With some time to really work today, I finished several updates and created a new report that should help put 2010 in perspective. Here’s the rundown: 1. I updated and retitled the analysis of monthly and quarterly revenue changes 2007-2010: Nevada Gaming: Charting the Recession Analysis of Total Gaming Win, Statewide and Las Vegas Strip, […]
Graham Joyce. The Silent Land.New York:Doubleday, 2011. 240 pages. I’m back with a review of a “suspense novel” that isn’t that suspenseful, but which has its charms. In THE SILENT LAND, a young vacationing British couple, Jake and Zoe, find themselves trapped in an Alpine ski resort, completely alone, after an avalanche. Unable to contact
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book reviewsThe Gaming Control Board released the December 2010 Gaming Revenue Report today, and I’ve gotten my historical comparison/analysis up. Here’s the executive summary, but you should really click through to see all of the numbers: As in November, December saw a decline from the previous year’s results, but there were bright spots. Statewide and in
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news about gamblingIt’s Thursday, so I’ve got a Green Felt Journal column in Vegas Seven. This week, I dig a little deeper into the significance of the El Cortez’s Design-a-Suite Downtown competition: When the El Cortez announced the winner of its Design-a-Suite Downtown competition recently, the downtown stalwart did more than decide the look for its suites;
El Cortez suite competition winner in Vegas Seven Read More »
news about gambling, Vegas Seven, writingThe Nevada Gaming Control Board has released the unaudited figures for this year’s Super Bowl, and in spite of early reports that the books took a beating, they actually came out slightly ahead. Here’s a quote from the press release: THE GAMING CONTROL BOARD RELEASED FIGURES TODAY SHOWING THAT $87.5 MILLION WAS WAGERED IN NEVADA’S
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news about gamblingMy latest column in the Las Vegas Business Press is now available. In it, I consider Governor Sandoval’s recent call for modernization in Nevada’s gaming regulations: In his State of the State address, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval briefly noted the necessity of updating the state’s gaming regulations to reflect the new realities of 21st century
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Las Vegas Business Press, news about gambling, writingI’m pretty excited about the upcoming Gaming Research Colloquium talk that we’re hosting at UNLV: Please join us at 12:15 PM, Thursday, Feb. 24, as February Gaming Research Fellow Darryl A. Smith delivers a Gaming Research Colloquium talk titled “’Dark with Excessive Bright:’ Gambling Tells and the Gaming Taboo.” Smith, an assistant professor of religious
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gambling & cultureHoward Mansfield. Turn and Jump: How Time and Place Fell Apart. Rockport, Maine: Down East Books, 2010. 195 pages. Today we take for granted that time is rigidly (and sometimes mercilessly) segmented. But the way people think about time has changed dramatically over the last two hundred years, with local and natural time, based on
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book reviewsIt’s Thursday, which means another Green Felt Journal is available for your reading pleasure in Vegas Seven. This one is a look behind Station Casino’s recent hiring push: The local employment picture has been a dire one. In the past five years, the unemployment rate has more than tripled. That’s why a local company hiring
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news about gambling, Vegas Seven, writingAfter some work, I’ve finally produced the first fruits of the Nevada Gaming Abstract 2010’s publication, over on gaming.unlv.edu: Average Big Las Vegas Strip Casino, 2010 A statistical summary of the average Las Vegas Strip casino (with annual gaming revenues of over $72 million) with both gaming and non-gaming revenues and information on employment, taxes,
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news about gamblingThe Gaming Control Board has announced the release of the 2010 Nevada Gaming Abstract. As of 8AM 1/31, the report isn’t up on the GCB’s site, but here’s the press release: The State Gaming Control Board has released its “NEVADA GAMING ABSTRACT – 2010.” The ABSTRACT is a report of combined financial information regarding Nevada
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news about gamblingEdward Dolnick. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World. New York: Harper Collins, 2011. 400 pages. In THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE, Edward Dolnick gives the reader a sense of the world that the scientific greats of the early modern period inhabited, and lets us see that there was
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book reviewsI saw this story in the Las Vegas Sun and decided to investigate further. Governor Sandoval, in his State of the State address, very briefly called for the modernization of Nevada’s gaming laws. Here’s the entire relevant extract from the speech: Since I completed my term as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, the gaming
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news about gamblingAfter hearing–then reading about–one frequent Vegas traveler’s experience with the new Stratosphere, and seeing billboards trumpeting the “new” Strat splashed liberally around the valley, I was planning to head down to see what all the fuss was about. Then I got a call from KNPR’s State of Nevada to talk about the impact that the
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life in vegas, news about gamblingThis Thursday, there’s no local news section in Vegas Seven since it’s a special People issue. Instead, I wrote a brief profile of Kyle Markman, who’s been doing some very interesting things at Station Casinos: Kyle Markman knows how to throw a party. In June 2008, it was his job to set up a celebration
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news about gambling, Vegas Seven, writingToday I was fortunate to hear one of the best Gaming Colloquium talks we’ve had in a while: RJ Rowley talking about locals casinos in Las Vegas. Here’s the info you need: 26-January 25, 2011 RJ Rowley, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Platteville “Neon Beyond the Neon: The Geography of Locals Casinos” In this talk, Rowley
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news about gamblingIn this week’s Las Vegas Business Press, I share my thoughts about the just-passed Atlantic City casino regulatory reform: After suffering its fourth consecutive year of declining casino revenues, Atlantic City might finally be feeling the winds of reform. But will a planned regulatory overhaul be too little, too late to save the city’s slumping
A new hope for AC? in the Las Vegas Business Press Read More »
atlantic city, news about gamblingMy latest report is up over at the Center for Gaming Research. It’s a look at why Big Six is such a great game–for the house: Big Six is a minor casino game, but one that has high visibility on most casinos floors. Positioned where it is easily accessible by casual and novice gamblers, the
Big Six under study Read More »
atlantic city, news about gamblingPaula Szyuchman and Jenny Anderson. Spousonomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage, and Dirty Dishes. New York: Random House, 2011. 352 pages. Spousonomics is another addition to the growing popular economics literature that makes concepts like division of labor, comparative advantage, and information asymmetry digestible for a lay audience. As such, its publication is a
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book reviewsAs we discussed earlier this week, there’s a disturbing tendency for people in casinos to believe that they are completely safe, even when the building’s on fire. Submitted for your approval is this exhibit, from Minnesota’s Mystic Lake casino, courtesy of the Star Tribune: The casino roof was on fire, but several floors below the
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