Casino City's Friday Five: Luxury and jackpots edition

We're deep in the heart of the holidays, with Christmas coming up for many and New Year's approaching for all. Before you log off and enjoy a blissful few days of family, food and gifts, here are the five hottest stories from the last week.

5. Viejas Casino & Resort to open luxury tower in 2018
The word luxury is bandied about quite a bit in the world of casinos, but this truly does sound luxe.

The California casino's 159-suite tower will feature a salon retreat whose amenities include a saltwater pool, a spa, a salon and fitness center, and three entirely new restaurants. The hotel will also turn the check-in/check-out dynamic on its head, giving guests the ability to choose their time of arrival and departure, which is honestly a very compelling reason to visit.

Also available are Vitamin C showers, which we can't imagine actually do anything but do sound incredibly riche. Oh, and don't forget the salt sauna and tranquility room. We actually feel more relaxed just reading about this.

4. MGM Grand's LEVEL UP to host Unikrn esports tournaments
With this, esports continues its swift ascent to popularity. Leading esports brand Unikrn will bring live tournaments to the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino Las Vegas gaming lounge starting in 2018. These tournaments will run on Fridays and Saturdays, featuring top-notch prizes. And if you're not playing, the experience itself will probably be worth it.

3. Foxwoods expands arena-style gaming
Foxwoods Resort Casino over in Connecticut has just added Rainmaker Stadium, what they call a "dynamic stadium gaming experience." The area features 30 play terminals – with which players can toggle between multiple games with the simple press of a button – and three live dealers offering blackjack and Mini-Baccarat. The personal terminals also come with charging stations and beverage holders, absolute must-haves in this day and age.

(Foxwoods notes that you can play six games at once using these terminals, but unless you're equipped with more than the usual human number of eyes and/or arms, we don't recommend it.)

Foxwoods plans to open an additional 24 gaming terminals in 2018, so keep an eye out.

Oh, Christmas Tree ????

??: @ellen_larsonn pic.twitter.com/j2fdVOalZZ

— Foxwoods Official (@FoxwoodsCT) December 19, 2017

2. PokerStars Winter Series kicking off Christmas Day
Those of you who enjoy a game of poker can compete for PokerStars.com Platinum passes during this event, which kicks off on Xmas. These pass packages, worth $150,000 total, will be awarded to four Main Event winners and one All-In Shootout winner.

That number includes the $25,000 buy-in for the upcoming No-Limit Hold'em Championship in the Bahamas as well as a room at the Atlantis Resort.

1. NetEnt slots pay out over 78 million EUR in 2017
We knew NetEnt games like Mega Fortune and Mega Fortune Dreams were handing out some serious cash, but we didn't know how serious until we read this. 78 million EUR?! That's nuts. Not to mention the fact that Mega Fortune Dreams has paid out a little over 30 million EUR this year all by its lonesome.

The single highest jackpot this year and NetEnt's fourth-highest payout was 7.5 million EUR, won while playing Hall of the Gods in June.

If you're looking for good fortune, may we suggest checking out a NetEnt game in the New Year?

2017 has been a great year, in more than 78 million wayshttps://t.co/OyEuYuvOqS pic.twitter.com/WwwGg4Ds1r

— NetEnt (@NetEntOfficial) December 21, 2017