This past Tuesday, The World Series of Poker held its annual conference call in regards to their 2012 event, which kicks off at the Rio in Las Vegas on May 27th with the Casino Employees NLHE event. Ty Stewart, the WSOP executive director and Jack Effel, the tournament director have revealed that the 2012 event will feature close to 500 tables, including the tables in the Buzios’ room. Pre-registration for 2012 is up from 2011, according to organizers. Last year, the World Series of Poker’s main event attracted 6,865 players.

Interestingly enough, last year the player turnout was expected to be lower, as Black Friday had struck, and many players seem to express disinterest, as well as distaste for poker. Despite these setbacks, last year’s numbers far exceeded what was expected, and it looks like that trend is continuing in 2012.

The Big One For One Drop $1million buy-in event already has 40 players committed, and with only a 48 player maximum, there’s only 8 spots left for 8 deep pocketed players to snatch up. The Big One will lead ESPN’s WSOP coverage, starting on Tuesday, July 3. The National Championship will be on August 7^th, and the main event coverage will kick off on August 14^th and continue every Tuesday until the final table plays, which should be on October 30^th.

The Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 conference is the ultimate social media and optimization conference, and this year, it’s on October 16^th, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

This year’s Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 has announced a great roster of speakers from the Masters Group intensive training program, and topics of discussion will be pay-per-click (PPC) and landing page optimization, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and in-house SEO.

A day before, on October 15^th, is Pubcon’s Masters Group, which is a popular and limited attendance educational training program. This is a separate event from the conference, and is available only to those who purchase a stand alone training day pass and reserve their space. It’s an intense day of learning from top instructors in the fields of social media, PPC, in-house search, and SEO.

In the past, the Pubcon Masters Group training programs have always sold out, so if this is something that you are thinking about attending, don’t think about it too long, otherwise you might end up missing your chance to learn from the best over the course of 4 days. SEO coordinator, Topher Kohan, Atlanta Journal-Constitution SEO manager, Allison Fabella, Digitas senior vice president of search strategy, Melanie Mitchell, and Microsoft senior SEO architect, Derrick Wheeler will lead the Pubcon Masters Group this year.

Auto technology sure has come a long way. There are cars out there now that can parallel park for you, and can direct you to your destination with its built in GPS. There are even cars out there that get satellite radio, have built in screens, heated steering wheels, and loads of other perks.

The latest innovation in automobile technology is the self driving car. SELF DRIVING CAR!

For many drivers out there, this sounds like a dream come true. After all, who really looks forward to driving in rush hour traffic, or in the morning when you’re still half asleep? No one.

Nevada has granted a permit to Google’s self driving car. It is now legal for residents of the state to have a self driven car if they would like, provided that it matches up to the specification achieved by Google’s autonomous models.

The first licensed self driven car won a special permit this week, a Toyota Prius. There are two other applicants waiting to be licensed as well.

Bruce Breslow, the director of Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said in a statement that autonomous vehicles are the car of the future.

I couldn’t agree more! Who knows, maybe we’ll all have self driven cars within the next decade.

Las Vegas has been named as one of the top vacation destinations in the world, according to ratings from millions of users on TripAdvisor.

The travel site has released their “Traveler’s Choice Best Destinations of 2012” list. Las Vegas ranked number 17, and there were only 25 top destinations that made it on the list.

The website’s description reads as the following: “In Las Vegas, you’ll find restaurants run by the world’s finest chefs, opulent spas and sophisticated hotels along with penny slots, Elvis impersonators and indoor Venetian canals (complete with gondoliers). Why come here? Because there is simply no other place on the planet like Las Vegas.”

TripAdvsior is the go to travel website for details and ratings on destinations, hotels and attractions. The Bellagio Fountains was recently named one of the world’s most talked about attractions according to their website. As well as making it into the Top 25 Traveler’s Choice Best Destinations of 2012 list, Las Vegas also landed fourth place on TripAdvisor’s 2012 list of best U.S. destinations.

Here’s a list of the Top 25 Destinations in the World:

1 London, United Kingdom

2 New York City, New York

3 Rome, Italy

4 Paris, France

5San Francisco, California

6 Marrakech, Morocco

7 Istanbul, Turkey

8 Barcelona, Spain

9 Siem Reap, Cambodia

10 Berlin, Germany

11 Chicago, Illinois

12 Florence, Italy

13 Buenos Aires, Argentina

14 Sydney, Australia

15 Beijing, China

16 Prague, Czech Republic

17 Las Vegas, Nevada

18 Bora Bora, French Polynesia

19 Shanghai, China

20 Honolulu, Hawaii

21 Los Angeles, California

22 New Orleans, Louisiana

23 Cape Town Central, South Africa

24 Chiang Mai, Thailand

25 Dublin, Ireland

Cinco de Mayo falls on a Saturday this year, which means a weekend of partying! There are two next Mexican places that are celebrating their grand opening with big festive parties. One of the places is Carlos ‘n Charlies and the other is Señor Frogs.

The grand opening fiesta at Señor Frogs will be at their fourth location, which is at Treasure Island. They are serious about Cinco de Mayo, as they will attempt to break the world record for the largest tequila toast at 9 p.m. Show your support and come raise your glass, and who knows, maybe you’ll help make history. During the daytime, guests can enjoy bikini contests, conga lines and karaoke at Señor Frogs. Oh, and of course drinking and eating delicious Mexican fare.

If Mexican fare isn’t what you’re looking for, but drinks to cool off are, then look no further than Mandalay Bay’s Minus5 Ice Bar. From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., guests who wear their Minus5 t-shirts will receive $5 off any entry package. Drinks include concoctions like the Blue Ice Margaritas, made with Espolon, Tequila and Hpnotic Liqueur for $8. There will also be tequila shots for $5 and $10.

