A Romanian woman was so keen to play bingo that she left her baby in the back of a taxi.

Cabbie Toader Versan thought someone had left a pet in his car when he heard a noise coming from the back.

Mr Versan, from Cluj, stopped and found it was a baby, reports Adevarul newspaper.

He called the police and, after searching for clues to the mother, he remembered taking a woman to a bingo club.

The commission reported revenue of $305.9 million in the six months to December 31, down 10.7 per cent on the same half a year earlier, when the "exceptional" jackpot runs boosted revenue.

Profit fell 19.2 per cent to $61.7 million, due partly to the fall in revenue and partly due to a 23 per cent rise in costs to $23 million. The sharply higher costs were linked to the commission's first big revamp of its main Lotto product in 17 years and an expansion of its retail network.

With television debuting a new show on the glories of Las Vegas casinos approximately every four hours these days, it might be wise to consider the words of Richard Marcus in tonight's premiere of the History Channel's Breaking Vegas: "The only "sure thing" in gambling is cheating.''

Marcus, like the other featured players in Breaking Vegas, is a career cheater. This fascinating documentary series uses interviews, old news footage and recreated scenes to tell the stories of gamblers who use everything to gain an edge on the casinos.

Months after Leon County sheriff's detectives charged a charity bingo operator for failing to turn over the proceeds to the groups the games were supposed to benefit, four nonprofit groups got their share Wednesday.
Sheriff Larry Campbell handed out checks to two churches, a vocational program and a local Boy Scout troop after a judge ordered the money seized from the bingo operation to be distributed.

As reported by the Albuquerque Journal: "New Mexico is at a gambling crossroads, facing its biggest public-policy questions since approving casino gaming and a lottery.
"Will New Mexico allow Indian tribes to build off-reservation casinos? Will tribes with relatively remote locations be able to put casinos in populated areas, like the corridor connecting El Paso and Las Cruces?
" Will the state expand the number of horse tracks with casinos?

I write in response to the much-debated issue of video gambling in the Granite State. I understand the concerns people have in regard to gambling addictions. They are real and have the potential to dismantle lives.
Our Massachusetts neighbors have Keno machines in many restaurants and bars. In case you are not familiar with this game, the player chooses numbers, wagers a dollar and hopes to see his or her numbers appear on the screen.
I have played it in a few locations in the State. The crowds Keno attracts aren´t barroom riff-raff.

A Gering, Neb., Keno company is suing a North Platte woman to recover losses after she was convicted of rigging Keno games at Butch’s Steakhouse in Hershey last year.
Charity Rae Steinspring, also known as Charity Rae Davis, 24, 409 S. Elm, was convicted of two counts of theft and two counts of attempted violation of Nebraska lottery laws July 23 in Lincoln County Court.
Steinspring pleaded guilty after both the gambling violations were amended to misdemeanors from felonies in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

ALBANY — Lottery revenue in New York was up half a billion dollars last year, thanks in part to the opening of four upstate video slot-machine parlors, The Post has learned.
Total lottery sales and video slot-machine income in 2004 topped $6.13 billion, up 8.7 percent from $5.64 billion in 2003.

A TOOWOOMBA World War II veteran has received an early birthday present, winning almost $300,000 in a Keno jackpot. The man, who does not want to be named, turns 83 in a few weeks.
He was having lunch with a group of about 16 Diggers who call themselves "The 25th Battalion Wool Cheques and Friends" at the Farmers Arms Hotel, Cabarlah, when he tried his hand at Keno.
He chose the winning Keno numbers by using his official war service serial number.

The alleged holdup of a woman carrying Kearney Gaming keno receipts last spring turned out to be a ruse.
Anderson, 21, reported being robbed in the Big Apple Fun Center parking lot in May. Anderson was a keno writer at the time and carrying a bank bag containing $3,000.
Anderson admitted in court records that she and a male friend staged the robbery and met later to divide the money. Anderson allegedly received $1,000 of the stolen money.