Damn, it’s Monday again. This happens every week and we’re never really prepared for it. I’m sorry you’ve having to go through this. I’m right there with you and I would change it if I could. Can playing in a good slot tournament make your Monday better? It would probably help a little at least and right now, I’m sure every little bit would be appreciated.

Millionaire Casino is running the Slottery tournament right now, just like they do every week. It runs from Monday through Thursday, which in this case is May 9 through May 12. This week’s Slottery is different from usual, though. Normally, there is a $5 entry fee and you play for the pot. That’s not the case this week. This week, the stakes are higher, as is the buy-in.

It will cost you $25 to buy your way into the Slottery tournament this week. While it may seem crazy to charge five times the norm, but you’ll understand when you see the prize pool. Instead of the pot, it is $5,000 in guaranteed casino credits.

The Slottery tournament is played on the Wheel of Chance slot this week. It is a game based on the TV game show Wheel of Fortune, but not based on it enough that they would need to pay for the rights (cool deal, huh?).

Probably the only way this casino tournament can make your Monday a good day is if you hit the jackpot. Otherwise, the best it can do is probably make your day a little bit better. On a Monday, though, that’s not bad. The good news is that it’s almost over. To play in this tournament, visit Millionaire Casino.

On Sunday, Ecuadorian voters may vote to ban gambling in the South American country. It is all part of a ten-point referendum that seems to have a lot of support in the country. If the ban passes, the casinos and more in the state will be in jeopardy.

On Sunday, the voters of Ecuador will vote on a referendum laid out by President Rafael Correa. The referendum has ten propositions and the citizens must vote to pass all ten or strike down all ten. One of the proposals on the referendum would outlaw all gambling in Ecuador.

Currently, the country has a fairly successful gambling industry. It includes 14 casinos that have operated in the nation since 1949. There are also a number of poker tournaments held in the country and Ecuador has even hosted the Latin American Poker Tour. Lotteries are sports betting are also popular gambling activities in the country. If the referendum passes and gambling is banned, all of those businesses will be made illegal. That could result in the loss of thousands of jobs as well as millions in economic revenue.

Polling data shows that the referendum is likely to pass. Approximately 60% of the country supports the referendum, according to the polls. Experts attribute that to Correa’s popularity as well as the opposition not doing a good job of campaigning against it.

A number of other issues, such as changes to the judicial branch, the media, and animal rights, are also part of the referendum. By Monday, the casino operators in Ecuador will find out if they still have a legal business.

A Pennsylvania county is considering disbanding their gaming authority. In an effort to streamline the government and make revenue sharing faster and more efficient, Erie County is mulling doing away with the Gaming Revenue Authority.

Pennsylvania state law requires revenue from the casinos to be shared through a government authority. Currently, revenue from Erie County’s casino, Presque Isle Downs & Casino, is divvied up to various community agencies by the Gaming Revenue Authority. However, the Erie County Council is frustrated with how long it takes that group to decide who gets how much of the revenue. They also say that the authority spends too much money. County officials say it might be better to have existing authorities, such as economic development authorities or redevelopment authorities, dole out the money instead and do away with the Gaming Revenue Authority.

According to the Erie Times-News, The Erie County Council has asked its solicitor to conduct a study on the impact of doing away with the gaming authority and having someone else give out the money. Currently approximately $12 million in revenue is divided by the Gaming Revenue Authority each year, given to various local agencies.

The Gaming Revenue Authority was created in 2007 and in the beginning, they spent very little money. Now, however, they spend approximately $359,000 per year on executive salaries and other expenses. The council wants do to away with that expenditure and have other authorities that are already allocating money take over the task of allocating money from the casino to the various agencies.

With Mother’s Day right around the corner, a lot of people are wondering what to give mom for the special day. If you’re looking for a great gift, how about bonus money for a popular online casino? Okay, maybe that was a stretch, but if your mom loves casino gaming, you could always deposit money in her account and let her take the deposit and bonus to wager with.

Starting Friday, Lucky Red Casino is running the Bonus Bonanza. As the name implies, there are some good bonuses to be had. The main bonus is a 75% deposit match bonus. If you deposit $50 or more, the casino will match 75% of your deposit. The bonus can be redeemed up to five times, giving you a chance to earn a lot of bonus money. There is a maximum of $1000 for the bonus.

