Book Review: Long for this World

 

Jonathan Weiner. Long for this World: The Strange Science of Immortality. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. 320 pages.

Immortality’s a tricky subject to write about. There are few people who wouldn’t be at least a little interested in the prospect of living forever, but since no one’s been documented doing it, there’s really not much to say about the subject. Extending human life, however, is another story,. Weiner summarizes how the average human lifespan’s been steadily increasing, and asks the question: why can’t this go on indefinitely?

In search of answers, he discusses the work and personalities of several scientists and enthusiasts working in gerontology. The most colorful of them, Aubrey de Grey, quite possibly has a messiah complex about the whole thing, and his personal affectations–wild beard, constant beer-swilling–make you wonder if it’s about the science or just a plea for attention by someone who whose day job isn’t setting the world on fire.

Yet there’s a real story here, one that Weiner tells with language so carefully balanced that it’s no stretch to call it beautiful. He does a wonderful job of conveying extremely technical details about aging at the cellular level in a way that’s completely accessible to the non-specialist, but not at all patronizing. The book is at its best when Weiner is talking to gerontologists or summarizing their research and theories. It’s at its weakest when Weiner combs through history, sharing excerpts of what physicians, philosophers, and scientists have written about immortality. This is the sort of material that would work well in an academic monograph because it demonstrates the incredible breadth of research the author has undertaken, but it doesn’t really have much relevance to what today’s scientists are doing.

In the penultimate chapter, “The Trouble with Immortality,” Weiner also offers–and appears to condone–a laughably weak argument against conducting research into gerontology: if advances in medical sciences allowed everyone to live to be 1,000, we’d have to worry about Hitler, Stalin, and Mao living for a thousand years, making it sound like living longer will inevitably lead to dictatorships. First, I would think this idea’s been historically disproved, since freedom has increased and despotism decreased greatly as life expectancies have gone up. Second, it’s setting a rule for everyone based on the worst case scenario. By this logic, we should abandon all medical science, since some of the people doctors save might become despots. I’d also expect that Matt Ridley (I’m currently reading his RATIONAL OPTIMIST) would have something to say to him about his claim that “we already overcrowd much of the planet,” but I’ll leave that to him.

In short, it’s an interesting subject, wonderfully written, with a few stand-out personalities. LONG FOR THIS WORLD is a good read about a subject that’s close, no doubt, to everyone’s heart.

Posted in book reviews on 07/30/2010 06:18 am by Dave

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Surprising AC slots in LVBP

 

Just to show you the kind of week I’m having, it’s Thursday and I’m just now getting around to posting a link to my bi-weekly LVBP column, which I should have done on Monday or Tuesday. I just got the beta version of the Macau gaming summary up, and I’ve jumped into a study of Nevada casino employment that’s getting more and more interesting. I’m tracking trends in payroll and productivity from 1990 to 2009, and everything I find opens up new questions.

Which is actually similar to what happened with an Atlantic City slot study that I did a few weeks ago. With the dramatic decline in the number of slots, win per slot has actually remained fairly robust. Here’s my column explaining it in the LVBP:

Atlantic City has had a rough few years. A partial smoking ban has hurt business and the debut of several competitors, particularly Pennsylvania slot machines, has reduced the city’s already-modest horizons. With the recent introduction of table games, it’;s a good time to look at how Atlantic City’s core business, slot machines, has fared over the years.

via Las Vegas Business Press :: David G. Schwartz : Slots keep Atlantic City’s hopes for future afloat.

Looking at this data got me thinking that the future might be a smaller industry, which is bad news for Atlantic City, but not such bad news for operators who can run a good casino.

There’s some goofy stuff going on with the formatting (a paragraph is repeated at the end), but hopefully that doesn’t detract too much from the column’s main point.

Posted in atlantic city, business of gambling on 07/29/2010 06:21 am by Dave

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Soft launch of new Macau page

 

If you want, you can take a sneak peek at the latest jurisdictional gaming summary I’ve done at the Center for Gaming Research, Macau: http://gaming.unlv.edu/abstract/macau.html

I’m still honing it, so any suggestions are appreciated.

Posted in business of gambling, what's new on 07/28/2010 01:39 pm by Dave

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Another anti-gambling editorial

 

Another week, another smug, alarmist anti-online gambling editorial, this time from the Christian Science Monitor:

Fresh from fixing Wall Street’s casinolike ways in high finance, Congress begins work Tuesday on a bill to overturn a 2006 law banning Internet gambling in the US. The measure is being rushed through the House Financial Services Committee on a promise that it would create 30,000 jobs and billions in tax revenue.

via Bill to legalize Internet gambling: No dice – CSMonitor.com.

I dare you to click through and read the whole thing–it’s short and really all over the place. Let me point out a few of what I believe are misconceptions or exaggerations

1. “a promise that it would create 30,000 jobs and billions in tax revenue”
I’ve said before that most of the projections I’ve seen seem to be to be way too optimistic. I’d really like to see the math behind these numbers, because to me it doesn’t make sense.

