Average hotel spending per night was down 25 percent year-on-year to approximately $76, while the mean cost of a tour package in 2009 dropped 14 percent compared with 2008 to $640.

The latest study was carried out by GLS Research and was based on street interviews with a good sample of 3 600 visitors, 15 percent of whom were in Las Vegas to see friends or relatives – up from eleven percent in 2008. The report concluded that these visitors would typically spend less than those who were in town mainly to gamble or attend conventions and business meetings.

Big-spending conventioneers and business visitors accounted for only 9 percent of Vegas visitors in 2009 – down from 12 percent in 2008.

40 percent of respondents were in town for a vacation or pleasure, while 13 percent said they were there specifically to gamble.

83 percent of visitors gambled in one form or another whilst in Vegas in 2009 – a a five-year low and down from 85 percent in 2008.

Attendance at shows declined by 8 percent year-on-year to 64 percent.

With new slots and video poker games like China MegaWild Slots and Face The Ace Video Poker, alongside a slew of specialty games like Jackpot7 and Bingo Scratch, Bodog.com has something for everyone, across all limits, high and low.

“We’re very happy with the addition of over twenty new games to the Bodog.com Online Casino,” says Morris Mohawk Gaming Group CEO Alwyn Morris.

“Over the coming months the Bodog.com Casino will continue to expand as more and more new games are added to the roster. Many of these new games are being added as a direct result of feedback we’ve received from players, so we’re especially excited to see and hear their reactions.”

One dismissed employee who is fighting back with a law suit is Edward James Rampone, the former manager of casino investigations for the province, who has filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the Ministry of Housing and Social Development, which is responsible for gaming in the province.

Rampone (58) was fired by the ministry last April for “inappropriate and offensive” non-work related e-mails sent to him using the government e-mail system. But Rampone claims that he only received the emails and denies “having ever forwarded, sent, distributed or done anything other than deleted e-mails which I may have received and deemed to be inappropriate.”

Rampone goes further, claiming that his former boss and longtime associate, Larry Vander Graaf, the executive director of the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, received a similar offensive e-mail about three years ago titled Find the Duck, which depicted a large breasted young woman, nude from the waist up, with several ducks in the background.

He claims Vander Graaf forwarded the e-mail to unintended recipients in the solicitor-general’s ministry and received a verbal reprimand for his actions.

“The ‘find the duck’ phrase became subject of numerous subsequent jokes around the office in a manner which made light of the severity of the misconduct,” says a document filed in support of Rampone’s lawsuit.

“This incident in itself was significant in illustrating the tolerance for inappropriate e-mails by (the) senior executive.”

Rampone took to the law courts after having his first appeal against dismissal turned down by the B.C. Public Service Agency.

The BC provincial government has taken disciplinary action against 49 public servants for allegedly sending inappropriate jokes and other racy material over the work e-mail system, reports the Vancouver Sun newspaper.

Ten employees were fired and 39 were disciplined across three ministries after an investigation began in late 2008 with a review of government liquor inspectors. The Sun reported in April that four had been fired and another 13 had been disciplined, reportedly for sending inappropriate jokes and pornography by e-mail.

Another three employees in the housing ministry, whose work was related to gambling and casinos, were also fired and another 15 were disciplined.

Penn National officials said they’re planning to seek the 1,500 slot machine licenses they’ve been authorized to include in their proposed Perryville facility, and to pay another $6 million for those licenses.

The commission is in charge of awarding up to 15,000 slot machine licenses to gaming parlors at five different sites in Maryland, including up to 1,500 in Cecil County. As part of a series of public hearings, the commission met at Cecil College Thursday to hear from Penn National on its plans.

But so far the company has only applied for 500 licenses, at a cost of $3 million. That investment drew harsh criticism from members of the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission, many of whom said they fear the state won’t reap the economic winfall it counted on in legalizing slot-macine gambling in Maryland.

“Are you committed to Maryland or are you not?” slots commission member Thomas Barbera asked representatives from Penn National. “Suppose we decided we want to rebid it? Suppose we decide 500 is too few?”

Steven Snyder, senior vice president of Penn National, said the company would participate in the re-bidding because it considers the location ideal for a slots parlor.

This is an issue that could play out in Baltimore City, too. Baltimore City Entertainment Group, like Penn National, has only applied for 500 licenses, though it has been authorized for as many as 3,750 machines. It’s scheduled to present its plans to the slots commission Aug. 26.

Penn National (NASDAQ: PENN) hopes to build a slots parlor at a 36-acre site just off Interstate 95 and Route 222 in Perryville. The national gaming company plans to spend $75 million to build a new slots parlor large enough to include 1,500 video lottery terminals.

Snyder said the facility could generate about $47 million in revenue in its first five years of operation and is slated to open in October 2010.

Snyder said Penn National needs more information from the state before investing another $6 million to commit to its full allocation of slots licenses. He said he wants to make sure Penn National can get its money back if the state doesn’t approve its licenses. In addition, he wants to know what type of machines will go into the new parlor.

Under the state’s slots plan, the Maryland Lottery Commission will buy or lease all of the slot machines that will go into the five gaming facilities. Lottery commission Director Buddy Roogow said the state plans to issue requests for proposals, or RFPs, Aug. 14, and it could take until late October before the state knows what kinds of machines it will be getting and awards a contract to buy or lease those machines.

