Vegas Is US Suicide Capital

...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»

Vegas prepares for 'cutter' scam

(NEWSER) - Las Vegas casinos are readying their defenses against a group of baccarat cheaters, the Las Vegas Sun reports. The group, known as "cutters" and described by police as "extremely well-organized," are thought to have stolen tens of millions from casinos worldwide. They take advantage of the baccarat custom in which the dealer allows a player to cut the deck after shuffling. Using a tiny camera embedded in a sleeve or cufflink, the "cutter" spreads the cards slightly, videotaping their suit, value, and order. More»

The former NBA stars were Woods' Vegas companions

(NEWSER) - You already know more than you ever wanted to about Tiger Woods’ personal life, but guess what? You still haven’t heard it all. Vanity Fair teases its upcoming article by Mark Seal, which “may be the most complete account to date of the golfer’s secret life”:

• His teachers: Woods made his frequent trips to Las Vegas with Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley—even though one of his attorneys had warned him to “stay away from that son of a bitch,” referring to Jordan. Jordan almost stole away one of Tiger's girls for himself, adds the New York Post in a look at the article.

Harm to amygdala seems to impair 'loss aversion'

(NEWSER) - People with damage to their amygdala, a deep part of the brain that governs basic value judgments, are more likely than others to take big risks for uncertain payoffs. A new study pitted 2 women with amygdala-specific lesions against 6 controls in tests of their willingness to gamble. The control group went for it only if the return were 50% to 100% higher than the potential loss; not so with the brain-damaged participants. More»

Vegas defenders: This time sorry isn't good enough

(NEWSER) - When President Obama said yesterday that families saving for college shouldn't blow money in Vegas, it was the second time he'd singled out Sin City as an example of excessive spending—and his words came as salt in the wounds of a tourism-dependent city hit hard by the recession. "I'll do everything I can to give him the boot," the Las Vegas mayor told the AP . "This president is a real slow learner." More»