Some members of Congress think that the solution to the Internet gambling “problem”is to pass enforcement of a ban onto banks. The banks, understandably, have a different take. From the WSJ:

A group representing 5,000 small banks is opposing a tool lawmakers hope to use to stop illegal online gambling, posing a challenge to what is widely seen as the government’s best shot at cracking down on the activity.

The Independent Community Bankers of America, whose members range from New York’s Metropolitan National Bank to Colorado’s First National Bank of Las Animas, is objecting to a proposal winding its way through Congress that would require financial institutions to block payments between U.S. residents and online casinos. The group fears enforcement would be burdensome – if not impossible – given the way the transactions are processed.

At issue are the electronic transfers that many gamblers use to move money between their bank accounts and offshore casinos. Such transfers, which often go through a third-party payment company, are the lifeblood of the online gambling industry. (Another aspect of the legislation, which the banking group doesn’t oppose, would formalize a ban on using credit cards to fund accounts. Many banks began voluntarily blocking such transactions five years ago, at the request of regulators.)

“It’s very tempting to think the banking industry can stop this kind of stuff because people pay for it through banks, but the fact is the system just wasn’t really designed to do it,” says Steve Verdier, a lobbyist for the ICBA, based in Washington. The group is asking the Senate, which will return from recess next week, to revise a House of Representatives version of the bill that passed in July.

The group says that, unlike credit-card payments, the electronic transfers aren’t coded to show what type of business is on the receiving end. They argue the existing system used to process such payments would require a massive – and costly – overhaul to allow banks to identify transactions with online casinos amid the flood of other electronic payments that banks handle each day. The system used by the casinos is the same one used for a multitude of transactions, including direct deposits of paychecks and automated payments to utility companies.

What’s more, some gamblers use physical checks to move money into gambling accounts or receive winnings. The proposed law could require banks to block those transactions, too, though banks say they have no system in place to do so.

Lawmakers have been debating for years about how to rein in offshore Internet casinos, which generated about $12 billion in revenue last year, with about half coming from Americans, according to gambling-industry research firm Christiansen Capital Advisors. Those efforts have gained momentum in recent months. In July, federal authorities arrested the chief executive of Costa Rica-based BetOnSports Plc as he changed planes in Texas during an international flight, and charged him and 10 others involved with the company with racketeering and fraud for taking bets from Americans.

The Justice Department contends the 1961 Wire Act and other federal laws make it illegal for businesses to take bets over the Web from U.S. residents. Previous congressional efforts to pass an explicit ban of online gambling have stalled, in part, because of questions about enforcement. The new measure gained steam this year, in part, as Republicans sought to distance themselves from the scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who helped kill an Internet gambling ban in 2000.

“It’s the only approach I know of that has a hope of making a significant dent in Internet gambling,” Rep. Jim Leach (R., Iowa), co-sponsor of the proposed Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act, says of the effort to block money transfers. He acknowledges that the law would require greater regulation of the banking industry, but points to a provision that directs the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to come up with an implementation plan that wouldn’t be overly burdensome for banks.

WSJ.com – Banks Balk at Congressional Plan To Cut Off Cash From Net Casinos

If you have read Cutting the Wire, you’ll anticipate what I’m going to say next: this is history repeating itself, except that this time it’s banks, not communications companies, who are balking at policing the wires. I talk about this in chapter three, “Camleot Strikes Back.” Anyway, it just seems to me that this battle has already been fought–and lost. If the act of placing a bet is not criminal, it is very difficult to enforce a prohibition against gambling, or to effectively outlaw the business of gambling.

A Japanese bank is incorporating a virtual roulette wheel into its ATM machines. I don’t this is a joke, and you can read the article from Reuters:

Japanese banks have long had a reputation for poor service but at least one is trying something new — wooing customers with an opportunity to try their hand at Lady Luck.

A roulette wheel pops onto the screen of automatic teller machines when customers of Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank Ltd finish transferring funds. A lucky spin and the customer wins 1,000 yen ($8.50).

“Using ATMs is impersonal and lacks communication,” said a spokesman for the bank which is based in Gifu prefecture, central Japan. “We wanted to add some fun.”

The new service will start from September 13 at 134 of the bank’s branches.

The roulette game is Ogaki Kyoritsu’s second shot at jazzing up its ATM services. It launched an on-screen slot machine game last August, in which customers may win prizes of an ATM fee waiver or 1,000 yen after withdrawing money.

“Our customers enjoy it very much,” the spokesman said.

Bank to woo customers with ATM roulette game | Oddly Enough | Reuters.co.uk

I know that customers aren’t actually playing the slot or roulette machine by placing a bet, though since there are ATM fees involved, one could argue that each transaction is a bet.

I can think of much better ways of making banking “fun,” like waiving ATM fees altogether. Playing roulette every time you get cash…and people wonder why casino companies are looking forward to Japan legalizing casinos. It’s going to be a bonanza.

State gaming police recently busted up a Nevada slot cheating team. From the LVRJ:

In 1979, Michael Joseph Balsamo was arrested on charges of cheating at gambling. Since then, he has racked up 25 investigations and six convictions and has been listed in Nevada’s Black Book of Excluded Persons.

Add another charge to the list.

Now 47, Balsamo has been indicted by a grand jury on several counts of manufacturing and possessing a cheating device.