But that could be too late for Penn National. The state slots commission expects to decide in the fall which developers will get slot machine licenses. And Snyder said he is reluctant to invest another $6 million without knowing what type of machines the state will be providing to its slots facilities.

It’s an important issue, he said, because for a slots facility to attract potential gamblers it must have the most current, advanced, and up-to-date gaming machines. Otherwise, he said, those gamblers might travel to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, or Atlantic City, N.J., to drop their quarters.

But lottery commission Chairman Donald C. Fry, CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, said his group will have to decide on whether to give Penn National its gaming licenses based on the information Penn National has submitted to it. And for now, he noted, that means deciding whether to gamble on just 500 licenses.

Following the meeting, Penn National spokesman Eric Schippers said he believes the issue will be resolved before the slots commission meets to decide whether to award it any licenses or not. But he said as a publicly held company, Penn National can’t risk another $6 million of shareholders’ money without knowing as much information as possible.

“We expect that we’re going to get to a satisfactory position for all parties,” he said in an interview. “We’ve got a responsibility to make wise investments.”

Well, to two of the most powerful men in the state, quite a lot.

Gov. Martin O’Malley and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., hungry to get their hands on millions in slots revenue, are blasting the County Council for dragging its feet on approving zoning laws to allow gambling in the county.

Miller was quoted in The Baltimore Sun as saying: “This business that’s happening in Anne Arundel County is criminal. We need to remove any obstacles and roadblocks in terms of implementing slots and get that program off the ground immediately.”

It’s just criminal, all right, this business of duly elected lawmakers of a county deciding whether they believe something is in the best interest of the citizens they represent. Where do they get off?

The process of representative, deliberative government can be so inconvenient. All those … roadblocks and such.

But the thing is, the law that put the slots referendum on the ballot explicitly gave local jurisdictions the ability to block slots. That law (which Miller voted for, by the way) says: “A video lottery facility shall comply with all applicable planning and zoning laws of the local jurisdiction.”

And right now, slots don’t comply with zoning laws in Anne Arundel County, so without a new law, the Cordish Cos.’ plan to put 4,750 slot machines at Arundel Mills is dead.

An O’Malley spokesman said the governor met with council Chairwoman Cathy Vitale recently, but declined to characterize the conversation.

Vitale, who couldn’t be reached for comment, has said the council will wait until the state slots location commission decides on Cordish’s bid to vote on zoning changes. That makes sense, since the project can’t start without state approval – though it can also be interpreted as a way for council members to put off a tough vote a bit longer.

“We were put in a tough place, and we didn’t ask to be put there,” said Councilman Jamie Benoit, an ardent slots opponent. “Now the people who put us in a bad position are complaining that they put us in a bad position.”

Everyone thought it was a done deal when the voters approved slots in November. But that’s not how it works.

“I wish the Anne Arundel County Council would make a decision,” O’Malley told horse industry leaders recently, according to The Washington Post. “Tell them to stop postponing and make a decision. It’s holding the rest of us up from moving forward.”

But the governor doesn’t just want “a decision.” He wants his decision because the state can’t “move forward” on slots in Anne Arundel if the council votes no.

County Executive John R. Leopold supports the zoning change since almost 60 percent of county residents voted for slots. But said he respects “the legislative process” and the council’s decision to take its time.

“There’s 30 million reasons to be patient,” Leopold said, referring to the projected $30 million a year the county would get from slots revenues.

House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Annapolis, is a slots opponent. But he said it’s the County Council’s responsibility to allow gambling now that the voters have spoken. He said the local zoning provision was meant to give counties control over where a facility goes, not whether they have slots at all.

But it’s the council’s responsibility to weigh the voters’ will against other factors, like the state’s need for revenue and whether they believe Arundel Mills is a good site. It’s not an easy call.

“It shouldn’t just be, ‘Well, 60 percent voted for it. Close the doors; batten down the hatches; we’re having gambling,’ ” Benoit said. “The state saw to it to give us the local veto, which essentially allows us to ignore the results of the referendum. … They gave us the ability to say ‘No.’ ”

The smart money is still on the council ultimately saying “Yes,” for those 30 million reasons and more. There will be incredible pressure from the state if the council votes no, so this is probably all postponing the inevitable. But maybe, just maybe …

“It’s the council’s decision to make,” Benoit said. “Unfortunately, it’s not Mike Miller’s or Governor O’Malley’s. Maybe members of the council are coming to terms with the idea that the interests of the state don’t always line up with the interests of the county.”

Now, all a customer will have to do is run the software, open up an account, and start losing money. The reason it is being done is because the manufacturers have inked deals to be affiliates for online casinos.

“It was a way for us to increase our profits by almost double,” said an employee that did not want to be identified because he worked for Dell, “for every player that signs up from the free software, the computer company will receive three percent of the gamblers losses.”

That percentage is low in comparison to what some other affiliates are receiving, but the online casino probably figured, “what the hell, they (computer companies) don’t know what we are really making anyway.” In other words, it is another way for online casinos to rob future affiliates while increasing their own wealth.

The US government has signed off on the deal when they introduced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act back in 2006. That law pretty much guaranteed that online casinos could operate under any rules that they see fit.

Nobody from the online casino industry could be reached for comment on the computer affiliate story, mainly because all the executives running the online casinos in the US are residing in other countries.