2. “Any parent who’s puzzled or despaired over their child’s trancelike playing of video games during the past 20 years can readily see why Internet gambling operators are drooling over the chance…”
In other words, adults shouldn’t be allowed to choose whether to gamble online or not, because children are incapable of not playing video games. So does that mean we’re all children when it comes to gambling, or just gambling on computers?

3. “It’s ‘click the mouse, lose your house.’”
Great, Professor Kindt came up with a rhyming catch-phrase to go up there with “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” But does this make sense? Is it inevitable that everyone who gambles online will lose their house? A few thousand online poker players would say no.

Here’s the general problem with the editorial: it assumes that the worst will definitely happen. It doesn’t take much thought to reduce this to the absurdity that it is. Over a hundred people will probably lose their lives in auto accidents across the United States today (source here). Does that mean we should all stop driving? Someone returning to the United States from abroad will smuggle drugs into the country today–should we close our borders and ban all travel to prevent this? Again, most people would say no. In short, you can’t make rules for society that assume that the worst will always happen. Otherwise, you’ll end up with the most repressive regime the world has ever known.

Now, that’s not to say that the editorial doesn’t made some good points. Which leads toP:

4. I have no idea how the government could squeeze $42 billion in tax revenue out of online gaming. Right now, Americans only gamble about $90 billion a year. Let’s say that online gaming increases the total national wager by 10%, or $9 billion. What do you think the tax rate should be? Even if it was 50%, you’d only be getting $4.5 billion a year, which is a lot of money for most of us, but not much where the federal budget is concerned; I’d guess that much of that would be split with the states as well.

5. We also should take a serious look at state versus federal regulation of gambling. I’m not sure a federal solution would ultimately be in the best interests of any of us, from taxpayers to gamblers to the industry. Interstate horse-race simulcasting provides one model of states cooperating to split gambling revenues, and this approach should be given more consideration.

It’s possible, however, to debate the merits and mechanics of expanding legal gambling without resorting to “click your mouse, lose your house” reductionism and blatant scare-mongering.

Posted in business of gambling on 07/26/2010 07:38 am by Dave

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Not on the Daily Show next week

 

This is funny. This afternoon, I recorded an interview with Jeff Gillan of In Business Las Vegas, so tune into KSNV-3 tonight if you want to see it. We talk about the NFL allowing Las Vegas ads during regular season games.

When I got back to the office, I had an email from a recent student asking if I was really going to be on the Daily Show next week. I checked the website, and lo and behold, there’s my picture on the front page:
Not me on the daily show

You’ll notice that I’m incorrectly identified as Robert O’Connell, author of Ghosts of Cannae, a book that I reviewed last week right on this very site.

I don’t know exactly how this happened, since I don’t look anything like the various Robert O’Connells that a quick Google Images search turns up. But, curiously enough, a search for “ghosts of cannae” turns up a bunch of stuff from the die is cast (just scroll down to page 4). This includes, for whatever reason, my picture.

So to answer the question before you asked, no, I’m not going to be on the Daily Show next week. But it’s quite possible that my picture will. Or won’t.

Now, if they want to have me on after the Sarno book is done, that’s another story.

Posted in what's new on 07/23/2010 03:16 pm by Dave

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Book Review: Do I Kneel or Do I Bow?

 

Akasha Lonsdale. Do I Kneel or Do I Bow? What You Need to Know When Attending Religious Occasions. London: Kuperard, 2010. 336 pages.

This book sets out to help people understand different religions, with an emphasis on the practical–how to behave at “religious occasions.” Written from a primarily British perspective, it covers eight religions: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Skihism, and Buddhism. Each religion’s section is divided into explanations of what its followers believe, what to expect in places of worship, the religious calendar (festivals and holiday), and rituals and ceremonies, with an additional glossary of important terms.

Overall, the book is adequate, giving readers a basic idea of what to expect when attending religious ceremonies. But it’s hampered by the author’s “one faith-many paths” approach, which is a bit misleading and possibly condescending. She claims, for example, that Hinduism “contrary to appearances, is a monotheistic faith,” (212) which seems a gross over-simplification, if not an outright distortion. It doesn’t square with what I’ve read about Hinduism in other comparative religion books, to say the least. Then again, it’s difficult to capture the nuances and complexities of any faith in a few paragraphs, ]so I’d take the book’s theological discourses with a grain of salt, and focus on the practical guide to how to behave.

Essentially, it all comes down to: do what others around you are doing (standing or sitting), and if in doubt, ask. This is sensible advice under any circumstances, but doubly so in a religious context.

I’m not enough of any expert in comparative religions to judge the book’s accuracy, but I noticed more than one error in the section on Judaism. For example, Lonsdale claims that all of the Jewish holidays “with the exception of Rosh Hashana” fall on fixed dates. “Confusingly,” she writes, “Rosh Hashana is celebrated in Tishrei, the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year.” I don’t understand how this is confusing: in the Western tradition the fiscal year starts on July 1, the school year in September, baseball season in April. And Rosh Hashana definitely has a fixed date: the first of Tishrei. So it might be bad proofreading, but it’s definitely not true that the holiday has no fixed date.

