As the American middle and lower classes continue their inexorable downward spiral into destitution and bankruptcy, Americans have caught the gambling bug big time.

In the latest American gambling news, MGM Mirage is investing $5 billion in a new mega casino project in Atlantic City, which already has 11 casinos.

MGM Mirage’s proposed multi-billion dollar investment in Atlantic City is ample evidence to the significant upside and opportunities the gambling industry sees for further growth in a mature business.

Sin city Las Vegas currently has 69 casinos and there is a constant drumbeat of news about new projects and expansion of existing casinos.

Apart from the land-based casinos, in America there are casinos on Indian reservations, casinos by the dockside and even on boats in states like Missouri, the so called Riverboat casinos.

Besides the famous Las Vegas strip, Pennsylvannia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Mississippi, Missouri, Michigan, Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, Louisiana, Connecticut, Rhode Island and several other U.S. states have legalized gambling resorts.

It’s not just the casinos that are expanding in the U.S.

Powerball, MegaMillion and other lotteries are all the rage and their sales keep going up.

According to the American Gaming Association, total gaming revenues in 2005 amounted to $83.7 billion.

Besides casinos, gaming includes pari-mutuel wagering, lotteries, legal bookmaking, charitable gaming and bingo, Indian reservations and card rooms.

Americans have always been fond of rolling the dice in Continue Reading…

India’s software services darling Infosys Technologies reported its first billion-dollar revenues quarter.

Infosys announced solid results Thursday for its fiscal second quarter with net profits growing 18.4% while revenues rose 19%.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2007, Infosys’ net profit came in at Rs 1,100 crore on revenues of Rs 4,106 crore ($1.02 billion).

North America accounted for 62.6% of revenues and Europe for 27.4%.

By industry, insurance, banking and financial services remained the largest revenue segment with 36.5% of revenues coming from this group followed by telecom with 20.6%.

Infosys’ COO S.D.Shibulal said:

Pricing remained stable with an upward bias. We saw pricing go up by 1.9% this quarter.

The company’s top 10 clients accounted for 29.9% of revenues. Infosys executives said the company and its subsidiaries added 48 new clients in the September quarter.

Infosys declared an interim dividend of Rs 6 per share or 120% based on the par value of Rs 5 per share.

For the current quarter, Infosys expects revenues to rise 19.4%-19.8% and earnings per share to grow 14%.

Despite fine results, Infosys’ shares fell 7% to Rs 1,976 Rupees with investors disappointed that the profits had only met expectation and dissatisfaction over the company’s business outlook.

The company’s headcount stood at 80,501 on September 30, reflecting a net addition of 4,530 employees in the quarter.