Australian Casino News: One Man Casino War, by Greg Tingle - 5th May 2010

Casino wars continue to escalate down under in Australia.

The latest development is not a strike from Crown Casino or Star City, casting the net far and wide for jet flying, limousine riding, wheeling dealing VIP whales aka high-rollers, but rather a disgruntled bus driver who has commandeered a Jupiters Casino courtesy bus on the Gold Coast in his one man war for justice.

Media Man and Gambling911 (and the sniffer dogs, Blue and Timmy), follow the scent of this one man war on Jupiters Casino transport...

The driver has allegedly commandeered and basically nicked a courtesy bus and is refusing to give it back until he is paid outstanding wages (cash or direct deposit... not in casino chips) by what is understood to be a an "unrelated" operator.

Christopher Newton, made a appearance in Brisbane Magistrates Court Wednesday on one charge of unlawful possession of a motor vehicle with intent to deprive.

The court was told Newton worked for a now defunct limousine company that sometimes supplied drivers for the casino buses on the Gold Coast.

Police allege Mr Newton is under the belief he is owed $20,000 from the limousine company and has hidden away the casino bus, understood to be valued at $120,000, as "collateral" advising them it would only be returned once he got his money.

Despite this, defence lawyers for Newton told the court he simply had no idea where the bus was and several police searches at his home had failed to find it!

Mr Newton was granted bail and the case will return to court next month.

Australian readers, please don't get any funny ideas about joining in the Australian "casino wars". If you owed money please try to follow official protocols. Leave heists, baseball bats and the like for the movies (or the bad guys in the Vegas desert).

In the meantime James Packer owned Crown Casino (Melbourne) and Tabcorp owned Star City Casino (Sydney) continue their more traditional casino war.

Give it time and it might turn into planes, trains and automobiles. Crown Casino has a number of Gulfstream jets at the ready for high rollers, and Star City is playing catch up, ordering more jets and spending another 100k or so on upgrades. It's not known if the Gold Coast casino has any in house private jets, but a birdie told us they might find their courtesy bus on Jupiter!

Tabcorp own and operate Jupiters Casino, formally known as Conrad Jupiters. Insiders say part of the reason for the name change is that they didn't want punters, partners or media confused into thinking they were involved with Canadian entrepreneur Conrad Black.

Don't do anything we wouldn't do and please try to abide by applicable laws to your state or jurisdiction.

*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911

*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company

*The writer owns shares in Crown Limited

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