Margaritas, sombreros, tacos and tequila! These are the essentials for any Cinco de Mayo, so make sure you get your fill this weekend! The only problem you should have this weekend is deciding on the venues, especially with so many options! Cheers!

Horse racing is one of those sporting events that often gets overlooked in Las Vegas. With so many other sporting events going on throughout the year, it’s understandable. This weekend though, horse racing will be front and center, with the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby from Churchill Downs happens. This will be a prime attraction for many casinos this Saturday afternoon.

Dan Shapiro, who oversees racing for Lucky’s Race and Sports Books commented on Derby week, saying “Derby week is always going to be a big one here,” adding on “The handle is great. Saturday will be our biggest (racing) day of the year, but it carries over all week.”

Shapiro also reported that action during Derby week has gone up in the past few years. One of the many reasons as to why the Derby has gained popularity is that there is an increase in the interest of the horses. It probably does not hurt that this is a different kind of attraction.

Lucky’s Race runs books at The D Las Vegas, the Riviera, the Plaza and Terrible’s. They are one of the first shops in Las Vegas to put out future odds on the Kentucky Derby as well. Even though the Derby is this weekend, numbers were posted on the odds of prospective horses 6 months ago.

Place your bets this weekend at the Kentucky Derby!

The Las Vegas Mob Experience had it’s grand opening a little over a year ago on March 29, 2011. Within this attraction, visitors could see all kinds of neat things all tied to the Mob, including guns, knives, brass knuckles, and other various weaponry.

It has been quite a few decades since these weapons were used, but even so, they are still very much desired, but not for the same reasons anymore. As it turns out, there are people fighting for ownership of these weapons now.

The Mob Attraction Las Vegas, which is located at the Tropicana houses 1,500 artifacts. Weapons are not the only thing that people have been fighting over ownership for. For the past few months, fights for ownership of some of the Attraction’s artifacts have made their way through the court system.

The legal battle over the artifacts revolves around who has the right to display them for a profit in a fixed or travelling exhibit. It’s been an intense courtroom saga that involves bankruptcy and convoluted legal manoeuvres. Almost like something out of a mob themed movie. The courtroom saga is actually playing out in an open court with public charges.

On one side of the dispute, there’s Jay Bloom, the lead creator of the $25 million exhibit called the Las Vegas Mob Experience. On the other side, there’s investor John Vipulis, who is the owner of the Mob Attraction Las Vegas that operates in the old Mob Experience space.

The owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation has reported a huge jump in casino winnings in their first-quarter results, thanks to the Sands owned Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas Sands Corporation reported in their quarterly earnings that they generated a net revenue of $385 million, which is up by an impressive 26 percent from the last first-quarter a year ago. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rang in to about $116 million from the Venetian and Palazzo properties.

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, statistics show that visitation increased by 6.4 percent this past February versus last year in February 2011.

This substantial increase is due to more visitation to Las Vegas, and the substantial increase in revenue for the Sands properties are likely because of higher spending by those visitors.

The increase in activity at the Venetian and Palazzo properties is responsible for the big increase in the first-quarter for the Sands. The Las Vegas Sands Corporation reported that hotel occupancy at both the Venetian and Palazzo was steady, at about 83.4 percent. The daily room rate increased slightly due to the demand of group meetings and convention business. Both properties combined have a total of 7,093 suites, and even the slightest increase in the daily room rate can make all the difference.

Last week, there was news that MGM Resorts International was very interested in setting up shop in Toronto. There was so much interest from MGM Resorts International that they hired a local firm to represent them in lobbying support for their proposal.

Currently, MGM Resorts International owns quite a number of the most popular casinos in Las Vegas, including the Bellagio, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and The Mirage, and they also own casinos in Detroit as well as Dubai.

The latest development is that now, Nevada’s infamous top high class brothel, Moonlite Bunny Ranch also wants to set up shop in Toronto as well.

Both companies are known for being leading entertainment providers, and it’s not much of a surprise that they have come knocking on Toronto’s door. Chances are, these two companies will not be the only ones that come around to Toronto to try and set up shop.

Toronto could soon offer up a slice of Las Vegas if these proposals do get approved. MGM Resorts International is prepared to invest billions to develop a casino resort like one that can be found in Las Vegas, which would include hotels, casino, shops, and restaurants. Essentially, they would be looking to create an entertainment hub in Toronto, which the Ontario government wants.

No matter what, even with a piece of Las Vegas in Toronto, Las Vegas will always be Las Vegas.

There’s no place like Las Vegas. That being said, maybe there could be? Las Vegas has always attracted tourists for gambling, for bachelor and bridal parties, birthday bashes, and impromptu weddings. The biggest attraction has always been gambling though, despite offering up amazing entertainment, restaurants, and parties.

Now here’s the thing. The gambling industry has expanded, and with it, so has the number of casinos. One such casino is one in Singapore, built by Sheldon Adelson, the owner of Las Vegas Sands. In the first year alone, his operation in Singapore raked in $1 billion. That’s a lot of gambling! Adelson also has a casino in Macau, which is pretty much the biggest hot spot for gambling right now. His latest operation in Macau cost a cool $4.4 billion, but is this operation is as successful as his Singapore operation, then he’ll make his money back and then some likely within the next few years.

It’s strange to think of Las Vegas as not being the gambling capital of the world, but it’s starting to look that way. Last year alone, betters spent $33.5 billion in Macau, Las Vegas’ biggest competition. The kicker here is that last year, betters only spent $6 billion in Las Vegas. Is this a sign of a major change in the gambling industry? Perhaps. One thing for sure though is that Las Vegas will always be a good time, and with their ever changing ways, they will remain a popular destination for gamblers around the globe.