The RGJ quoted me extensively in a piece on, what else, casino carpets last week. Here’s a sample:
Casino carpeting is a hobby for Schwartz. He has posted shots of casino carpets throughout the nation on his Web site www.dieiscast.com. They’re wild and bright and follow a Nevada tradition that at least dates back to places such as Reno’s Riverside Hotel Casino in the 1930s.
And the Peppermill? That carpet might be at the core of the concept that bad carpet is good for gaming.
“It is the essence of the whole thing,” Schwartz said of the Peppermill’s carpeting. “You don’t get rainbows and planets at most places.”
Peppermill officials defend their spaced-out carpet, although they say it contains a subtle reminder that the Peppermill may be the place where visitors win.
“People always don’t notice the rainbows in the carpet but they have a perception of good luck,” said Bill Hughes, marketing director. “Rainbows give us a sense of good feeling.”
And the black, purple and aqua background?
“There is a practicality side to it, too,” Hughes said. “You don’t want a real plain carpet because people drop cigarettes on it and spill drinks on it.”
Casino carpeting: Whats bad for the eyes is good for business | www.rgj.com | Reno Gazette-Journal
The Peppermill really has the quintessential casino carpet.
And I have become the quintessential scholar of casino carpeting, merely by the virtue of having enough of a sense of humor about the whole thing to suggest that I am a scholar of casino carpeting. There really is no such thing; my “essay” on the subject isn’t really a serious academic essay so much as a modest proposal for future study into the field.
I’m starting to think that people might think that I’m really serious about the whole thing.
In that spirit, I’ve updated the Atlantic City gallery and moved several old AC carpets to the Hall of Fame.
Check out the new look for the Taj–as much as I like what they’ve done with the rest of the place, that new carpet is really bad. It’s actually a step back from the old pink and purple stuff, which I didn’t think was possible. Harrah’s on the other hand has put a real winner in–I liked it so much that I included an extra “bonus” shot at the bottom of the page. This is clearly the best carpet in town, and joins the carpet at Red Rock on the “I wouldn’t mind having this in (a very small area of) my house” list.
I don’t think I’ve said this before, but Bally’s might have the worst carpet I’ve seen in a while. I know someone said in the RGJ article that the Peppermill carpet looks like vomit, but the Bally’s floor literally looks like someone had too much pepperoni pizza and grape slushee and suffered what competitive eaters call a “reversal of fortune.”