Wynn's Macau Take Disappoints

Gambling's red hot, but local middlemen take a huge cut

(NEWSER) - Casinos on the Chinese island of Macau create more gambling revenue than the ones in Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined, but US operators—permitted to set up shop there since 2004—are decidedly not rolling in the money. The Wall Street Journal looks at the bumps in the road for MGM Mirage, Wynn and Sands, and finds that local middlemen exert untold control over VIP players—and rake in huge commissions in the process. More»

Casino owner says that's why no one's hiring or investing

(NEWSER) - Why aren’t businesses hiring more people with the piles of cash at their disposal? Casino magnate Steve Wynn thinks it’s because they’re scared of Barack Obama. “I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the president,” Wynn said on a recent conference call, according to USA Today . “Until he’s gone, everybody’s going to be sitting on their thumbs.” More»

...Singapore

(AP) - Asia will be home to the world's two biggest casino markets as early as this year, with Singapore set to take the No. 2 spot from Las Vegas, a US gambling industry group said today. Singapore raked in $5.1 billion in gaming revenue last year and could bring in up to $6.4 billion this year. The city-state opened its first two casinos last year. Las Vegas, which lost its No. 1 spot to Macau in 2006, earned $5.8 billion in casino revenue last year, but is a mature market with little potential for big growth, says the American Gaming Association president. More»

Pablo Picasso's 'The Actor' is hardly the first expensive accident

(NEWSER) - The art student who tripped and tore a hole in a Picasso painting is probably fairly embarrassed—but will, perhaps, feel better knowing others can sympathize. The Independent lists nine other art catastrophes, some accidental and some not:

• Cy Twombly: A woman kissed one of his paintings, leaving it smeared with lipstick—she said she was “just trying to warm up” the white canvas.
• Qing vase: A Cambridge museum visitor slipped down the stairs, possibly thanks to an untied shoelace, and smashed a set of 300-year-old vases.

'Holy grail' of Jackson memorabilia blows away presale estimate

(NEWSER) - The sequined glove Michael Jackson wore during the first public performance of his famed moonwalk sold at auction last night for $350,000, seven times the presale estimate of $50,000. Dubbed the "holy grail of Michael Jackson memorabilia" by the auction house, the glove sold to a Hong Kong businessman who will put it on display at a Macau casino, the Daily Mail reports. More»