Today 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
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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
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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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news about gamblingThe latest Green Felt Journal in Vegas Seven is out. In it, I profile long-time Gaming Control Board inspector Patrick Wynn: Many Nevadans have transitioned into new jobs and even careers. Patrick Wynn is one of them. The former Nevada Gaming Control Board deputy chief of investigations, who recently retired after more than 31 years
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news about gambling, writingWe know that Macau had a blockbuster 2010, more than doubling the revenue of Nevada’s 329 non-restricted gaming locations with its 33 casinos. According to two CLSA analysts, 2011 will be an even better year for the SAR. From Bloomberg: Casino revenue in Macau, the world’s biggest gambling hub, may climb 30 percent to $30
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news about gamblingThis story’s only tangentially about gambling, but it’s interesting in a quirky sort of way. From the Malaysian Star: A Malaysian maid working in Hong Kong has reportedly won over HK$30mil RM12mil in a local lottery, China Press reported.The middle-aged woman is a helper at the mansion of Angela Leong, the fourth wife of casino
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gambling & cultureThere was a fire in a Las Vegas Strip casino yesterday. From KLAS: A mattress fire at Bally’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Sunday afternoon sent one person to the hospital. Clark County Fire Department spokesman Dan Kulin says the blaze was confined to a room on the 25th floor of the hotel. The
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news about gamblingAs promised, I’ve taken a deeper look at the recent casino regulatory overhaul that passed the New Jersey legislature. My comments are based on version of the bill that was current as of 1/10/11. You can find it right here. First of all, the bill codifies into law the current existential angst the industry is
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atlantic city, news about gamblingThis week in Vegas Seven‘s Green Felt Journal, I take look at an interesting letter Randall Sayre sent last month that, I think, we’d all do well to read: According to the letter from then-Gaming Control Board member Randall Sayre on Dec. 15, the board has investigated “numerous incidents” where databases containing personal and/or financial
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news about gambling, writingYou might not have heard, but the New Jersey legislature voted to legalize Internet gaming. The bill in question (S490) passed both houses and awaits Governor Christie’s signature. So what does it mean? The new law changes the Casino Control Act to permit Atlantic City casinos to offer gambling over the Internet to residents of
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atlantic city, news about gamblingMy latest piece in the Las Vegas Business Press takes a look at why Leroy’s Blackberry sports-betting application is a big deal: The year is still young, but 2011 has already been groundbreaking for Nevada’s gaming industry. The Gaming Control Board approved an application that lets players make bets from their own mobile devices, pointing
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news about gamblingAfter several hours of work, I’ve gotten the November historical comparison up and updated the 2010 Year-to-Date report. Here’s the narrative of the November report: November reversed the recent trend, with Nevada gaming revenues showing a year?to?year decline. This was because of a general weakening of demand, as, with few exceptions, both table and slot
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news about gamblingThe Casino Control Commission released the 2010 casino revenue figures today. Here’s the pdf press release if you want to take a look. For the market at large, it was close to an unmitigated disaster, with a 9.0% decline in slot revenue and 10.9% slowdown in table revenue combined to drop total casino revenues by
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atlantic city, news about gamblingThe 60 Minutes hit piece on slot machines finally came out. I’ve been hearing about this for a while, and it was actually about what I expected: We Americans spend more money on slots than on movies, baseball and theme parks combined. But with the modern slot machines, there is a greater potential for a
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news about gamblingProving that the system can change, as long as it’s a nonsensical change that won’t help anyone already in the market, New Jersey has approved mini-casinos for Atlantic City. From the AC Press: Gov. Chris Christie signed a law Wednesday evening allowing two smaller-size casino hotels to be licensed in Atlantic City. The pilot program,
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atlantic city, news about gamblingVegas Seven is back on its weekly schedule after its end-of-year double issue, which means that today you have a brand new Green Felt Journal to read. It’s about how smaller casinos competing with the New Year’s parties on the Strip: The lion’s share of that haul goes to the big Strip resorts, which host
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life in vegas, news about gamblingThis month, I have a milestone Atlantic City history column in Casino Connection that celebrates one of the real personalities of Atlantic City, Tony “Mr. Wonderful” Grant: Today, most of the entertainment in Atlantic City comes courtesy of seasoned veterans and nationally known recording artists. Once, however, the city was a mecca for amateur performers
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atlantic city, writingGB Tran. Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey. New York: Villard, 2011. 192 pages. Graphic novels can be an extremely effective medium for memoir–Art Speigelman’s Maus and Marjane Satrapi’ Persepolis have proven. GB Tran’s Vietnamerica is very much in the mold of these two classics, and it tells a story that similarly mingles memoir with history. Tran’s
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