Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage has once again landed on an important national list of the nation’s top companies for diversity.
The casino-resort operator is the only Nevada-based company and the only gaming company on DiversityInc’s 2010 Top 50 Companies For Diversity list issued Wednesday.

The Clark County Coroner’s Office ruled that Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino President Randy Kwasniewski died Tuesday of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Casino regulators say Nevada casinos won 3.2 percent less in January than they did in the same month a year ago.

But there is a bright spot in a monthly report released Monday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The recession has slashed casino profits and taxes, and it has made the job of regulating Nevada’s casino industry tougher. So legislators said they worried about how budget cuts would affect Nevada’s reputation for casino regulation.

Former gaming regulator Bill Bible is resigning immediately as president of the Nevada Resort Association so he can become a board member of MGM Mirage.

It took more than two years, nearly $7.8 million in fees to lawyers and others and a billionaire’s bargain-basement bid, but the Tropicana Casino and Resort has been salvaged by its sale to Carl Icahn, with a deal expected to close Monday afternoon.

The new owner of the Planet Hollywood resort has been pressuring the Privé and Living Room nightclubs to either pay their past-due rent and expenses or vacate the premises.

During MGM Mirage’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call last month, the company’s executives attempted to address questions that have dogged them since the recession began. Would Aria have to use extremely low rates to keep rooms occupied?

Wynn Resorts again ranks highest among large hotel-casino operators in Fortune magazine’s annual rankings of the most admired companies in each industry.

Last-minute lobbying led to the Legislature’s surprise reinstatement of a portion of slot machine taxes earmarked for problem gambling treatment, education and research.