Miklos Vamos. The Book of Fathers. Translated by Peter Sherwood. New York: Other Press, 2009. 480 pages. This is a thoroughly Hungarian novel that has some crossover appeal, particularly if you think 19th century Russian novels are too light-hearted. Twenty pages in, an entire village is laid waste, not for any strategic military objective, but
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book reviewsGreat news for Pennsylvanians who like to play table games, bad news for Atlantic City, as Pennsylvania has, to no one’s surprise, approved table gaming. Here’s the reaction from the AC Press: Pennsylvania’s slot parlors won’t stop at table games as they prepare to evolve into Atlantic City-style resort casinos in a fierce battle with
Did you know that there is a casino named the Las Vegas Sun? It’s in Cambodia, according to casinocity.com: Las Vegas Sun Hotel & Casino Address Chantrea District Bavet, Svaay Rieng Cambodia Contact Information General Information – +855 44 945 045 Las Vegas Sun Hotel & Casino Hotel * Las Vegas Sun Hotel (Casino located
New direction for casino themes? Read More »
news about gamblingIf you’re curious, here’s another podcast interview that I’ve done in the past few weeks, with American Casino Guide: For the January podcast Steve interviews David Schwartz, Director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. They discuss some of the materials contained in the Gaming Research collection, plus
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what's newBack in the summer I interviewed Dylan Evans for the UNLV Gaming Podcast. His main area of current research is risk intelligence. He’s set up a website where you can test your own risk intelligence. Here are the details: Risk Intelligence Quotient RQ is a measure of a person’s ability to estimate probabilities accurately. People
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gambling & cultureSpeaking of dark and gloomy, here’s a quote from the day before Mirage opened back in 1989, from the LA Times via proquest: At the same time, though, the new competition is expected to drive struggling gambling halls out of business.”There’;s going to be a shakeout,” said Glenn S. Schaeffer, chief financial officer of Circus
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news about gamblingIf you haven’t read it yet, here’s a link to my latest from the LVBP: But craps players and conventioneers both, even if they know of the efforts made by designers to craft a green building, are more likely to care about other things: How easy is it to get around this building? Does it
Destiny on the Strip Read More »
news about gamblingJames McCommons. Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 285 pages. Transportation is a big part of the American national character. We’ve all learned how canals helped to tie the fledgling United States together in the ante-bellum period and railroads did the same
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book reviewsHere’s a holiday update on the status of Pinnacle’s much-ballyhooed Atlantic City project. Remember the billboards? From the AC Press: The site has become yet another vacant city lot, a prominent symbol of broken promises and the weak economy.Fences line the gravel lot dotted with weeds and a few scattered slabs of old concrete. Local
Post-Pinnacle AC=Post-war Berlin Read More »
atlantic city, news about gamblingYesterday while doing some unrelated research I found the Lewis Hotel Training Course, circa 1935, in the collections at UNLV. It seems to be a guide to working in hotels that explains the duties and obligations of every position. I’ve scanned in the first few pages of the “chambermaid” volume to give you an idea
Here’s some breaking news: things don’t look so hot for 2010, at least if you’re in the casino business. From the LVRJ: The impact the recession had on the casino industry in 2009 has not been completely accounted for, but by all measures the year will go down as the worst on record. Through October,
As I was driving out of Aria last Wednesday, I saw something unusual at the corner of Harmon and the Strip. This was the best picture I could get: You’ve got to click a twice to get the image big enough to see what’s going on, but it might be worth it.
I’ve been busy today getting the slot hold occasional paper finished up, so running the risk of CityCenter fatigue, here’s an excerpt from my last LVBP column about, you guessed it, CityCenter: This might be the most novel thing visitors notice about CityCenter, at first. And its hard to believe that its not by design.
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news about gamblingI don’t have much time to write today, but I wanted to get this thought out there. I haven’t seen the new James Cameron movie Avatar yet, but from the commercials and the reviews, I think that it might be the best cinematic comparison to City Center. It’s worth noting that they’ve been “in production”
Ariavatar and Cirque du Spring Read More »
gambling & culture, news about gamblingBut you didn’t need me to tell you that, you’ve probably seen pictures and more at ariaopening.com. And here’s a few words from the Sun about the opening: The wait is over. After a two-minute fireworks display, the Aria Resort & Casino opened its doors to the public late Wednesday night, giving tourists and Las
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life in vegas, news about gamblingI can’t think of a time that I’ve seen someone put in their place this brilliantly. From NORM: Donald Trump and MGM Mirage management won’t be exchanging Christmas cards. The controversial New York real estate developer is raining on CityCenter’s parade, calling it “an absolute catastrophe.” “The biggest problem is it costs so much,” Trump
On a sneak preview tour last week, I took a few photos of the carpet, with the promise that I’d hold them until the opening. Here’s what you’ll see if you look down in the Aria casino: I’ve also updated the carpet galleries to match the look of the rest of the site. Check out
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news about gambling, what's newI’ve been asked by more than one media outlet about City Center, and I thought that I’d just post some of my thoughts here for public consumption. My single-sentence response to “what does it all mean” is that City Center is a gamble in ways that previous Strip projects haven’t been. There’s been skepticism about
City Center in perspective Read More »
news about gamblingAtlantic City has some new competition, or at least a refurbished version of old competition. From the AC Press: While the atmosphere of the stylishly named Parx Casino may feature some European or Asian-inspired elegance, the crowd will have a distinctly Philly flavor. When this new $250 million slots parlor opens its doors Friday, it
Sunday afternoon in the Parx Read More »
atlantic city, news about gamblingWilliam R. Eadington and Meighan R. Doyle, editors. Integrated Resort Casinos: Implications for Economic Growth and Social Impacts. Reno: Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming, 2009. 309 pages. In November 2005, Harrah’s Entertainment announced plans to partner with Slovenia’s Hit group to build what was described as a $1.5 billion destination casino
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