This Friday 8/20 at noon (PDT), I am giving a talk for the UNLV Alumni Association’s Rebel Recharge series called “Lessons Learned from COVID and the Path Ahead.” I’m going to be looking at has happened to Las Vegas over the past 18 months, and suggest four lessons we can learn from it. The event …
Upcoming Online Talk: Lessons Learned from COVID and the Path Ahead Read More »
If you like listening to books and are partial to the history of Las Vegas, I have great news for you: the audiobook version of At the Sands is now available. Follow these links to get the book on Amazon, Audible, and Apple Books/iTunes. If this news prompts you to use Audible for the first …
For my latest commentary, I started thinking about how two recent bits of pop culture reflect on casinos. The answer: not well: The casino gaming industry is in a funny place. For those of us inside the bubble, it’s a business brimming with regulations, compliance, and integrity. For those outside it, though, casinos are still, …
Marty Byrde, King Dice, and gaming’s enduring image problem – CDC Gaming Reports Read More »
I’ve got another commentary up today, marking another important milestone: Today, we mark another milestone of Nevada gaming history, one that reminds us how far the state and the industry have come, and how far both still have to go. On March 26, 1960, Governor Grant Sawyer, Las Vegas NAACP President Dr. James McMillan, Las …
An important anniversary for Las Vegas gaming – CDC Gaming Reports Read More »
Today’s column was a fun one to write. It started out as a simple look back at the 90th anniversary of Nevada getting gaming back, but turned into an exploration of alternate history. Today marks the anniversary of what might be the most consequential event in American gambling history: the relegalization of commercial gaming in …
I’ve got another commentary up on CDC Gaming Reports. This one is about why we shouldn’t write off conventions in Las Vegas: The casinos of the Strip were particularly vulnerable to the pandemic, not only because it put a temporary halt to gaming on casino floors. Casinos across the country (mostly) managed to emerge from …
Last week I had a commentary published on CDC Gaming Reports about the possibly already forgotten Golden Knights/Upick partnership. As usual, I tried to see the positive. Here it is: You probably have already heard the story. It raced across Twitter in a brilliant blaze last week before sputtering into dust over the weekend. The Vegas Golden …
All’s well that ends well with the Upick debacle – CDC Gaming Reports Read More »
One of the major attractions of the Sands hotel was the music–whether it was in the Copa Room, the lounge, or, in later years, the Celebrity Theater. To commemorate the musical legacy of the Sands–and give you something to listen to while you read At the Sands, I’ve created a Spotify playlist featuring over 43 …
I have good news for all those who want a copy of At the Sands and who prefer hardcovers: the book is now available through Amazon as a hardcover. If you’d like to preview the book before buying, you can read an excerpt and look at the chapter titles here. If you’d like to see …
I’ve got an excerpt from At the Sands that you can read at On The Strip: From the start, the Sands involved several personalities: Jake Freedman, who had arrived in America destitute but by dint of his personality had become a beloved gambling operator and racehorse owner, was its president and public face. Jack Entratter, …
How the Sands Seduced Guests, Gamblers and the Media – On The Strip Read More »