Basically, this might be a good start for understanding what’s going on in other faiths, but is hardly the last word.

Posted in book reviews on 07/23/2010 08:36 am by Dave

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Trek to the Rescue in Vegas7

 

It’s Thursday, so I’ve got another Green Felt Journal in Vegas Seven. This week, I take a look at the surprising success of hobby-related trade shows, with a focus on Creation Entertainment’s upcoming Star Trek Convention:

Things haven’t looked good for business travel to Las Vegas for a few years. Since 2006, the city has suffered a 29 percent reduction in convention attendance. But amid the gloom, one sector of group travel has weathered the storm surprisingly well: hobby-related trade shows.

Creation Entertainment, which puts on conventions across the country for fans of genre television and movies, has seen attendance at its annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas climb steadily in recent years. In fact, thanks to the company’s efforts, the city holds the world’s largest Star Trek convention each year—and is shooting for the record books again during this year’s event, set for Aug. 5-8 at the Las Vegas Hilton.

via Trek to the Rescue | Vegas Seven.

Fun article to research–I learned a lot about the thriving genre TV convention circuit. I’m doing a follow-up at the convention that should be even more interesting. If you decide to go, you might run into me–with or without a Gorn costume (almost certainly without, but you never know).

Posted in business of gambling, life in vegas, writing on 07/22/2010 12:08 pm by Dave

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NJ to take over AC casino district

 

New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s Advisory Committee on New Jersey Gaming, Sports, and Entertainment has issued its report, which calls for a partial state takeover of Atlantic City. From the AC Press:

But Atlantic city and state officials have naturally focused most on the governor’s plan to create a state-run portion of Atlantic City, in a plan already described as a city within a city. Christie said he could no longer watch the “teetering”; of Atlantic City’s institutions.

He said he gave “fair warning” to Atlantic City’s government to fix problems pointed out in a recent state audit or face state takeover.

He said he wanted to see the state run a clean and safe tourism district there within a year.

“Delay leads to demise,” he said.

Gaming enforcement would be streamlined, he said. He described the current system as an “antique car.”

via Christie unveils state takeover plan for Atlantic City gaming district – pressofAtlanticCity.com.

You can look at the report itself here. The Atlantic City section starts on page 13.

According to the report, Atlantic City’s gaming industry is in decline–no argument there. They attribute the decline to nine chief factors:

• The perception of the City as unclean and unsafe, and the failure of City government to effectively address such concerns (including blight and the overall image of the City) at any level or to work effectively with the industry to create a tourist-friendly environment.
• The City’s fiscal mismanagement of the large tax base provided by the industry (as much as $175 million/year in property taxes alone). Atlantic City spends almost four times as much per capita than comparable New Jersey Cities, such as Edison, Long Branch, and New Brunswick.
• 2003 audit results, which reveal that staffing in Atlantic City per 1,000 residents was twice the level of benchmark cities like Orlando and Norfolk.
• The absence of a visible police presence or effective law enforcement on the Boardwalk.
• The absence of evidence of a Master Plan that addresses the primary tourist area or the large swaths of urban blight surrounding the tourist area.
• Underinvestment by the casino industry in development of non-gaming amenities, attractions and surrounding areas appropriate for a “destination resort.”
• An outdated regulatory process marked by both high costs and the inability to attract development activity by other world-class ownership to the New Jersey market.
• Lack of coordination in positioning and marketing Atlantic City as a competitive tourist resort.
• Failure to effectively attract meeting and convention business to Atlantic City and to integrate such business with the existing destination resort hotels.

I think in general these are true, but point 5, underinvestment, isn’t across the board: you can’t look at the Borgata, or Harrah’s Resort, or the Pier at Caesars and say that these aren’t filled with good non-gaming amenities. Some companies have consistently put more into capital expenditures and expansion than others, and they’ve been rewarded with a bigger share of the market. You can’t legislate that you have to run your casino intelligently. It its recommendations, the committee acknowledged this. Here’s a crucial section:
Research provided to the

Commission by McKinsey & Co. indicates that the Atlantic City “brand” still has value with customers, and if the reality met customers’ expectations, there would be sufficient latent demand to more than double Atlantic City’s revenues in the medium term. The Commission is also encouraged by the economic success enjoyed by properties where proper investment has been made, including the Borgata, the Walk, Harrah’s and Taj Mahal, all of which are generating encouraging results. It appears that in Atlantic City, customers will come to quality offerings.

However, the status quo is not workable. In simple terms, almost every potential Atlantic City customer has a closer, more convenient place to gamble. If Atlantic City cannot provide reasons for customers to make the trip, its decline will continue. Atlantic City has no choice but to try to reestablish itself as a true “destination resort” against its new convenience gaming competitors in surrounding states. Meeting this challenge will require aggressive actions by both the public and private sectors.
(emphasis mine)

That’s exactly what the city has to do, but unfortunately that’s what the city’s had to do for the last twenty years.

