In this week’s Green Felt Journal, I share some insights from the latest Las Vegas Visitor Profile: Increasing international visitation has long been a goal of the LVCVA, and the numerous investments the agency has made toward that end continue to bear fruit. In 2007, 12 percent of visitors came from abroad; in real numbers,
Gambling Is No Longer Las Vegas’ Main Attraction | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenWhat makes a Vegas icon? That’s the question I asked and answered in this week’s Green Felt Journal: Late last month, the Clark County Commission awarded Caesars Entertainment’s High Roller observation wheel the inaugural Las Vegas Icon Award. The County Commission’s best intentions aside, Vegas icon-hood can’t be bestowed, like a key to the city.
The Making of a Vegas Icon | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I talk about why the fall in gaming revenue doesn’t matter as much as it would have a few years back: Once upon a time, an annual drop in Nevada’s gaming revenue was greeted with the same reaction of denial, fear and panic that might accompany the diagnosis of
Why Las Vegas’ Gaming Revenue Decrease Is Not a Bad Thing | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenMy latest Green Felt Journal talks about the history behind the federal tax on sports betting: Like so much else in the history of Nevada gaming, the tax is linked to the Kefauver Committee, the early 1950s U.S. Senate body that investigated organized crime throughout America. Chaired by maverick Tennessee Democrat Estes Kefauver, the committee
Why Congress Should Repeal a Federal Tax on Sports Betting | Vegas Seven Read More »
authorThis week, I’ve also got a Vegas Seven feature on the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Hard Rock Hotel: Twenty years later, it appears Morton saw into the future: You don’t see too many Nile rides in casinos today, but you do see quite a few Center Bars. This is the story of
The Rock Star: Peter Morton and the Birth of the Hard Rock | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I take a look at what the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is actually going to do with the Riviera site: Construction on the Global Business District is expected to begin in the next couple of years and unfold over the next decade. If executed along the lines
LVCVA’s Unconventional Approach to Global Business | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn my latest Green Felt Journal, I take a look at the Riviera’s place in history: If there were one property you could point to that has represented the evolution of our city’s casinos over the past 60 years, it would be the Riviera. So it’s only fitting that, in its final days, the hotel-casino
Riviera Going Out as It Came In: A Symbol of the Strip’s Future | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenThis week’s feature in Vegas Seven is a lot of fun. A bunch of Seven writers contributed brief thoughts on what might have happened in things had turned out a little differently at various points in Las Vegas history. It’s alt-history for Vegas: So, in the interest of preserving our own sanity, we’re taking the
Stories Never Told, of a City That Never Was | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenThis week’s Green Felt Journal dissects the reality behind the numbers in the Gaming Abstract: Each year, the Gaming Control Board releases a massive document that charts the performance of the state’s casinos for the previous fiscal year, broken down by geographic area and income. The release of the 2014 Nevada Gaming Abstract crystallizes the
Nongaming Activities Continue to Pay the Bills for Strip Casinos | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenThis week’s Green Felt Journal, partially written in my head while hanging out at the Discovery Children’s Museum last week, is about the tug of war between locals and visitors in Las Vegas: Sometimes, it can seem that life in Southern Nevada is a big zero-sum game. With limited money to spend in both the
The Locals vs. Tourists Balancing Act | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenLike most people, you probably want to start your New Year with a discussion of historic Las Vegas. I can’t think of many better ways to do that than at this talk I’m giving as part of Mob Month on Tuesday, January 6 at 7 PM at the Clark County Library: Mob Month 2015 –
Talk about the Kefauver Committee, Tuesday 1/6 Read More »
what's newIn John L. Smith’s rundown of good Vegas history books, Grandissimo had a positive mention:
Las Vegas has been home to some great characters, and Circus Circus creator Jay Sarno was perhaps the most remarkable. UNLV’s David G. Schwartz tells his story in “Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas: How Jay Sarno Won a Casino Empire, Lost It, and Inspired Modern Las Vegas.” Sarno’s life and style were surely a challenge to describe, and Schwartz did an incredible job.
Books on Nevada’s colorful past, cast of characters make great gifts
I’m grateful to John for the kind words. It’s always validating when your work is well received.
Nice mention in the LVRJ Read More »
UncategorizedIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I consider how strict regulation with room for discretion helped save Nevada gaming in the 1960s: Sawyer’s “hang tough” policy emerged at a crucial time: Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department would ratchet up pressure on Nevada casinos starting in 1961, and without the good-faith efforts of Sawyer’s appointees to clean
How a Few Regulators Saved the Nevada Gaming Industry | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIt’s really easy for me to notice when NFR is in town because it’s marginally harder for me to park at UNLV. But what does NFR really mean to the rest of the city? I’ve already gone the economic impact route, so this time I started thinking a little less literally: It’s hard not to
National Finals Rodeo Goes Beyond Local Economics | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn this week’s Green Felt , I consider how Las Vegas might just have a few lessons for Macau after all: Once those architects began planning resorts, however, it became apparent that Asia was not Las Vegas, and that what worked so well here for the previous generation—large slot parlors with table-gaming cores—was not at
What Macau Can Learn from Las Vegas | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I consider the 150-year history of Nevada and gambling, and wonder what the future will hold: The original match wasn’t exactly a marriage of convenience, but it wasn’t a forbidden romance, either. When Nevada joined the Union in 1864, it soberly criminalized the gambling that had been rampant—as it was
Is Nevada Moving Away From Gambling? | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I discuss how Las Vegas faces change: Now let’s broaden that concept and consider how Las Vegas not just the casino industry responds to changes dealt to it externally. For example, earlier this month, gay marriage became legal in Nevada. Almost immediately, the question being asked wasn’t whether Nevada’s
There were many interesting things at this year’s G2E. In this week’s Green Felt Journal, I discuss a few that stood out to me: Among the more important topics addressed at the annual Global Gaming Expo, held earlier this month at the Sands Expo Center, focused on an industry in transition. Even as the number
Game Changers From the Global Gaming Expo | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenThis week, I offer some thoughts on casino saturation in the Green Felt Journal: One-third of Atlantic City’s casinos have closed this year. Simultaneously, new casinos are under construction or on the drawing board in surrounding states. So how many casinos are too many? More pressingly, has the industry reached the saturation point? via For
For the Gaming Industry, How Much Is Too Much? | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenThis week, the 2014 Nevada Press Association awards were announced. I was fortunate to receive two awards From UNLV Special Collections’ blog: Special Collections is excited to announce that our colleague, David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research, recently received two awards in the Nevada Press Association’s 2014 Better Newspaper contest, thanks
2014 NPA Award winner! Read More »
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