Terms and conditions to the bonus apply, as always. The deposit and bonus must be wagered at least 25 times before you can make a withdrawal. Only wagers on online slots, keno and scratch cards count toward the wagering requirement. The coupon code for that bonus is SPECIAL75. The promotion runs from Friday, May 6 to Monday, May 9.

In addition to that special bonus, the online casino is also offering two of their standard bonuses. Players of keno and slots can receive unlimited 65% match bonuses; players of blackjack and video poker can receive unlimited 55% match bonuses. The coupon codes are SLOTS65 and OTHERGAMES55, respectively.

These promotions and more can be found at Lucky Red Casino. Check the promotions page for more details.

Mark Dayton, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, said that he is okay with the idea of a state-run casino opening in downtown Minneapolis. There is a catch, though. In order for him to approve the casino, he wants half of the casino’s proceeds to go to the state.

That could be a deal-breaker, since that doesn’t leave much revenue for the casino and the city. The current proposal shares 25% of the casino’s revenue with the state. Governor Dayton says that is unacceptable.

If lawmakers approve of a state-run casino in Block E of downtown Minneapolis, the first phase of the casino would open in the spring of 2012. Proponents of the casino say that it would bring the state between $100-150 million in revenue between 2012 and 2013. Those numbers, though, are with the state taking a 25% share. If it is made 50%, that would be doubled. Casino proponents also say that from 2014 on, it could bring the state $250 million per year in tax revenue.

Not everyone thinks the casino is a great idea, though. Tribal leaders and employees of tribal casinos don’t want the competition from a state-run casino. Last week, 3,000 tribal members met at the state’s capitol to protest other gambling expansion plans that would allow horseracing tracks to add slots and let bars and restaurants also add gambling machines.

According to the tribes, a new casino in Minneapolis won’t actually increase revenue, because it will simply take customers that are currently playing in tribal casinos and lead them to play somewhere else. It’s that old argument about creating more pie or simply slicing the current pie into smaller pieces. A decision is expected to be made on the casino and other gambling expansion plans later this year.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Massachusetts lawmakers are set to discuss bills that would expand gambling in the state. Sound familiar? Yup, they’re trying again. Hopefully they have more success this time.

Today, a legislative committee is set to hold public hearings on the possibility of expanding gambling in Massachusetts. Each side will get a chance to share their opinion. Lawmakers will hear from those who don’t want any gambling expansion. They will hear from those who want to add slot machines to the racetracks. They will hear from those who want Vegas-style casinos. And I’m sure they’ll hear lots of other stuff as well.

Last year, the government was unable to get anything done because lawmakers the governor couldn’t agree on the type of expansion that was needed. Both Governor Deval Patrick and the legislature were for adding casino resorts. However, House Speaker Robert DeLeo also wanted to add slots to the racetracks. Governor Patrick opposed the idea and threatened to veto any bill including the slot expansion. The two sides never compromised and no casino expansion agreement was reached.

This year, they are trying again. Patrick, DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray all want to get a gambling expansion bill passed, though Patrick has said that it is much higher of a priority for DeLeo than for him.

Patrick, DeLeo and Murray will all be absent from the public hearing today, but they will pay close attention to the responses given by others. Patrick has not changed his mind about slots, but continues to support adding three destination casinos.

Damn. The roller coaster at the Sahara Hotel & Casino has closed. I didn’t even know there was one, and now I’m upset that I never got to ride it. On Saturday, the roller coaster at the Las Vegas Strip casino took its final turn around the track.

The shutting down of the casino’s roller coaster is simply the first step in the casino’s demise. The casino, which has run for nearly six decades, will be closed down on May 16. SBE Entertainment Group, who owns the casino, says that it is losing money and it doesn’t make financial sense to continue operating the old casino. Sure, maybe it doesn’t make financial sense, but are you replacing it with another casino that has a roller coaster? Because that’s really cool!

Okay, I know that the Sahara Casino is old and not as fancy or glamorous as the newer casinos on the Strip. Still, it’s an icon, a piece of history. It’s one of the few casinos left from the Rat Pack era, when Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis frequented the casinos, putting on shows and throwing wild parties. Oh yeah, and it was also robbed by the thieves in the original Oceans Eleven movie (another Rat Pack connection), cementing its place as a super-cool casino from Las Vegas’s past.