To get the city back on track, the committee recommended seven goals:

• Creating a “Clean and Safe” Tourism District with State oversight, with the goal of making Atlantic City clean and safe by July 1, 2011.
• Creating a Master Plan for the new Tourism District, focused on enticing new entrants to build both gaming and non􀍲gaming attractions that will increase demand in the City. The Plan should be delivered to the Governor no later than July 1, 2011.
• Improving the financial stability of Atlantic City by attracting other world class operators to ownership of the eleven existing facilities as well as any new ones. These operators should be committed to supporting both their properties and the District.
• Increasing the meeting and convention business in the Atlantic City market by at least 30% per year for the next five years.
• Bringing the New Jersey regulatory structure into the 21st century by reducing costs and redundancies and by supporting the attraction of operators while maintaining strict integrity.
• Increasing visitation and spending through joint marketing efforts on par with other national destination resorts.
• Improving intermodal transport to Atlantic City, including increasing air, rail and ferry options.

Great plan, but the devil’s always in the details. As far as attraction more investment, look at the country’s biggest gaming companies: one of them already owns 40% of the market (Harrah’s), one of them’s just been given its walking papers (MGM), one of them operates the city’s top casino (Boyd), one’s shown no interest at all in the city (Las Vegas Sands), one’s declared a “death spiral” (Penn National), one can’t build a casino on the land it owns (Pinnacle), and one left the city 25 years ago but might be tempted back (Wynn). So the options there are limited, unless you’re going to go the private equity route or open it up to international companies like Genting.

The changes we’ll see are:

1. Creation of an Atlantic City Tourism District
Following models established in other parts of the State, the Administration should support legislative enactment of an Atlantic City Tourism District (the “ACT District”) with representatives from State, City, County and Industry. The ACT District will assume full and complete control of certain governmental activities and operations within a defined Tourism District covering the casino areas and Boardwalk, as well as jurisdiction over related amenities and infrastructure.

This is the most controversial part of the plan. Basically it means getting the city government out of running much of the city.

2. Public􀍲Private Partnership (the “Partnership”)
The government should establish a structure for a Public􀍲Private Partnership with state and local government, the casino industry, and the greater Atlantic City community all represented. The new ACT District Commission would assume the role of the public component. The Commission recommends that the private component be represented by the Atlantic City Partnership (“ACP”) – a local consortium of businesses modeled after the Johnson and Johnson􀍲led structure that has proven successful in the revitalization of the City of New Brunswick.

This group will develop the master plan and try to get more purveyors from other New Jersey boardwalks in AC. Hey, anything that brings Mack and Manco pizza or Johnson’s popcorn to Atlantic City is fine by me. If they want to re-launch Mr. Peanut, I’m available for consultations. They’re also going to oversee more effective use of Marina facilities, which I hope means reopening the marina at Harrah’s.

3. Coordinating Marketing, Boardwalk Hall and Convention Business Between ACCVA and ACP
Efforts should be made to encourage marketing “Atlantic City” as a brand. Theseefforts should include more joint industry efforts throughout the City, including efforts to increase use of Boardwalk Hall and efforts to capture a larger share of convention business.

Basically, doing what the LVCVA’s been doing in Las Vegas for the past 50 years.

4. Legislative Enactment of Regulatory Reform
Costs of New Jersey regulation are almost ten times those in Nevada and other mature gaming jurisdictions with strong, effective regulation. In 1978, 24/7 inspectors and built in regulatory redundancies made sense, but with the increased sophistication of camera surveillance, information technology, and audit abilities, they are unnecessary now.
Furthermore, these outmoded concepts and a licensing procedure that is unnecessarily adversarial have made the market less attractive to many respected world class operators.

To me, this is the most interesting idea. Is this an olive branch to MGM and Wynn? Maybe. It’s encouraging that they want to realign regulation with the technological realities of 2010.

5. Establishment of a Joint Atlantic City Marketing Fund
Once the ACT has gained traction on the initiatives above, it should work with the ACP to establish a fund dedicated to marketing the City, as compared to current marketing efforts with a limited $4 million spending limit.

Basically, market the city better–no argument there.

6. Transport
To contribute to the goal of making Atlantic City a destination resort, the Atlantic City International Airport needs to be expanded in terms of service – e.g., more airlines and additional intermodal connections – and in terms of its physical plant through capital improvements.

Make it easier to get to the city, and visitation will go up. If I ran a casino marketing department, I might go even further to try to attract Pennsylvania gamblers: show me your toll receipts, and I’ll give you double that in free play. It’s not that much money, but psychologically it makes a big difference, since the casino is now “paying for” your tolls. It should be much easier to get to the casinos from ACY or PHL for the casual visitor.

7. Related Issues
The Commission also considered whether the State should entertain gaming outside of Atlantic City at this point in time. Given the importance of the industry to the State, as well as the need for meaningful reform to foster sustainability and, hopefully, growth, this issue is best considered in the future when either: 1) the transformation of Atlantic City to a more destination􀍲oriented model has meaningful enough traction to compete with in􀍲state rivals; 2) Atlantic City stakeholders support additional outlets; or 3) the new model is deemed to have failed.

In a nutshell, this means: no more subsidy for the racetracks; no slots at racetracks; no interstate Internet gambling; no sports betting.

