Plunging bingo tax collections are threatening state programs for senior citizens, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said Friday.

More bingo operators are switching from a taxed state-issued license to one the state does not tax, and that's taking a toll on revenue for aging programs, said Bauer, who took control of the state's Office on Aging six months ago.

"My fight is the numbers continue to drop," Bauer said.

Once again, gambling expansion has become a topic of discussion in Indiana. Most interesting to me is the idea of gambling revenue paying for the Indianapolis Colts’ new stadium.

As in the past, the General Assembly has been faced with a bill that would expand gaming in Indiana through the addition of electronic gaming devices to Indiana’s horse-racing industry, which includes Trackside, Fort Wayne’s off-track betting parlor.

The Nisqually tribe's Red Wind casino experienced a growth spurt in the past week from its humbler roots in 1997.

The casino that began in a converted 9,000-square-foot bingo hall grew into a full-fledged 85,000-square-foot casino with the completion of a $31 million expansion last week.

Red Wind's growth is in keeping with a trend at the South Sound's two other tribal casinos.

When the recently renovated Mole Lake Casino in Crandon Wisconsin wanted to ad entertainment to their roster the first person they considered, called and hired is internationally recognized mind reader and corporate entertainer Rex Sikes.

Dean Moes, Casino slot director, stated "we had never used entertainment before and we wanted to try it. We wanted something that would knock our important guests socks off and provide them something really different. If it is successful it would then be the start of something new." And successful it is.

Great Canadian Gaming Corp., which operates six casinos and a thoroughbred racetrack, has reached a deal to acquire Orangeville Raceway Ltd., operator of two standardbred tracks in British Columbia, for at least $40 million.

Orangeville operates Fraser Downs Racetrack & Casino in Surrey and Sandown Park in North Saanich, Vancouver Island.

Richmond-based Great Canadian (TSX:GCD), which already owns Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, said Monday it will pay $40 million plus a share of gambling and racing revenue for up to four years.

Yoomedia, a British interactive entertainment company, announced the launch of FancyaFlutter.co.uk. this Thursday.

The website is Yoomedia's first step into onlinegaming, and is an important step in the company's goal to establish its gaming brands across all the major interactive media including Digital TV, the web and mobile phones.

The launch of the online version of FancyaFlutter has allowed Yoomedia to develop better quality, more sophisticated games than are possible over digital interactive television.

A leading supplier of bingo equipment has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.03 per share of common stock for the quarter ending 31 October.

GameTech, which supplies electronic bingo equipment, including hand-held terminals and management software, hope the new figures will herald a substantial growth period.

WhichBingo have announced the launch of the search for the 2004 Online Bingo ‘Site of the Year' and 'New Site of the Year'. The event was so successful last year that WhichBingo are organizing the vote again this year.

The awards will be decided by a player vote and the poll is running until 31st December 2004.

Lawmakers have drafted a bill that would outlaw electronic bingo, and already it is being assailed by bingo-parlor owners.

Getting rid of electronic bingo would cut deeply into fund-raising by nonprofits, the owners say, and could cause the demise of many charities.

The Legislature's Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee voted 8-6 Monday to sponsor the bill during this winter's legislative session.

The bill would crack down on bingo that's played by computer instead of the old-fashioned way, where balls with numbers are drawn.

BECCI Marshall was looking for some time off. The university student and mother of two was in the middle of assignment week and her mind needed a break from the grind of her nursing textbooks. So, with her six-year-old at school and her two-year-old at day care, the mum, 22, of Cornubia in Logan, headed off to Southside Bingo at Upper Mt Gravatt in Brisbane for a morning of pleasant, non-taxing mental therapy. "This was my one day off and I just felt like getting out of study mode," she said. "I find it quite relaxing." And she's not the only one.