Taj bac pit gets makeover

Don’t necessarily believe what you read: they just remodeled the Taj bac pit and are now calling it a salon. For a laugh, check in there and ask for an appointment for a cut and color. From the AC Press: This is no mere gambling den or baccarat pit, but rather, ahem – French accent

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atlantic city, news about gambling

Palazzo opening official

Yes, it had a very soft opening last weekend, but in my mind the Palazzo is now really open for business: its carpet is immortalized in the Die is Cast casino carpet gallery. Clearly the color palette is related to the Venetian’s, yet it is different enough to have its own identity. But it still

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life in vegas, news about gambling

First thoughts on Palazzo

I stopped by Palazzo today and thought I’d share my impressions. Here are a few disorganized thoughts, without even the dignity of ellipses…. It’s a VERY soft opening, with incomplete finishes in the casino area and very little open. It’s neat seeing the casino as a work in progress, but if I was a paying

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news about gambling

Antigua to get $21m from US

I haven’t posted in a very long time, but I wrote a draft of this a few days ago. It’s not breaking news now, but it’s still significant. From PC Mag: Antigua and Barbuda won compensation from the United States on Friday in a long-running trade dispute about gambling, but the amount was far lower

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news about gambling

Customer complaints, the old-fashioned way

Like most of you, I spent some time this morning browsing through the Mahabharata looking for material for a class. And I was struck by the courtly fashion in which hospitality-related customer complaints were resolved back in Vedic times: And the king having signified his assent, entertained Utanka duly. And Utanka seeing that the food

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haphazard world

New slot scam, and a whacky estimate of casino theft

There’s always an arms race of sorts going on between slot cheats and casino security. The cheats figure out a way to rip off the machine, the security folks learn how to detect and prevent it, so the cheats come up with a new scam. Ad infinitum. Now, surprise surprise, comes news that ticket-in/ticket-out machines–which

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news about gambling

DGE hits Trashicana

It’s one thing when your competitors say you’re second-rate. It’s another when your complaining customers agree with them. But when state investigators tell the world that your casino is low-class, you’ve got some serious thinking to do. That’s just happened to the Tropicana. From the AC Press: New Jersey’s casino enforcement agency recommended only a

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atlantic city, news about gambling

Grave shift is a carcinogen?

Since my last stint on grave shift a few years back, I’ve always known that working nights is not completely healthy behavior, either physically or mentally. But now the WHO says that it causes cancer. From Reuters: Shift workers and firefighters have a higher risk of cancer than the general population and such work should

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haphazard world

Win the lottery, go to jail

Usually, winning a million dollars is an unambiguously good thing. But for ex-con, a winning scratcher might be a ticket back to jail. From the Boston Globe: His odds of winning $1 million on a scratch ticket were 1 in 1,247,400. His odds of being busted if he won? A pretty safe bet. Timothy Elliott

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gambling & culture, haphazard world