It’s a major plan that will require several breaks from the past. Even if I knew all of the details, I couldn’t say definitively whether it will or won’t work, since there’s many moving parts here that are impossible to predict. But at least someone’s interested in reviving the city.

Posted in atlantic city, business of gambling on 07/21/2010 08:18 am by Dave

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CityCenter’s history

 

The 2010 issue of Casino Design, a supplement to Global Gaming Business, is out now. It’s filled with tons of great articles with many perspectives on how and why casinos look the way they do. I’d like to point you towards the cover story, a massive look at how CityCenter developed, from drawing board to opening. If you open the digital edition, it starts on page 22:

At the November 9, 2004 press conference that unveiled the concept, then-CEO Terry Lanni said that the CityCenter master plan represented “a significant new direction for our city and our company,” adding that it came at a time when the city was taking “the initial steps to becoming a major urban center in the western United States.”
At that press conference, MGM Mirage unveiled a idea more than a commodity. Only a few things were certain: Project CityCenter would be built on land between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo which the company had recently consolidated with its acquisition of Mandalay Resort Group. It would feature a four-thousand room casino resort, three smaller boutique hotels, and 1,650 condominium residences that would give the area a 24-hour, “city-like” ambience. The centerpiece was to have been an open-air shopping district—definitely not a mall—whose streets allowed both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Casino Design 2010

One of the things I found most interested was the way the project seemed to evolve along with the market until late 2007, when it became almost a work of defiance against what was happening around it.

In his editorial introduction (page 4), Roger Gros summed up, better than I could have, what I think the current legacy of CityCenter is: “Good design thrives on pushing the envelope,” he writes. “MGM Resorts is to be admired for taking the steps to advance the casino design industry to new levels.” If no one tried new things, we’d still be rolling bones in caves, eating antelope tartare in the darkness. That doesn’t mean that CityCenter’s necessarily going to point the way to the next stage in casino design: ultimately, casino patrons will decide that, and, as Gros says, that will take some time.

Good magazine all the way through.

Posted in business of gambling, life in vegas on 07/20/2010 06:05 am by Dave

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Book Review: The Ghosts of Cannae

 

Robert L. O’Connell. The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic. New York: Random House, 2010. 336 pages.

This book, by military historian Robert O’Connell, looks at the hows and also the whys of the battle of Cannae, one of the most conclusive–but ultimately least decisive–battles in Western history. In 216 B.C,, Hannibal, the brilliant Carthaginian general, inflicted a nearly-mortal wound on the Roman republic. The Roman army lost more men on that day than any other army in any other battle in history. Yet Hannibal ultimately was unable to defeat Rome, and 14 years later suffered his own defeat at Zama, in northern Africa, a battle which effectively ended the Second Punic War. THE GHOSTS OF CANNAE takes the reader from the origins of the Roman/Punic conflicts to the aftermath of the wars.

The book, generally a synthesis of ancient and modern scholarship on Rome, Carthage, and their conflicts, gives the reader a great deal of information. We learn how soldiers on both sides trained, how much equipment they carried, and what it took to get them in the field. O’Connell also sheds light on the political maneuvering that, more than military needs, often determined the pace of the war.

Given that all of this happened about 2,200 years ago, there’s not the same sense of immediacy you’d get from an account of a more recent war–surviving records are sometimes fragmentary, and there is simply a great deal about many of the central characters that we don’t know. At this stage, though, vivid personalities are pretty much the realm of historical fiction, as there’s just not enough in the historical record to flesh out characters. This at times makes the reading a bit one-dimensional, but O’Connell’s good sense of space and geography gives the battles enough context to seem real.

All in all, it’s a good military history of an epic battle, and a good read for those interested in military history.

Posted in book reviews on 07/16/2010 01:21 pm by Dave

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Early WSOP bust-out in Vegas 7

 

It’s Thursday, so you’ve got another Green Felt Journal column to read in Vegas Seven. This week, you can read my column on one of the first players to bust out in the main event; I wrote about my time at the tournament a few days ago, and here are the literary results:

So what about those players who don’t have a shot at walking into history this November? The ones who gambled early and gambled big but came up short?

The first player busted out after little more than a half-hour, and didn’t care to share his feelings about his quick exit.

Peter Turmezey, a 24-year-old professional player from Budapest, Hungary, lasted longer, but in the end the results were the same: His $10,000 bought him just 74 minutes of poker action.

via Hungarian pro stays positive after quick exit from WSOP | Vegas Seven.

He seemed like a nice guy; I felt bad that he was out so quickly. But he seemed pretty philosophical about it, which I guess is the key to being able to bounce back from something like this.

Posted in business of gambling, writing on 07/15/2010 10:20 am by Dave

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Palms ditches scent

 

I get lots of questions from folks in the media about the use of scent in casinos. Apparently, after a month there wasn’t much question at the Palms, since the casino decided to stop using its air perfume. From the LV Sun:

The Palms scent — teakwood, named after the Southeast Asian tropical hardwood — did leave a lasting impression — but for too many people, apparently, that impression was a bad one.

