LOS ANGELES, Nov 16 (Reuters) – One of the law firms
representing Japanese pachinko tycoon Kazuo Okada in a bitter
legal dispute against Wynn Resorts Ltd has withdrawn
from the case, a lawyer from the firm said on Friday.

Paul Spagnoletti, an attorney with the New York offices
of Davis, Polk, Wardwell LLP, said his firm has stopped
representing the Japanese businessman, who is trying to reverse
Wynn’s decision to redeem Okada’s shares in the company at a
steep discount.

LOS ANGELES, Nov 15 (Reuters) – Writers with a script about
former four-star general David Petraeus’ sex scandal can do
lunch with anyone in Hollywood.

Studio executives have been huddled in meetings since
Monday, sifting through potential scripts that can be tweaked.
Agents have been called. Authors are getting e-mails.

LOS ANGELES, Nov 7 (Reuters) – MGM Resorts International
won its costliest political gamble to date after
Maryland voters passed a divisive gambling expansion ballot that
enables the casino giant to move forward with a bid to build an
$800 million resort casino in the state.

Approval on Tuesday of the ballot measure, known as Maryland
Question 7, will permit bidding for a sixth casino in the state
and is expected to pave the way for a new MGM casino at National
Harbor in Prince George’s County, which it says will create
2,000 construction jobs and up to 4,000 permanent jobs.

LOS ANGELES, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Las Vegas Sands Corp,
owned by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, on Thursday posted lower
earnings amid challenges at its Singapore operations and higher
costs for properties in Macau.

The casino company, operator of resorts like the Venetian
in Las Vegas, also on Thursday increased its quarterly dividend
by 40 percent to 35 cents per common share, beginning in the
first quarter of 2013.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – MGM Resorts International Ltd’s CEO expects his company to obtain an online gaming license from Nevada regulators this week, and said states are talking with each other to forge alliances to create a viable interactive gambling market.

Obtaining the Nevada license would move MGM one step closer to entering the online field, which is expected to reach $10 billion a year nationwide by 2017. The sector is seen attracting younger players and offering a new avenue for growth to traditional casino operators whose growth has been stagnating.

Oct 31 (Reuters) – Casino operator MGM Resorts International
posted a larger loss, missing analysts’ expectations,
due to a steep drop in tax benefits, soft demand in Las Vegas
and disappointing margins in Macau.

Shares of the operator of the Mirage and Bellagio casino
resorts MGM Resorts fell 4.1 percent to $10.16 on the New York
Stock Exchange.

LOS ANGELES, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Former “Sex and the City”
star Cynthia Nixon returns to the small screen on Wednesday as
the murderous, scheming Petranilla in the miniseries of Ken
Follett’s best-selling medieval novel, “World Without End.”

The 2007 book is a sequel to 1989′s “The Pillars of the
Earth,” and is set in an English village in the year 1327
against the backdrop of the Black Death. The eight-part TV
miniseries starts on Wednesday on Reelz Channel.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Major U.S. casino operators are racing to embrace internet gaming, even in the absence of federal standards, as they gear up to attract younger consumers in a market expected to reach $10 billion a year by 2017.

Some bricks and mortar casinos are teaming with online game developers, and casino executives say they are rushing to put in place safeguards on their own services that would combat fraud, money laundering, underage and compulsive gambling, and players falsifying their location.

LAS VEGAS, Oct 2 (Reuters) – A Nevada judge on Tuesday ruled
against Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada’s effort to reverse a
forced redemption of his 20 percent stake in Wynn Resorts Ltd
, rendering him unable to vote at the casino company’s
Nov 2 annual meeting.

The high-stakes legal battle pits Okada – formerly Wynn’s
largest shareholder through his Universal Entertainment Corp’s
Okada’s Universal Entertainment Corp Aruze USA
subsidiary – against Wynn CEO Steve Wynn. Each billionaire
accuses the other of making improper payments in their
respective Asian markets.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lawyers for dissident Wynn Resorts (WYNN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shareholder Kazuo Okada’s will urge a Nevada court on Tuesday to overturn the casino company’s forced redemption of the Japanese billionaire’s $2.7 billion stake, a ruling which would allow him to vote at its November 2 shareholder meeting to unseat two board members.

Okada said on September 17 that he would nominate Yale law professor Jonathan Macey and former CBS Corp (CBS.N) Chief Financial Officer Fredric Reynolds for the company’s 12-person board. Okada, who remains a board member, held a 20 stake in Wynn when the board voted in February to rescind the shares.