Today’s column was a fun one to write. It started out as a simple look back at the 90th anniversary of Nevada getting gaming back, but turned into an exploration of alternate history. Today marks the anniversary of what might be the most consequential event in American gambling history: the relegalization of commercial gaming in […]
Nevada gaming turns 90 – CDC Gaming Reports Read More »
CDC GamingMy latest Forbes post examines the significance of Nevada’s third quarter gaming results. Fascinating stuff, to be sure: The September disappointment caps a challenging quarter during which net gaming win decreased by over seven percent. Considering that, in their second quarter conference calls, casino executives were apologetic over a quarter that actually saw a nearly
Las Vegas Casinos Are Worried The Worst Is Yet To Come | Forbes Read More »
forbesIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I expand a little on my testimony in front of the Gaming Policy Committee: During a meeting convened by Governor Brian Sandoval earlier this month, the task before the Gaming Policy Committee was clear: Figure out how Nevada can adapt to emerging gaming—a sprawling, shifting area that, right now, comprises
How to Prepare for Emerging Gaming Today – Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn my latest Green Felt Journal, I look at the importance of the new Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee: Las Vegas may be breaking tourism records—May was the city’s busiest month ever, with more than 3.7 million visitors—but that doesn’t mean it’s time to get complacent. Governor Brian Sandoval must understand this, since he’s assembled a
How to Keep Las Vegas’ Forward Momentum Rolling – Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I consider how strict regulation with room for discretion helped save Nevada gaming in the 1960s: Sawyer’s “hang tough” policy emerged at a crucial time: Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department would ratchet up pressure on Nevada casinos starting in 1961, and without the good-faith efforts of Sawyer’s appointees to clean
How a Few Regulators Saved the Nevada Gaming Industry | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I consider the 150-year history of Nevada and gambling, and wonder what the future will hold: The original match wasn’t exactly a marriage of convenience, but it wasn’t a forbidden romance, either. When Nevada joined the Union in 1864, it soberly criminalized the gambling that had been rampant—as it was
Is Nevada Moving Away From Gambling? | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn this weeks’ Green Felt Journal, I consider whether a “slow” rollout of online gaming in the U.S. is such a bad thing: Beyond the neon of Nevada and Atlantic City, gaming used to be something the nation spoke about in either whispers like that cousin who never made good or screams like that cousin
For Online Gaming, Slow and Steady’s Just Right | Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas SevenIn the 1930s, North Shore Lake Tahoe’s Cal-Neva Lodge, owned by James McKay and William Graham, was notorious for reportedly hosting gangsters like Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.
Learn more about the Cal-Neva, which was later owned by Frank Sinatra, in Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.
Go here to read an excerpt from the book, or learn where to buy your copy.
Cal-Neva Confidential Read More »
fromthebookFor years, Nevada casinos could not legally collect debts from gamblers they’d extended credit (or, in the industry parlance, given markers) to. That changed in 1983, when the state legislature amended the law to allow casinos to prosecute deadbeat marker-takers for writing bad checks.
That’s one of the interesting facts about the changing legal face of Nevada gambling you’ll learn in Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.
Go here to read an excerpt from the book, or learn where to buy your copy.
Bad Debts in Las Vegas Read More »
fromthebookIt’s one of the big ones: on March 19, 1931, Nevada governor Fred Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98 into law. That’s the measure that made it legal (once more) for Nevada gambling halls to offer commercial gambling (games line faro, craps, blackjack, and slot machines) to the public. With a stroke of the pen, Nevada’s gaming industry was born.
You can learn much more about the growth of gaming in Nevada in Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.
Go here to read an excerpt from the book, or learn where to buy your copy.
Today in history–March 19, 1931 Read More »
fromthebookThe first major event held in Reno after the March 1931 legalization of commercial gambling was the Max Baer-Paolino Uzcudun heavyweight boxing match held on July 4, 1931.
You can learn more about the origins of Reno gambling in Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.
Go here to read an excerpt from the book, or learn where to buy your copy.
Nevada’s first governor, Henry Bladsel, wasn’t a fan of gambling. He called it “an intolerable and inexcusable vice” after taking office in 1864, and he convinced the legislature to strengthen penalties against gambling.
That didn’t stop Nevadans from gambling, and in 1869 the legislature passed a law legalizing gambling. Over Bladsel’s veto. The rest is quite literally history.
You can read the entire story of Nevada gambling in Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.
Go here to read an excerpt from the book, or learn where to buy your copy.
Nevada’s first governor on gambling Read More »
fromthebookIn this week’s Green Felt Journal, I take a look at where poker stands in September 2012. On one hand, live poker’s been on the decline for a few years. On the other, online poker is, some feel, going to transform the state’s economy. Here’s where we are: Nevada poker is in an odd place.
Poker’s Perilous Perch in Vegas Seven Read More »
Vegas Seven, writingI’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 column in this week’s Las Vegas Business Press takes a deeper look at July’s Nevada gaming revenue numbers. The more I thought about them, the more I thought that a good month might not be such bad news: On Sept. 12, the Nevada Gaming Control Board released its July gaming revenue report. In both
Good July might be great news in the LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressAfter talking about the street “performers” on the Strip, I figured I should discuss something totally noncontroversial in this week’s Las Vegas Business Press. So I settled on an article on the recent rollback of the gaming tavern smoking ban: Back in November 2006, a majority of voters approved the Nevada Indoor Clean Air Act,
Smoking ban rollback thoughts in LVBP Read More »
Las Vegas Business PressI’ve got a pretty lengthy piece of the differing evolution of gaming regulations and transparency in gaming in Nevada, Macau, and Singapore in the latest Global Gaming Business Magazine: Today, gaming is a truly global industry. Casino gaming, which was once a small-scale business confined to a limited number of jurisdictions, has blossomed into a
Gaming Regulations Evolving in Global Gaming Business Read More »
writingI 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 PressIf you’re not completely sick of opinion pieces about online poker, here’s my two cents, from the Las Vegas Business Press: The recent Black Friday indictments in which federal prosecutors charged three of the world’s biggest online poker providers with fraud and violating the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act have rocked the poker world. In
Nevada’s destiny and online poker Read More »
Las Vegas Business Press, writingThis week in the Las Vegas Business Press, I take a look back at a year that raises more questions than it answered: From the start of last year, Nevadans had no illusions. The recession showed no concrete signs of letting up, and within the gaming industry hope, particularly about the newly opened CityCenter, was
Thoughts on 2010 in Las Vegas Business Press Read More »
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