“The place literally stinks. I’d almost rather smell the smoke,” one tourist noted in his online review.

via Palms turns up its nose at effort to scent casino – Wednesday, July 14, 2010 | 2 a.m. – Las Vegas Sun.

It just goes to show that casino scent-logy isn’t a carefully balanced psychobiological science, it really is a crapshoot. And teakwood, apparently, came up snake eyes. Except that the house didn’t win, so I guess you could say they seven out.

Posted in business of gambling on 07/14/2010 09:31 am by Dave

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Gambling, legalization, and taxes in the LVBP

 

I tried to douse some of the anti-gambling rhetoric yesterday, so it’s only fitting that in this week’s LVBP column I give a little perspective on calls for gambling legalization to bridge budget gaps:

The legalization or expansion of casino gaming is a hot topic in many states across the country. Like Nevada, many states are having problems meeting their budgets. Unlike the Silver State, they don’t have a robust gaming industry to draw upon. So, gambling expansion is frequently couched as a solution for budget shortfalls.

It’s hard to look at the taxes that casinos have produced to date, however, and agree that casinos are the only necessary solution to budget ills.

via Las Vegas Business Press :: David G. Schwartz : Cash-strapped states making risky wager.

So while casinos aren’t the ultimate evil that some on the anti side present them as, they’re clearly no panacea to budget problems.

As I’ve said before, legalizing casinos may solve some problems, but it will probably cause other problems. Those might be big or small problems, and a state could certainly be better off with casinos than without them, but it’s disingenuous to argue that they’re always going to save the day. Even in Nevada they don’t.

Posted in business of gambling on 07/13/2010 12:08 pm by Dave

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Anti-casino rhetoric

 

This Patriot-Ledger editorial–from which I’ve excerpted a tiny slice–says a great deal about how public debates about casino gambling are structured. Why not use innuendo and guilt by association, if you can’t find numbers to back you up?

If BP had come here peddling an offshore oil well, the company would have been hooted out of town. Yet a business not so different from BP – that is, one in which gargantuan profits and toxic side effects are guaranteed and the consumer is nothing but a pawn – has finally suckered Massachusetts lawmakers into taking the plunge.

via JoANN FITZPATRICK: Slick gambling plan promises huge profits and toxic side effects to match – Quincy, MA – The Patriot Ledger.

It’s incredible to me that someone would argue with a straight face that “toxic side effects are guaranteed” with offshore oil drilling, like the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting leak were somehow part of the plan. Granted, the capping and clean-up’s been a tragedy of errors, but I’m not entirely sure that this was intended. And tying casino gambling to current whipping-boy BP is just a lazy way of saying, “I don’t like gambling” without explaining exactly why you don’t like it.

My favorite part of that little excerpt, though, is the “gargantuan profits” line–as if running a profitable business were somehow in and of itself some sort of a public obscenity. And plenty of people in Las Vegas would argue with the idea that opening a casino is somehow a patent to unlimited wealth. Within the past few weeks, the crisis at Reno’s Siena has given the lie to that idea.

Basically, Fitzpatrick’s arguing that Massachusetts shouldn’t legalize casinos because they’ll be successful. There’s certainly an argument to be made in the opposite direction, that with declining national revenues new casinos won’t be able to generate sufficient state revenues to make them worth the effort. I’m not saying that’s necessarily true, but it’s a valid line of argument, as opposed to “I don’t like casinos so I’ll compare them to BP.”

Posted in business of gambling on 07/12/2010 11:18 am by Dave

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Whiskey Pete’s goes to the dogs

 

Ah, that headline was inevitable, given the story, which I’m taking straight from the press release. It’s worth it:

In honor of National Dog Day on Thursday, Aug. 26, Whiskey Pete’s Hotel & Casino invites guests to bring their pets on vacation where furry friends can stay and play for free in an affordable, comfortable environment Aug. 26 – 29. Pet owners will also receive a doggy discount with rooms all weekend long starting at $45 for the holiday.

Whiskey Pete’s Pet Policy:

* Domestic dogs 50 pounds or less are welcome
* An additional $50 refundable deposit is required
* Dogs must have proof of inoculation upon check-in

Additional rules and restrictions apply for pets. Guests may book Primm’s pet promotion using offer code TPNDD. To book hotel reservations, call 1.800.FUNSTOP (1.800.386.7867) or visit book online. All offers are subject to availability, and may be changed or canceled at any time.

Good stuff for dog lovers who’ve been wanting to spend some time in Primm. Mastiff and Great Dane owners are out of luck, though.

One note: I’d really suggest that the Primm casinos change their phone number, or at least the way they spell it out, since 1.800.FUNSTOP makes me think of “When the fun stops,” from the problem gambling brochures. Without changing numbers, they could use 1.800.FUNPUMP (stop to gas up…stay for the slots) or 1.800.FUNRUNS (OK, that one is not going to help F&B revenue. Maybe FUNSTOP isn’t that bad.

Posted in business of gambling on 07/09/2010 06:57 am by Dave

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Book Review: Last Call

 

Daniel Okrent. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Scriber, 2010. 480 pages.

