Dateline, the Target at Flamingo and Maryland. I had a genuine “what? what? WHAT?” experience. I was doing some necessary domestic shopping, and had a few items and a bag with some items that I needed to get (in other words, I didn’t think I’d be able to get the right thing without having a […]
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life in vegasHere’s a quick recap: I write about the history of gambling. Much gambling used to be illegal. Gaming is organized. Therefore, I write about organized crime. I’m always eager to find other forms of organized crime to compare gambling syndicates to. So imagine my delight when I learned that economist Peter Leeson has written a
These days, I consider myself lucky if I have time to sleep. So I was a bit taken aback to learn, through some completely serendipitous web browsing, that some people, calling themselves lotologists, have invented a new hobby. From Word Spy: lotologist (law.TAWL.uh.jist) n. A person who collects new and used lottery tickets. Word Spy
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haphazard worldMost people think of Las Vegas as the home of folksy, friendly service and Atlantic City service workers as rude, inconsiderate, and uncaring, but most people evidently don’t participate in Market Metrix, which just rated AC above Vegas in a recent index of hospitality destinations. From the AC Press: Atlantic City has won a stunning
A few months ago I listed the myriad things that you need to disclose when applying for a non-restricted casino license. Apparently Chet and Karla Cox aren’t regular readers, because they applied for a license without getting an attorney, and hit a few roadblocks. From the LV Sun: Although Silver State would handle the filling,
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life in vegas, news about gamblingI thought this was an amusing story in light of Harrah’s recent decision to become Caesars Entertainment. From the Indy Star: At 10:30 this morning, the huge 12-foot statue of the Roman conqueror that dominates the Caesars Indiana casino in Harrison County will be removed as the riverboat takes a major step to “de-Romanize” itself.
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news about gamblingPollsters have known for a long time that you can often elicit a different answer based on how you phrase a question. For instance, most voters would say yes to a questions about whether they support government doing more to help educate children about gambling, but would answer no if asked whether taxes should be
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haphazard worldThat’s an awful name for a band, but it would be appropriate for a Police cover band that worked casinos. I wonder if Scrantonicity II will get any gigs when Sands Bethworks opens up? Oh yeah, here’s a story about how intransigent players who don’t pay off their markers hear from the Clark County bad
…or the Nevada budget situation is far more dire than we’ve been led to believe. From KLAS: Buckley said one of those areas needs to be prisons. The finance committee went ahead with plans to close the Jean prison, saving the state $11 dollars. It had been closed and reopened twice before. Las Vegas Now
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haphazard world, life in vegasYou know your career’s heading downhill when you used to playing parliaments and congresses, but now you’re being booked into bingo halls and casinos. And not even Strip casinos: Hard Rock Live – Event – Mikhail Gorbachev At first I thought this was some kind of mistake, or my sleep-deprived brain was playing tricks on
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gambling & culture, haphazard worldIn response to an email query, I wrote a long, rambling dissertation on the problems with the “Parity Hedge System.” The first tip-off that this isn’t a legitimate winning system (other than the fact that there is no such thing as a legitimate winning system) is that it’s posted on Quatloos, the self-described “Cyber-Museum of
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gambling & cultureTom Breitling with Cal Fussman. Double or Nothing: How Two Friends Risked It All to Buy One of Las Vegas’ Legendary Casinos. New York: Collins, 2008. 256 pp. In honor of tomorrow’s Vegas Gang uber-podcast, which will feature Tom Breitling, I am at long last posting my review of his new casino tell-all. Enjoy! Until
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book reviewsMore parallel universe reporting from the LV Sun: Some of the students who failed a new math test shouldn’t have been in the class in the first place, longtime educator Bill Hanlon told the Clark County School Board on Thursday. Up until a few years ago, the only students who took algebra in high school
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haphazard world, life in vegasJust like the Clinton Administration galvanized and nurtured conservative talk radio during the 1990s, the Tropicana Atlantic City is going to keep me posting. If I still lived in Atlantic City, I’d walk down there every day and probably come back with classic 1000-word posts. Take, for example, this entertainment listing that I found in
What can I say? Seriously thinking about casino carpet has gone mainstream. From the LVRJ: We walk all over it, cover most of our floors with it, and, when we see it for the first time, proclaim it either grand or gaudy. But have you ever seriously contemplated carpet? Other than its functionality — and
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life in vegas, news about gamblingAnd it’s a creative writing seminar, right here at UNLV. And the first thing I’ll say is that it’s OK to start a paragraph with “and.” And then I’ll say that if you start 3 sentences in a row with the same word, your reader will begin to get annoyed. The class is called “Crafting
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writingAccording to a new report, a big earthquake is just as likely to hit Las Vegas in the next 50 years as you are to seven out at craps. From KLAS: UNLV and UNR scientists estimate a magnitude 6.6 quake would cause $18 billion in damage to buildings. It would kill 900 people. About 300,000
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life in vegasLooking for something completely different, I found this gem, courtesy of MSNBC: Near-misses often turn into hits, especially in a place where trouble is likely to find you. For example, you shouldn’t be surprised when you travel to a third-world country with an atrocious air safety record, and your plane overshoots the runway, bursting into
I thought this was an odd headline, but when I clicked over, I found that it wasn’t at all about what I thought it was: State says ‘wait’ on solar system rentals – Las Vegas Sun The article makes more sense than my original impression, but is a lot less exciting.
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life in vegasChristina Binkley. Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas. New York: Hyperion, 2008. 304 pages, hardcover. Over the last decade, the Las Vegas Strip has become increasingly consolidated. Once, there were a host of casino owners: Aztar, Bally Gaming, Boyd Gaming, Circus Circus Enterprises, Grand Casinos
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book reviews, life in vegas