In this week’s Las Vegas Business Press, I take a look at one aspect of Terry Lanni’s legacy: There’s already been a great deal written about his work at the helm of MGM Mirage, including his role in guiding the company through two mergers that created today’s MGM Resorts International, and his pioneering work with
Terry Lanni’s dignified diplomacy in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressIf you missed it, I had a short piece about what’s going on with the exterior of the Palazzo and Venetian in Vegas Seven: If you’ve been in the vicinity of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sands Avenue lately, you might have noticed some work being done on the Venetian/Palazzo megacomplex. Several weeks ago, the letters
Polishing the Palazzo in Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenTom Hopkins. Selling for Dummies: Third Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2011. 362 pages. If you’re in sales, you’re probably always looking for that extra edge. If you’re not, you’d probably like to know a little more about how salespeople get you to sign. In either case, Tom Hopkins’ SELLING FOR DUMMIES is a good
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book reviewsIf you’ve missed it, I’ve got what I hope is a lighter look at today’s angry showgirl march up at Two Way Hard Three: If you love those Las Vegas Sun slideshow-riffic stories (15 intersections of certain death! click now!), you might like this quick, numbered list of potential future events that will likely never
Five Potential Strip Protest Marches at Two Way Hard Three Read More »
Two Way Hard ThreeToday I’ve got an extended feature piece in Vegas Seven that tries to lift the veil and see into the creative process that produces the ads that sells Vegas to the masses: Right now, R&R Partners, the company that’s been helping the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority sell the city since 1980, is producing
Behind ‘What Happens Here’ in Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIt’s Thursday, so that means another Vegas Seven. This week, I look at the Vegas staycation in the Green Felt Journal: Not everyone has the luxury of a Malibu summer home or the accrued sick/personal leave to spend their summer crashing in the Pacific waves or touring the Continent, so Las Vegans have increasingly turned
Staycations in Vegas Seven Read More »
life in vegas, Vegas SevenI’ve got a new piece in the Las Vegas Business Press about how Las Vegas is going to have to adjust to no longer being number one in gaming: In June, Macau casinos took in about $2.6 billion in revenues, an increase of more than 50 percent from the previous year. This achievement highlights the
We’re no longer number one! in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressTali Sharot: The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain. New York, Pantheon, 2011. 272 pages. People always seem to expect the best, despite the odds. As Tali Sharot discusses in THE OPTIMISM BIAS, most people have unrealistically positive expectations of their future. She does a great job of summing up much of
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book reviewsIf you missed it last week, here’s my latest Green Felt Journal, a look at why poker isn’t going anywhere: A lot of folks are surprised that the World Series of Poker isn’t doing so badly this year. So far, about one-third of tournament events have had record numbers of participants. Back in April, many
Poker, the Great Survivor in Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenYesterday morning, after I read about the second homicide on the Strip in less than two weeks, I decided to write a short piece for Two Way Hard Three about why it was important for the County and Metro to get in front of the issue: But most people have the perception–or at least the
Talking Strip Safety on Two Way Hard Three, and more commentary Read More »
life in vegas, Two Way Hard ThreeI had a busy day yesterday. I added a previously-written column on the history of Steel Pier right here and I wrote two pieces for Two Way Hard Three. The first was a fun little piece about Vegas insider moves: Everyone wants to feel that they’re a Vegas insider. It might be something as basic
Busy day on Two Way Hard Three Read More »
Two Way Hard ThreeWriting a Two Way Hard Three post about today’s announcement about the possible sale of Steel Pier, I wanted to link to an Atlantic City history column I dimly remembered having written years earlier. Since the issue of Casino Connection it originally ran in (May 2004) isn’t available online, I’m going to reproduce it here
Steel Pier history from the archives Read More »
atlantic cityAfter talking about the street “performers” on the Strip, I figured I should discuss something totally noncontroversial in this week’s Las Vegas Business Press. So I settled on an article on the recent rollback of the gaming tavern smoking ban: Back in November 2006, a majority of voters approved the Nevada Indoor Clean Air Act,
Smoking ban rollback thoughts in LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressJen A. Miller. The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May. Second Edition. Woodstock, Vermont: The Countryman Press, 2011. 207 pages. The phrase “Jersey Shore” is heard a lot these days, but mostly for the wrong reasons–shorthand for the kind of low-class self-indulgent behavior that will land you a gig on an MTV reality show
Book Review: The Jersey Shore Read More »
atlantic city, book reviewsMy contribution to the coverage of the Great Sahara sale is in Vegas Seven this week: At the Sahara, NCL put 600,000 items for sale, from camel-base lamps ($150; they were the most consistently pilfered item from hotel rooms) to the wooden doors from the House of Lords restaurant ($825). The two-month liquidation sale is
Selling the Camel in Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenEarl Swift. The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighway. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. 384 pages. Even if you don’t use it every day, the interstate highway system affects your life every day. Odds are the food that you eat traveled at least part-way on
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book reviewsIn today’s Green Felt Journal in Vegas Seven, I take a look back at the career of Bill Pennington, who had a much bigger impact on Las Vegas than is generally recognized: Last month the Nevada casino industry lost one of its pioneers when William N. “Bill” Pennington died at the age of 88. He
The Quiet Pioneer in Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenJust in case you haven’t caught it on the Twitter feed, I’ve got two new posts up on Two Way Hard Three in which I share some photos I took Monday at a media preview for the Sahara Liquidation sale. Here’s a sample: Click here for the first patr and here for the second. Enjoy!
Sahara sale preview on Two Way Hard Three Read More »
life in vegas, Two Way Hard ThreeThe more I’ve been thinking about the situation on the Strip, the more I’m convinced that those who have a major stake in the continued viability of the Strip as a walkable pedestrian thoroughfare really need a better response to the performers/panhandlers/salespeople who are crowding out the tourists. So I wrote an open letter to
An open letter to the NRA in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, life in vegasI finally read that LA Times piece on vintage Vegas venues (yay for alliterative ledes) and something in it provoked a response in me. So I wrote a Two Way Hard Three post until I expressed something close to what I was feeling: Other people have already discussed the LA Times piece that featured “vintage
Mob myopia in Two Way Hard Three Read More »
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