Prohibition is one of the great riddles of American history. Looking at it from the distance of three generations, it seems inexplicable that Americans voted to outlaw intoxicating beverages, and it seems clear that the drys were on the wrong side of history. From our perspective, the debate seems so one-sided that the passage of Prohibition seems a mystery. But at the time it made sense to many Americans, and seemed like a good idea. Daniel Okrent’s LAST CALL reintroduces us to many of the key players behind the 18th amendment, the Volstead Act that followed, and those who enforced and broke the law in the next decade.

Okrent brings to life the men and women who shaped–and eventually brought down–Prohibition, and rescues many of them from obscurity. Wayne Wheeler of the Anti-Saloon League, the political strategist considered in his lifetime to be the most influential man in America, is perhaps the keystone to understanding the hold that drys maintained on the American political process before and after the passage of the 18th amendment. Mabel Willebrandt, US Assistant Attorney General in charge of prosecuting Volstead Act violations, is also brought into focus, as are a host of other key players, from Canadian distiller Sam Bronfman to Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith, the most famous pair of Prohibition agents of the 1920s. Reading this book really brings the characters back to life.

Okrent has pulled together a readable synthesis of the scholarly and popular historical material on Prohibition, and LAST CALL is a great popular history of the movement that lead to the law and the period that followed its enactment. If anything, some readers might consider the book a bit too detailed in some sections, but this doesn’t detract from Okrent’s accomplishments in presenting a single-volume history of a complex topic and period in American history.

Posted in book reviews on 07/09/2010 06:44 am by Dave

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First WSOP bracelets in Vegas Seven

 

If nothing else, this story was much easier to research than the one I wrote earlier this week (but won’t be out for another week or two). Instead of pouncing on players who’d just been eliminated from the main event early in level one, I got to sit down and chat with a guy who was 48 hours removed from winning his first WSOP bracelet. That makes for an upbeat Vegas Seven column:

There’s no better example of what the bracelet means than Gavin Smith, who was born in Canada but now calls Las Vegas home. Smith, who’d worn the unofficial crown of “best player never to win a bracelet” for years, has been playing poker professionally for 13 years. Nothing was sweeter than his finally winning a WSOP bracelet at Event 44, a mixed $2,500 Texas hold ’em game, on June 28.

“It’s the Holy Grail, what everyone’s after,” says Smith, a likable 41-year-old who’s won more than $5 million at the tables, including a $1.2 million payday for winning the 2005 World Poker Tour Mirage Showdown, part of an incredible run that saw him named WPT Player of the Year.

Yet the big one always got away, until now.

via A long journey for that first WSOP bracelet | Vegas Seven.

Smith was genuinely emotional about winning the bracelet, and seemed legitimately proud to have secured his poker legacy.

The bracelet ceremony was also pretty neat. Playing the national anthem is a great tough, because it highlights the international nature of the competition and gives the ceremony an aura of solemnity. Whoever thought that up deserves a bonus.

Posted in business of gambling, writing on 07/08/2010 08:33 am by Dave

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Mixed May message

 

The May numbers have been released from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and while on the surface they seem to be not such bad news, they actually send a mixed message. Here are my thoughts, broken down by region.

Statewide
Across the state, the gaming industry continues to shrink–we’ve got about 2,500 fewer slots and 70 fewer table games, despite the addition of a major new Strip casino since last May (Aria). It’s the equivalent of the net loss of a big Strip casino.

Slot revenue increased slightly for the month (0.44%), but this isn’t a sign that slot play is picking up. On the contrary, statewide slot handle–the amount actually played by players–continues to fall. The bump in revenues was due to a higher slot hold percentage–6.06% vs. 5.58% in May 2009. The handle fell from $10,094,516 to $9,336,733. This is the lowest handle in years, and it is a sign that people are in fact gambling less in Nevada. The slot handle has been declining steadily since 2006; earlier gains in revenues came because of higher hold, not more play.

Tables told the opposite story: revenues were down because of lower-than-usual hold, particularly at blackjack (10.37%) and baccarat (8.40%). The usual hold for those games is about 12-12.5%. But handle was up–partially, but not completely, due to a rise in baccarat play. So table play doesn’t look so bad.

Las Vegas Strip
The Strip saw the same general pattern as the state, with greater extremes: the slot hold was higher (6.94%), the overall table and baccarat holds were lower (10.47% & 8.26%). The slight gain in table handle seems to indicate that higher-end play is stabilizing, but not leading a recovery. It’s worth noting that there are more tables and slightly more slots on the Strip, so overall, handle-per-unit is probably down.

Boulder Strip
My favorite barometer of local Las Vegas gambling followed the same pattern as the Strip, with even more extremes. Slot hold increased from 4.24% to 5.55% (still lower than the holds for Mays 2005-2007, and slot handle declined from $1,253,821 to $1,068,378.

Overall table hold was a catastrophic 8.02%, though the table handle was up. They got hammered at craps (9.01 hold%) and absolutely slaughtered at mini-bacc (-15.48 hold%–yes, they actually lost money!). It’s either lucky players, bad management, or something worse.

