This week, I wrote my final column for the Las Vegas Business Press. Here’s how it starts: Its been an interesting seven years. When I started writing a biweekly column for the Las Vegas Business Press in 2005, Las Vegas and the casino industry were in much different places. Models of Project CityCenter had just
Ending an era in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, writingFor this week’s Las Vegas Business Press column, I talk about the importance of renovation to Las Vegas today: When The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas opened its doors in December 2010, there was some regret: This was, we were assured, the last casino opening on the Strip for some time. In a town that had
Las Vegas mantra in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, writingIn this week’s Las Vegas Business Press, I muse a bit about what the start of pool season really means in Las Vegas: The weathers warming up, which in postrecession Las Vegas means one thing: pool season is here. Once, that would have meant little more than seasonal employees dusting off the lounge chairs and
Pool season reflects LV’s ability to evolve in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, writingIn this week’s Las Vegas Business Press, I’ve got a piece about how we should be reasonable about our expectations for online gaming: Online or “interactive” gaming is coming to Nevada, likely in weeks, not months.Theres a great deal of uncertainty over what the advent of online poker will mean to Nevada. And, throughout the
Reasonable Online Expectations in the Las Vegas Business Press Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, writingHere’s my latest LVBP column: In my capacity as director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, I recently helped to host a group of visiting MBA students from London’s Cass Business School here in Las Vegas. While in town, they heard presentations from strategic development, operations, and marketing
Outside perspectives & casinos in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressI’ve got a new column in the Las Vegas Business Press today, about the possibly diminishing impact of baccarat: With the recent release by the Gaming Control Board of the December 2011 Gaming Revenue Report, we can understand what happened to Nevadas gaming industry in 2011, and where the state is headed in 2012.Overall, it
Looking beyond baccarat in the Las Vegas Business Press Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, writingMy commentary piece on casino debt came out in the Las Vegas Business Press yesterday: Like households, all businesses take on debt as a part of their usual operations. Without borrowing money, it is difficult, if not impossible, to grow. Casinos are no different; for decades, theyve been borrowing money to build, expand and renovate.
Casino debt levels’ adverse effects in LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressI’ve got a new column in this week’s Las Vegas Business Press: Nor is this kind of chicanery limited to poker. MF Global was, until last November, a large global financial derivatives dealer, making its money on its traders abilities to correctly speculate on the upward and downward movement of prices for bonds, commodities, and
Words of Caution in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressIn this week’s Las Vegas Business Press, I look back at 2011, trying to see what the big lessons are: Closing the book on 2011 in the Las Vegas casino scene, one word comes to mind: paradox. There wasnt a clear trend leading us either into a more prosperous future or into the muck of
2011 Wrap-Up in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressMy latest Las Vegas Business Press column is out. It’s about how the gaming law program at UNLV’s Boyd School of law is bucking a national trend and delivering a solid education in the practice of gaming law to its students: A recent New York Times article decried the current state of legal education, describing
Practical UNLV gaming law education in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressThis week, my column in the Las Vegas Business Press looks at how a class at the William S. Boyd School of Law has helped Nevada take a step into the future of gaming, which I think is online: People have been gambling online for 15 years now. You don’t need to be a clairvoyant
Students get involed with gaming’s future in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressThis week, my Las Vegas Business Press column takes a look not at what technology is being introduced into casinos, but how it’s being used–and should be used: The technology used on casino floors has evolved considerably in the past two decades. And, as showcased at the recent Global Gaming Expo, it continues to do
Pros, cons of increased casino tech in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressMulling over two seemingly contradictory bits of news–that the Justice Department had labeled Full Tilt Poker a “global Ponzi scheme” and that the AGA was launching a renewed push for the legalization of online poker–I got to thinking. It’s a dangerous pastime, I know, but in this case it led me to my latest column
Tectonic shift for gaming in the Business Press Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressMy column in this week’s Las Vegas Business Press is out. It’s a meditation on what less ambitious Strip developments really mean for Las Vegas. With just about everyone in the industry mistaking the 2005-2007 boom for a new normal, it made tons of sense to trade in your sun-faded casino for a newer, bigger
Dreamer’s paradise reality check in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, life in vegasThis week’s Las Vegas Business Press column looks at a travel operator I met in the vendors’ room at Creation Entertainment’s Las Vegas Star Trek convention: We all know that its getting harder and harder to bring visitors and their money to Las Vegas. But a small startup that specializes in connecting people with the
Geek niche in the Las Vegas Business Press Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressMy Las Vegas Business Press column on the dubious benefits of cost-cutting in a hospitality company is out today: It goes without saying that there are several ways to cut costs. Shaving off some perks — first-class travel for jet-setting execs or caviar in the employee dining room — makes eminently good sense when revenues
Cut costs or invest? in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, life in vegasIn 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 PressThe 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 found myself on a roll during the Focus Roundtable on online poker I participated in a while back, and decided to flesh out one of my ideas into a piece for the Las Vegas Business Press: Surely it’s not just patriotism that tells me Americans would take more chips from their overseas counterparts than
Patriotic argument for legal ‘net poker in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressA while ago I posted that report on Nevada gaming revenue trends from 1984 to 2010. I decided to write an extended opinion piece about one facet of that report for the Las Vegas Business Press (not the Las Vegas Journal-Business Review): In general, the past quarter century has been good for Nevada gaming: revenues
Downtown as an example in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press