An extraordinary series of big wins at the roulette table by Philip Green, the retail billionaire, is behind a London casino's warning that its profits are likely to fall by several million pounds this year.

Mr Green, who with his wife, Tina, owns Bhs and the Arcadia group, won an estimated £2 million in one night at Les Ambassadeurs in Mayfair and at least a further £1 million on other gambling nights around last Christmas.

Hedgehunter's victory in the 2005 Grand National was a bad result for bookmakers.

The 10-year-old drifted a little in the betting in the hours leading up to the race as once-a-year punters piled their money onto housewives' favourite Forest Gunner, ridden by Carrie Ford.

But Hedgehunter's price shortened up just before the race began and he was sent off 7-1 favourite.

Aristocrat has rearranged its distribution to the world's fastest growing poker machine market, Russia, appointing a subsidiary of Moscow company SmartGames Group as its exclusive distributor.

The announcement comes a week after Aristocrat's founder, Len Ainsworth, failed with his attempt to merge his latest venture, Ainsworth Game Technology (AGT), with Russia's largest distributor of poker machines, Unicum. Talks had broken down on a number of commercial issues, he said.

Robert Earl, millionaire founder of the Planet Hollywood restaurants chain, has more than the usual twinkle in his eye. OK, the business backed by Tinseltown A-listers such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone may have crashed into bankruptcy protection twice in the US but Earl has retrenched, rebounded and relaunched his empire in the past three years.

He's a veritable Lazarus of the leisure industry, and most of this redoubtable Hendon-born entrepreneur's revival has taken place in his adopted home of the US. From his Florida base of 18 years, the diminutive Earl has been concentrating on saving the "Planet".

Aristocrat Leisure Ltd., the world's second-largest slot machine maker, signed an agreement under which Smartgames Group will distribute its games in Russia, the world's fastest growing market.

Smartgames unit SIA Megaimpex will have exclusive rights to the games throughout Russia, Sydney-based Aristocrat said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange today.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has welcomed the Government’s continued commitment to modernising the UK gambling industry by pressing ahead with The Gambling Bill.

However, the firm, adds that much remains to be done in areas such as licensing, taxation and the extent to which on-line gaming operators must maintain a presence in the UK.

These are key, if the Government is to seize the prize of regulating internet gambling licenced in the UK.

Giant Las Vegas-style casinos planned for the North-East looked to have fallen victim to the election yesterday, when the Government agreed to allow just one licence across the whole UK.

The move came in a deal with the Conservatives to push the controversial Gambling Bill through Parliament before it is dissolved next week.

With the ban on smoking in pubs, clubs and restaurants due to come into effect on June 1st, Sweden's "snus" manufacturers are lining up to woo cigarette smokers who need their nicotine fix whilst out on the town.

Snus - moist snuff, often encased in a miniature "tea bag" and placed under the lip - is extremely popular among Swedes. Both Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet have reported that Swedish Match, the leading producer of snus, is gearing up for the cigarette ban, anticipating an increased demand for their products.

(UK).- According to the latest report from Research and Markets, person-to-person betting exchanges are set to revolutionise the betting industry and change it forever. It is estimated that the total annual volume of bets matched by betting exchanges in Europe will grow from us$ 16 billion today to us$ 159 billion by 2008.

The report provides a summary of the characteristics of betting exchanges as well as a business model offering an estimation of commission revenue and profit. With an overview of the biggest players in the market and a comprehensive discussion of regulatory and taxation issues, the report presents betting exchanges as an exciting area for almost unlimited growth.