Washoe County
Up north, things were quieter and much more consistent. With a decrease in slot hold, both handle and revenues fell slightly. Table hold increased a bit, but again both revenues and handle declined. Washoe County continues to gently coast downward, with no end in sight.

So there’s really no conclusive lesson to be drawn, except that we are definitely not seeing a recovery of slot play, and any gains in revenues are coming because of higher holds, not more play.

Posted in business of gambling on 07/07/2010 07:13 am by Dave

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Day 1A WSOP 2010

 

As those of you who follow my Twitter stream know, I spent a good chunk of yesterday down at the Rio, cruising around Day 1A of the World Series of Poker.

Oskar Garcia has the action cover here. I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts.

The story I was looking for at the WSOP was to profile the first person to bust out of the main event for next week’s Green Felt Journal in Vegas Seven. Luckily I’ve got a great deal of latitude with my subject material there. I thought that it would be interesting to share the experience of someone who came to Las Vegas, plunked down $10,000, and left the game quickly.

I’ve been seriously planning this column for over a month, and it never occurred to me that there might be a logistical problem or two. After all, it’s not like I was planning to interview the winner, who’s readily accessible to the media and usually in a mood to talk. Instead, I had to patrol somewhere around 150 tables, look for an all-in and a call, and quickly grab the unlucky one.

It sounds a lot easier than it is.

After about 20 minutes, I settled into one of the quads of the Amazon ballroom, loosely shadowing a poker supervisor who promised to let me know if he heard anything from one of the other quads.

By 20 minutes, my mouth was dry, and I was noticing how hot it was, with the lights and the excitement. It felt about 10 degrees cooler by the rail than it did at the tables.

I got a heads-up that a player was down to 200 dollars, and sped over. Turns out it was Greg Raymer, who kicked off the action with the official “Shuffle up and deal.” He bounced, and didn’t look anywhere close to being eliminated by the time I got to him.

32 minutes in, I felt like an undertaker waiting for a customer, circling the tables, looking for short stacks, or any inkling that someone might go all-in. This is around the time I started collecting a few statistics. In my section, about 10% of the players wore sunglasses; 25% wore baseball caps, mostly with the bill forward; 3.5% were women.

(someone busts out in another quad 35 minutes in, but I’m not there, and he wasn’t talking, anyway)

41 minutes in, I swear that the players know what I’m here for, and I can’t even look them in the eye. It’s like I’m a poker angel of death or something.

53 minutes in, I’m convinced that this is the worst story idea I’ve ever had. It’s the same feeling that I usually get around mile 22 of a marathon.

62 minutes in, I start to consider that I’ve crossed over into the Twilight Zone. No one will ever bust out, and I’ll spend eternity circling the tables, waiting for an interview that never comes, while a thousand players continue to push chips around the table without ever losing or winning.

68 minutes in, someone goes all in, but made the right call: he doubles up, and lives on.

70 minutes in, this is the idea from hell. Why did I ever think it was a good idea to write a column about failure?

71 minutes in, another all-in call, and this one wasn’t the right call. The player, who looks vaguely like Oliver Stone, busts out. I ask him if he wants to talk, and he says no before scooting out the door. Maybe he’s staying ahead of the snipers on the grassy knoll.

74 minutes in, another all-in call, right in front of me, and it’s another unhappy outcome. This time, the player is shell-shocked, but personable, and we find a few chairs in the media section to do a quick interview.

Turns out his name is Peter Turmezey, he hails from Budapest, Hungary, and he’s a professional poker player. Nice guy, too.

You’ll be able to read all about it in next week’s Vegas Seven.

Posted in business of gambling on 07/06/2010 08:05 am by Dave

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MGM name game in Vegas Seven

 

When MGM Mirage changed their name to MGM Resorts International, I wasn’t bowled over. “Resorts International” is forever linked in my mind to May 26, 1978, and a big red hotel on the Atlantic City Boardwalk (sure, it’s been painted white for 20 years or so, but in my mind Haddon Hall will always be red).

But I figured instead of just blathering on about it myself, it would be a good idea to find two people who specialize in corporate branding from outside Las Vegas to get a better perspective on what the name change means to people who’ve got a broader view. I was lucky to talk to Alina Wheeler and Laura Reis for today’s Vegas Seven column:

Two weeks ago, company shareholders approved a name change: MGM Mirage became MGM Resorts International. It was a major change, but was it good business? According to two corporate branding experts, it was.

MGM CEO Jim Murren outlined the change as an “evolution” that “honors our heritage, better represents the growing global presence our company has today and positions us to move forward under a unified brand strategy.”

Laura Ries, president of marketing strategy firm Ries and Ries, and co-author of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding HarperCollins Publishers, 1998, thinks this was a good move.

via Analyzing MGM’s old new name | Vegas Seven.

Really interesting stuff from both experts. I still think “MGM Resorts International” is way too long, and kept on tripping over it when I was talking about the company in a TV interview last week, but “MGM Resorts” or just “MGM” works fine.

Posted in business of gambling, writing on 07/01/2010 11:54 am by Dave

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