Everything about casinos, lotteries, racetracks, and other gambling businesses: news, design, and corporate intrigue.
Doing some research for my epochal article on the Strip’s recovery from the travails of the early 1980s, I found this quote in a Boston Globe Magazine article written by Connie Paige: This year’s visit…was different. Life seemed to have switched into neutral. Snatches of conversation with some of the army of casino workers…soon made […]
More pessimism from the past Read More »
news about gamblingWith almost 14 million combinations to try, this would take, on average, seven million attempts – about 67,000 years if you play twice a week. Success would be guaranteed after 135,000 years. If you choose your numbers at random, however, success is never guaranteed, and tame mathematicians tell me that the average time to strike
Lotto advice from the Undercover Economist Read More »
news about gamblingI’ve got an article in the Las Vegas Business Press today that elaborates my earlier thoughts on the Las Vegas business travel flap: At the height of an unprecedented national crisis, a group of American leaders traveled to one of the countrys most expensive tourist destinations, where they set about the business of righting the
History sez it’s OK to party Read More »
news about gamblingI’ve traveled through Baltimore-Washington International Airport a few times, and there’s not a lot to do there. This proposal to allow a massive slot casino at the airport might change that. From the Baltimore Sun: A Baltimore County lawmaker is proposing slot-machine gambling at Maryland’s major airport, but Gov. Martin OMalley called the casino a
There’s a right reason for legalizing expanded gambling and a wrong reason. The wrong reason is, “the state needs more money.” Guess what’s afoot in Illinois? From the Chicago Tribune: Hoping to squeeze more money out of the state lottery, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton wants to sell tickets online and hire a private company
Squeezing the lottery Read More »
news about gamblingSome of you might remember how, in Back to the Future II, Biff owned a casino that was an obviously-redressed Union Plaza. I’m sure there are people out there who can’t look at the Plaza today without thinking about Biff and his sports almanac. Well, I was perusing the photo archives when I found this,
Biff’s Vintage Vegas casino Read More »
life in vegas, news about gamblingIf you’re taking bailout money, stay out of Vegas. From the LVRJ: Wells Fargo & Co. on Tuesday abruptly canceled a pricey Las Vegas casino junket for employees after a torrent of criticism that it was misusing $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money. The company initially defended the trip after The Associated Press reported it
Vegas junkets, bailout chic, and a modest proposal Read More »
news about gamblingThings in Atlantic City are just as bad as in Las Vegas, only on a slower, small scale, just like when things were good they were slightly less good than out in Vegas. That’s my analysis. For the story, check out Fox News: One casino in the nation's second largest gambling market is being run
They’re turning down the lights on the Strip, and it has nothing to do with not being able to pay the electric bill. From the LVRJ: Planned marquee outages on the Strip come along about as often as Megabucks jackpots. And like many of those slot-machine fortunes, lights-out events on Las Vegas Boulevard typically don't
I am shocked–shocked–to learn that Congress has chosen to bar casinos from getting any of the nearly trillion dollars in stimulus money that’s floating around. From CNN: Congress has moved to prevent money from the proposed $825 billion stimulus package from being used for zoos, aquariums, golf courses, swimming pools and casinos, an effort to
No casinos need apply Read More »
news about gamblingIn the past year we’ve heard talk of lowering the gambling age to 18 and allowing strip clubs in Strip casinos. Now comes another trial balloon: legal prostitution in Las Vegas. From the LV Sun: In these tough budgetary times, the chairman of a key state Senate committee is willing to consider the world’s oldest
Legalized prostitution in Vegas? Read More »
life in vegas, news about gamblingCentral City has become the last Colorado town to liberalize its betting rules. From the Denver Post: This gambling town Tuesday became the third and final town in Colorado to expand gambling. By a vote of 212 to 16, with nine provisional votes to be counted today, residents agreed to expand the maximum bet in
More gambling in Central City Read More »
news about gamblingMore 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 gamblingBecause 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 gamblingMy 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
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 gamblingCan 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