I’ve got to hand it to the folks at Pinnacle–they know how to make people laugh. Take, for example, what must surely be a bit of gallows humor from Dan Lee and company: billboards along the Atlantic City Expressway reading, “You know what this town needs? Another casino” (or something like that). Yes, with declining
What this town needs Read More »
atlantic cityAs more people have less cash, many of them are turning to bartering goods and services. It’s a bold leap back to the Iron Age for America’s formerly fastest-growing metropolis. From the LVRJ: According to a craigslist spokeswoman, the site has seen a "significant growth in our bartering section as craigslist users get creative to
More good news for the state budget: fewer people are coming to Las Vegas, and they’re gambling less. From Bloomberg: Las Vegas Strip casino gambling revenue tumbled 16 percent in November, its 11th straight monthly decline, because the global recession and a reduction in the number of flights to the city deterred visits. Gambling proceeds
NV, Strip revenues down Read More »
news about gamblingStrange but true: Ladbrokes, a prominent UK betting company, is in trouble because it ran two television ads linking gambling to reckless behavior. From the Guardian: The betting company ran two TV ads, described as "pastiches of documentary-style filming", telling the story of two adrenaline junkies who came to a sticky end after taking one
Quench your thrill buds, but not on TV Read More »
news about gamblingThis is fun: a story from KLAS about online gaming has made the rounds of the internet, and somehow, after being run through a translation program a few times, wound up on what appears to a link farm for online gaming sites. I’m posting it in its entirety, not because of the content, but because
The world according to gaming research Read More »
news about gamblingAccording to the 2007 edition, page 2-19, in 2007 the 23 casinos in the Las Vegas Strip area that made more than $72,000,000 had total casino revenues of about $5.9 billion, and wrote off about $112.5 million to “bad debt expense.” So 1.9% of total casino income is lost to bad debts.
Bad debts in perspective Read More »
news about gamblingIf you can make it, we’re hosting a provocative talk at UNLV in two weeks. Here’s the info: January 29, 2009 Gaming Research Colloquium Series: Leslie Nino Fidance William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV “The Mob Never Ran Vegas” Thursday, January, 12:15 pm UNLV Special Collections Download flyer (pdf) Center for Gaming Research: Special
Talking about the Mob at UNLV Read More »
what's newAt last I’ve gotten a chance to photograph the carpet at Encore. I didn’t make it into the mysterious sky casino (which was not on our opening tour), but I managed to get some shots of the high limit room. Neat stuff. Check it out on the Strip carpet gallery. I’ve also tweaked my background
Because we can’t wait for the future, everyone wants to know what’s going to happen. Spectrum Gaming has a 21-point list of what to expect, but I’ll give you my own views, focusing mostly on Las Vegas. This is all with the caveat that, as I often say, “my work is not predictive.” That’s just
Room rates, 2009, and the future Read More »
news about gamblingI could do some official-sounding retrospective on the year in gaming, but that’s been done better elsewhere, by people with more time. Instead, I thought I’d take a moment to flip through my archives and pick out a few of my favorite posts from 2008. January Things you need to tell the GCB Best name
Looking back at 2008 Read More »
what's newWith 2008 almost history, I’ve got a new Atlantic City history article in Casino Connection to tell you about: Casino Connection Atlantic City | AC History | Curtain up. It’s all about the proliferation and disappearance of theaters along the Boardwalk.
Theater time in AC Read More »
atlantic cityMy Las Vegas Business Press piece on Encore is up. It’s an expansion of my original post on this site. Here’s my grand conclusion: Encore, in its essence, is hopeful. Even the name is a reminder that something came before, and something will come after. It’s both a great new resort and a call to
This Christian Science Monitor editorial argues with some logic that gambling isn’t the best thing for the economy. But I think the last line is a bit utopian: One bright spot in this deep recession is that gamblers might be saying "Enough" to the lure of easy money and calling it quits. States, too, should
A recent case of kickbacks opens up an interesting public policy question that will probably not be answered. From the LV Sun: A vice president of Fry’s Electronics who is accused of swindling the company out of more than $65 million has long been on the radar of Clark County prosecutors. The Internal Revenue Service
Casino debt hall of fame Read More »
news about gamblingIf you’re familiar with your gambling history (some of which you can find, in a single volume and at an outrageously affordable price, in Roll the Bones) you already know that, going back to the Romans, gambling was permitted, even encouraged, during the Saturnalia festival at the end of the year. Saturnalia evolved into Christmas,
Merry Christmas, start gambling! Read More »
gambling & cultureCan you guess the year that an article appeared in Forbes magazine with these quotes? — “Las Vegas is showing signs that it is becoming overbuilt.” –“With traffic growing more slowly than capacity, older casinos have been hurting. Atlantic City casinos fared much worse last year.” — “Steve Wynn put it this way: ‘The old
There’s been quite the buzz for Encore over the Internet. This quote from Oskar Garcia’s AP piece explains, I think, why Wynn gets it more than anyone except Jack Binion and a few others: Wynn expected thousands to jam the entrances to the casinos on Monday night, as some of his best customers ceremoniously pull
Dave’s thoughts on the opening of Encore at Wynn Las Vegas.
And now for an Encore Read More »
life in vegas, news about gamblingYou might have noticed that I do a great deal of writing. Whether it’s the daily blogging, the articles for the Las Vegas Business Press, Casino Connection, and elsewhere, or the books, writing is something that is very important to me, both professionally and because I like to do it. Since it means so much
I didn’t write this…not exactly Read More »
atlantic city, writingA review of Bill Zender’s Casino-ology: The Art of Managing Casino Games.
Book Review: Casino-ology Read More »
book reviews