & Poor's 500 index during President Obama's first term. That's based on the collective performance of companies that are either based in a swing state or that do a lot of business there. Quiz: Test your knowledge of business news The S&P 500 has notched an average annual gain of 12.1% during the Obama administration.

Hoping to tap a potentially lucrative market and expand the company's Asian presence, Wynn Resorts Ltd. said Tuesday that it intended to submit a proposal to build a casino in Singapore. The Las Vegas-based company, led by casino developer Steve Wynn, is looking to construct the mega-resort at a marina, with the project costing $1 billion to $1.5 billion. Wynn is set to open a $2.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. said Thursday that it would offer mobile gambling to guests at its Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, making it the first company to take advantage of a new Nevada law permitting hand-held devices at a casino's public areas. The portable machines will be made and operated by Cantor Gaming, an affiliate of financial-services company Cantor Fitzgerald in New York. Cantor Gaming last week was licensed by the Nevada Gaming Commission to run the devices.

MGM Resorts International, the casino company founded by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, will gain control over its Macao joint venture through steps including an initial public offering of some shares held by partner Pansy Ho. Ho will sell as much as 23% of MGM China Holdings Ltd. in a Hong Kong IPO and an additional 1% to MGM Resorts, boosting the Las Vegas company's stake in the Macao casino to 51%, the partners said Wednesday. Through the new majority ownership, MGM Resorts will be able to consolidate the Macao operation on its books.

Nevada casinos won nearly 6% less from gamblers in September than they did during the same month last year, state regulators reported. The report by Nevada's State Gaming Control Board showed casinos statewide won $864 million from gamblers, $53.8 million less than in September 2010. Mike Lawton, senior analyst with the control board, told the Associated Press that a big decline in the play of baccarat, a volatile, high-roller game favored by Asian gamblers, was largely to blame for the decrease.

JERUSALEM -- Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who has committed more than $30 million to independent efforts to defeat President Obama, is expected to be among the donors mingling with Mitt Romney on Monday at a fundraiser in Jerusalem. But the Romney campaign has decided to bar reporters from that event -- breaking the protocol of an agreement developed with reporters and the campaign months ago. The presumed Republican nominee's campaign opened fundraisers to a small pool of reporters in May, as long as they were being held in public venues like hotels and restaurants.

After months of wrangling, the U.S. and Mexico signed a new tomato trade agreement late Monday, officially suspending an antidumping investigation of fresh tomatoes from south of the border and raising floor prices for Mexican tomatoes. The agreement, announced in February, prevented a trade war between the two countries. U.S. growers in Florida had accused their Mexican counterparts of selling their tomatoes below fair market value -- a practice known as dumping -- and last year asked the U.S. Commerce Department to scrap the 17-year-old trade agreement.