Of course it has to go. It’s not making money and in the end, that’s what matters. Everyone should take some time, though, to remember the casino for its historical significance and unique place in the history of Las Vegas. Well, that and for the fact that it had an awesome roller coaster.

One great thing about online casinos is that you don’t have to worry too much about the impact of Mother Nature. Sure, if all of the servers go down due to a power outage, you could be out of luck for a while, but that’s about the only problem you could experience. Plus, those websites have redundancy servers to protect about that kind of thing. Brick and mortar casinos, however, don’t have that luxury.

Last month, casinos in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had to close due to excessive flooding. Now more casinos have been added to the list. On Sunday, casinos in Tunica, Mississippi closed for the first time ever and will remain closed until the flood waters recede. The county sent in the SWAT Team to remove millions of dollars from the casinos, some of which were brought from the nearby Horseshoe Casino when it was shut down by flooding.

Things are even worse in Ohio. Harrah’s Casino has been closed since April 27 due to flooding of the Ohio River, which is at its greatest height in 74 years. The river is over 20 feet higher than its flood stage. It’s so bad that the Army Corps of Engineers is considering blasting a levee with explosives in order to ease the pressure. Most of the residents of Cairo, Illinois have already evacuated, so it’s not like they would be visiting the casino, anyway, but these types of things have been happening more than usual this year.

If you’re reading this from the safety of your home, you can easily log onto an online casino and not have to worry about flood waters. That is, unless your home is flooded, in which case you should be somewhere else. Get off the computer!

On Tuesday, protesters on both sides of the issue clashed in St. Paul, Minnesota over casino expansion. At the state’s capitol, more than 1,500 estimated protestors turned out to speak both for and against the planned legislation. Both sides say that they want to create or protect jobs.

There are a few gambling expansion bills in the Minnesota legislature. One would allow bars and restaurants to increase their gambling activity by adding pull-tabs, video slots and electronic bingo machines. Another bill would allow the two horseracing tracks in the state to add slot machines, turning them into racinos.

Both expansion plans are opposed by Native American tribes in the state that own casinos, including the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. The tribes say that expanding gambling in restaurants, bars and racetracks wouldn’t increase jobs or revenue. Instead, the say that it would only result in existing customers of the tribal casinos playing elsewhere. According to them, it would simply be dividing the gambling revenue into more pieces, which would hurt the tribes.

A coalition of bar and restaurant owners, however, support the expansion plans, saying it will help their businesses. The horseracing industry, which is struggling mightily, also favors adding slot machines to their tracks.

Lawmakers who support the legislation say it could bring in additional $630 million in tax revenue. The bars and restaurants could see an additional $230 million per year, according to the lawmakers. Unfortunately, there’s no scenario where the expansion results in extra revenue for the tribal casinos.

Those in the casino industry said that Ohio Governor John Kasich’s feet dragging would cause a delay in casino construction. Now that delay has been officially announced. Developers and investors in the planned Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati have announced that the casino won’t open until sometime in 2013 at the soonest. Previously, they predicted a 2012 opening.

Governor Kasich has indicated that he is unhappy with the current deal between the casino developers and the state, saying that the state got a “raw deal.” He wants to renegotiate the deal, thinking this is the best time to do it. In a new deal, he wants the casinos to pay higher taxes and higher licensing fees.

Rock Ohio Caesars, a joint venture that is developing the casino, said that the delay has caused them to cancel supply orders. “We have missed the steel order in Cincinnati that would allow us to be closed this winter for interior work,” said spokesperson Jennifer Kulczycki. That delay, she says, will push the opening to at least 2013.

In addition to raising the taxes and fees, Governor Kasich wants the government to conduct a study of the casino industry before deciding on anything. He recently hired two independent groups to conduct the time-consuming and expensive studies.

Rock Ohio Caesars is a joint venture between Rock Gaming LLC and Caesars Entertainment Inc., which is the parent company of the Horseshoe Casino. In addition to their planned casino in Cincinatti, there are three other casinos set for construction in the state that have been hindered by Kasich’s plans. Those include casinos in Cleveland, Toledo and Columbus.