I’m late in posting today because I spent much of the morning doing a stint on KNPR’s State of Nevada–check the link for the details–and recording a few commentaries that will air at a later date. One of them is an elaboration (no, it’s definitely not a rehash) of my thoughts on spelling bee betting, and another is a just-for-radio piece on the role of gaming studies in today’s busy gambling world.

I just got back from recording an interview with Roger Gros for his Global Gaming Business podcast. I’ll link again when it airs. Of course, you should check out this month’s podcast as well–it’s a great discussion about the rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast.

Finally, I checked amazon and there’s been some progress on the Roll the Bones page. The cover art is now up, and as of today the book has broken the 500,000 sales rank plateau–it’s ranked higher than both Suburban Xanadu and Cutting the Wire, and it won’t even be out for four months.

I’d like to thank everyone who’s pre-ordered the book. If you’re still on the fence, check out the enhanced content for Roll the Bones on my own pages.

In light of all the hype about the opening of the remake of The Omen on 06/06/06, I’ve got a request–can anyone think of an uncanny numerological significance for 10/05/06?

So far, all I’ve got is that it the digits add up to 12, a number redolent with mystical associations.

Checking Wikipedia for October 5, I’ve found a definite shortage of material. It’s the 40th anniversary of a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor near Detroit, and, more happily, the 37th anniversary of the first broadcast of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

So if you’ve got a good numerological coincidence, etc for October 5, 2006, let me know, and if it’s something that can help in the marketing of the book, you’ll get a galley copy.

There’s a movie called The Hoodlum Priest, but I don’t think it’s about the guy who runs this casino turned church. From the Fresno Bee:

Vineyard Casino stirred great hopes of a tax windfall for Fowler when it opened 10 years ago in a big new building on a 13-acre property on the city’s south end.

In the first 31/2 weeks, the cardroom took in $664,262 and appeared on track to pay Fowler the expected $1 million in taxes yearly — a princely sum for a city with an annual budget of $1.8 million.

But 10 months later, Vineyard Casino, in financial distress, closed its doors. Its owners were more than $2 million behind on the rent.

Bids for the 49,000-square-foot building and land came and went without any deals.

The property, at Manning Avenue and Golden State Boulevard, is along my daily commute. I saw weeds grow and the building sit vacant for seven years, all the while thinking, “What a waste.”

Not any more.

A decade after the casino opened, renewed hope and promise are thriving — though in a spiritual, rather than financial, sense.

The former casino has been home to Worship Centre Church, an Assemblies of God church, since November 2003.

Ex-casino resurrected as church in Fowler

It’s even more ironic because the current owners believe that the building was constructed by the devil–though he probably hired some mortal subcontractors for most of the work. The senior pastor actually said “The devil tried to use it to destroy lives,” meaning the cardroom/casino. But as long as its up to code, I guess they don’t have a problem with the devil’s work.

This gets me thinking…if the devil built the cardroom, and it failed, does that make the people who worked there the “devil’s rejects?” Maybe this is what the next Rob Zombie movie will be about: “Back of the House of 1000 Corpses: The Devil’s Dual-Rates.”