circus circus

The Clown That Saved Las Vegas Hits A Major Milestone | Forbes

My latest Forbes post is a look back at Circus Circus, which just turned 50: It’s ironic but fitting that Circus Circus, for years the top low-end casino on the Strip, shares a parent with Caesars Palace, which until the 1989 opening of The Mirage was undisputed in its reign atop the high-end. Jay Sarno was […]

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forbes

Circus Circus Success

In the late 1980s, as other Las Vegas Strip casinos faltered, Circus Circus was prospering. Building its business on the “grind,” thousands of small players instead of a few big high rollers, Circus boasted a compound annual growth rate of more than 29 percent for the latter half of the decade. In doing so, it laid the groundwork for the 1990s Las Vegas casino boom.

You can read more about Circus Circus and other Las Vegas casinos in Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling

Go here to read an excerpt from the book, or learn where to buy your copy.

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fromthebook, life in vegas

What is Grandissimo?

This is a book project that I’ve been working on for several years. It’s the story of the man who I believe to be the single most influential figure in Las Vegas casinos in the 1960s and 1970s, but who unfortunately not many people know about.

I’m substantially finished the book, and hope to publish it later this year.

Until then, I’m using this space to let people know about the book.

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book

13th floor fun in Vegas Seven

My latest Green Felt Journal is up in Vegas Seven. This week I talk about a brand new attraction at Circus Circus that’s a little spooky: About this time every year, theme parks around the country get a monthlong reprieve from the off-season as they re-theme themselves for Halloween. No one wants to float down

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life in vegas, writing

Words from the past

Speaking 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 gambling

Vegas tips from Oz

I caught this wide-eyed Vegas puff piece on an Australian news website, and I had to laugh. I’ll spare you the article, but here are the tips. I’ll let my readers deconstruct them at will. From NEWS.com.au: # Stay on The Strip. All the action is there and everywhere else is a bust. Try to

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life in vegas, news about gambling

VT takes on casino logos

I’m fooling around with using ScribeFire to create posts, so this might not work. Hopefully it does, because I really think people should check out this neat feature at Vegas Tripping, a detailed rumination on the evolution of Las Vegas casino logos: But what is it that makes for a successful logo in Las Vegas?

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news about gambling

Book review: Super Casino

Re-reading after seven years, I’m struck by two things: I’m not entirely comfortable reviewing books that I don’t like, and the general quality of writing about Las Vegas has not much improved. Let me explain: as a writer, I absolutely hate saying negative things about other writers. I know how hard it is to find

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book reviews, life in vegas, news about gambling