As if eating the food there wasn’t bad enough for kids, the folks at McDonalds are now apparently encouraging kids to gamble online…sort of. From Austrailian seven.com.au: A McDonalds toy giveaway linked to a website that features gambling games has outraged parents, an anti-pokie campaigner and a psychologist. For decades McDonalds has sold soft drinks, […]
McDonald’s and child gambling Read More »
gambling & cultureFor the past two days, most of the cable news networks have been playing up President Bush’s retorts to Senator Kerry’s remarks about terrorism. Here is the original quote from CNN: ”We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” the
There is an interesting article Forbes about the expansion of casino gaming: California is not the only state where gambling is on the ballot in November (indeed California alone has two initiatives), and it is not the only place where racetracks want to salvage their flagging business, which is based on one kind of gambling,
Tons of articles about G2E 2004. Here’s a few: GLOBAL GAMING EXPO: Experts take ideas for a spin Marketers eye young crowds, branding Slot makers feel celebrities’ pull at expo Gambling expo highlights glitz Survey: Casinos shifting to younger designs BusinessWire news archive for entire show I haven’t seen anything specifically about the Wire Act
The much-anticipated “Legal Limbo” panel at G2E 2004 is now history. I’m blogging from the expo floor, so this will be quick–look for an update tomorrow with links to any media coverage. Bascially, I said hello, then introduced Bob Blumenfeld, who spoke about the Wire Act and the “March Madness” prosecutions of March 1998. Bob
G2E was much as I anticipated it–very large, with many new machines. Here’s a few: Click on it–you can see it in full size, the fruit of my brand new Minolta 5.0 megapixel camera–look for more great images soon. Anyway, I know that gaming manufacturers don’t target their machines towards kids, but when’s the last
The rapidly-growing casino industry in Macau is gathering steam. From the People’s Daily: Macao’s casino racked in 500 million patacas (62 million US dollars) in gross revenue in the first three days of the National Day holiday which began on Oct. 1. Tuesday’s Macao Daily News reported that the holiday market has boosted the gaming
Macau success story Read More »
news about gamblingAfter a year of preparation, the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) is back in town. Let’s see what the LVRJ has to say: Pennies and celebrities promise to be two persistent themes weaving together what for the third year in a row will be the biggest show on earth for the gaming industry. Running through Thursday,
Global gaming in Vegas Read More »
gambling & culture, life in vegasThe Grand Victoria casino is marking its first ten years in Elgin, Illinois, and the Chicago Daily Herald is running a series of articles this week, starting with this one which talks about the transformation the casino has brought to Elgin:
A Grand Decade in Elgin Read More »
gambling & cultureIt’s been a busy week. It looks like I’m a little closer to getting Uneasy Convictions signed. I’m now 28 pages into chapter 2 of Roll The Bones, and hope to have most of the chapter on paper by the end of the weekend. In other news, I did a TV shoot for Equator HD
With the union and casino management unable to reach a labor accord, casino workers in Atlantic City have gone on strike. From, of all places, the Toronto Star: Front-office executives served drinks, lawyers flipped hamburgers and accountants made beds today after about 10,000 union workers went on strike at seven of Atlantic City’s casinos. Cocktail
I had a story that seemed to be a barrell of laughs, until some hammerheads in the Pennsylvania Game Commission ruined it. It begins with a deer living in Southwest Philadelphia who decided to get some takeout fried chicken, in the neighborhood of 52nd and Baltimore (not that far from where I once lived, at
Deer folly turns tragic Read More »
haphazard worldThe ecommerce times has a great recap of Antigua’s WTO case, which is the subject of my panel at G2E: The U.S. government decided recently to negotiate with, rather than litigate against, the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda (both referred to as Antigua) over the issue of online gaming. This decision came about after
Antigua update, Jay Cohen will speak Read More »
news about gambling, what's newI’ve heard pieces of William Shatner’s recorded work, and I always thought that he and former Black Flag/Rollins Band/ spoken word artist Henry Rollins would eventually collaborate. Actually, I never even came close to thinking about that. But, according to NME.com, it has happened: Almost 35 years since the release of his debut album, William
Shatner/Rollins duet Read More »
haphazard worldThe world’s economy is slowing down, but gaming has expanded. If you’ve got $3000–yes, that’s $3000 American–to spend, you can read all the details, or you can see what I cut and pasted from the press release on yahoo: The 3rd Global Gambling Review: Double or Quits? is now available from Casino City Press, the
This might be the coolest story I’ve discussed yet. Mooncake gambling exists, and it is a thriving recreation in a Chinese city. From China Daily: in Xiamen, a coastal city of East China’s Fujian Province, you find a pack of six dice inside after opening every gaudily-decorated box of mooncakes. Gambling? Right, but it is
Like many people who read my blog, you may be a college student who is interested in gambling. Well, if you are, the 2nd Annual College Poker Championship might be for you! Or not. It’s free to enter, which I guess means that it’s not technically gambling (and therefore presumably not a violation of the
Stop studying, start playing poker Read More »
gambling & cultureWatching that ESPN series on sports and gambling, something struck me as odd, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, until I read this, from John Schwarb of the St. Pete Times: Not to pile on too much against ESPN (in this space last week we questioned its anchors being advertising pitchmen), but we
Ranting about ESPN Read More »
gambling & cultureFriday morning, Sept 24, I woke up at 4:30 to catch an early-morning flight to Los Angeles to be part of the online gaming summit sponsored by BetOnSports. Now, some people who I’ve showed the site to have responded with glassy-eyed polite silence, making me think it’s probably pretty crappy. Other people, when I tell
Nostlagia on the 405 Read More »
what's newI was part of the Los Angeles summit on online gaming regulation. It was great to meet David Carruthers and learn first-hand about what’s happening in this arena. When it came my turn to speak, I began a long and probably boring oration on the history of federal legislation on gaming, the Wire Act, gaming
View from the online gaming summit Read More »
news about gambling