This time, gaming enforcement officials allege, he had some help from his family, working with his wife, stepson and mother-in-law to cheat slot machines in Clark County

His wife, Stephanie, 45, mother-in-law, Lavonna Wallace, 68, and stepson, Derrick Bowman, 24, were booked into the Clark County Detention Center this month on the charges.

Jerry Markling, chief of enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said gaming investigators, with Las Vegas police, have been investigating Michael Balsamo and his group for more than a year.

Investigators think the suspects used a “light optic” device to trick slot machines into paying more coins than they should when players win.

reviewjournal.com — News – Investigators say they’ve broken slot cheating ring that was family affair

While this story is notable in and of itself, I’ve posted it because your humble correspondent himself was quoted. People who know me won’t be too surprised:

Dave Schwartz, director of the Center for Gambling Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said slot cheating has advanced from the days when cheaters, known as “sluggers,” would use yo-yo coins with a string on them to keep playing.

Schwartz said many cheaters buy slot machines or attend gaming conventions for research. He said slot cheaters respond to new technology by being more creative. He said that even if every casino puts in the newest technology, criminals still will try to use counterfeit money or tickets to cheat the machines.

“Until they develop slot machines that work purely in mental thought — telepathy — they won’t be able to stop all of the cheating,” he said. “Even then, I’m sure (criminals would) find a way to cheat.”

The idea of telepathic slot machines sounds pretty goofy, I know, but I’ve been reading a bit about developing technologies, particularly the GRIN (genetics, robotics, information tech, and nanotechnology) arc. It’s entirely possible that computers will begin to interact with people by reading eye movements and other things in ways that will seem telepathic.

What I was trying to say was that, as long as there is some kind of physical interface, be it coin, cash, or ticket, there is a potential for cheating. I don’t think you will find any casino security expert (or for that matter anyone who’s ever been inside a casino) that will disagree.

For what I’m talking about–the currency/machine interface–a more apt scenario might have been biometrics. Let’s say that, instead of cash or tickets, you have a smart card with all of your financial info on it. To use it, you don’t use a password but your own biometric data–let’s say a retinal scan. It’d seem pretty hard to spoof (well, unless you’ve seen spy movies), but slot cheats would find a way, probably five minutes after the first machines started their 90-day live trial.

Another note–I don’t believe I said the cheaters were called “sluggers,” but that they used low-tech methods like fake coins (slugs) or yo-yos. I’ve got to admit that if I was still working casino security, it would be fun to walk up to a suspected slot cheat and say, “Drop the fiber optic tool, slugger!”

It’s been a few days since the story broke, but I still haven’t seen any serious discussion of the change in the Wynn Las Vegas casino floor hierarchy, outside of people quoting dealers irate about their upcoming drop in pay. This is absolutely understandable–if someone asked me to take a $10,000 pay cut (or told me I was taking it), I’d be pretty vocal, too.

In case you haven’t heard it, here’s a summary from KLAS-TV:

Steve Wynn is making waves again in the casino industry – but not for his lavish projects. This time the waves are on the floor of his casino.

He told casino dealers that they will have to start sharing their tips with other employees.

Wynn says the pit bosses will get a cut of dealers’ tips.

That’s supposed to level a pay disparity between dealers and supervisors. But it’s unheard of at Strip casinos, and it’s raising complaints from some employees.

Wynn is known as a trendsetter on the Las Vegas strip. When he does something, everyone thinks it will spread everywhere else. There are always skeptics too.

Crystal Rivera is training to be a dealer at the Palms Playboy club. She’ll be working for tips.

“Oh definitely, you are at minimum wage so it is the tips, that is what we depend on,” she says.

High limit tables like hers earn up to $100,000 a year in tips. The Wynn Hotel casino broke that record this year. Now Wynn wants to spread the wealth.

“At Wynn, dealers won’t get all of their tips anymore. Of a $500 tip $200 would go to other floor managers,” she says.

KLASTV.com | News for Las Vegas, Nevada | Steve Wynn Changes Rules on Casino Tips

Anyway, I think that this is only presenting one side of the story. As I said on Tuesday, the most significant aspect of this change is that it is putting the suits in a position where they have a a material interest in the player’s happiness. I wondered then what the impact would be on skill players, who claim to be hassled or asked to leave by suits interested in the casino bottom line. Now, will a few generous tokes make suits a little slower to crack down on advantage play?

I’d just like to see someone look at the issue from this angle, and to examine the impact on all players, from $5 blackjackers (if there are $5 tables at WLV) to the highest of the high rollers.

For my part, I’m going to call the Wynn PR people and try to get some more information. I’m interested in the role of the pit administrator (renamed pit boss, or just a pit clerk) and how the numbers break down. Since they’ve been pretty helpful with a few other projects, I may have something to report next week. It’s a historic change, and my job is to document the history of gambling, so, as a certain KLAS photojournalist might say, “I’m on it.”

People like to bet on strange stuff, and people like it bet online. From the

Desert Sun:

When it comes to online gambling, anything is fair game.

If they’re not playing the odds on the next American Idol or another Britney Spears’ divorce, Internet gamblers may wager on the chances of bird flu reaching the United States or who officials will find first: Jimmy Hoffa or Osama Bin Laden.

“We call it pop culture gambling,” said Christopher Bennett, a spokesman for BetUS.com. “This is quickly becoming the new office lottery pool.”

Gambling is one of the oldest pastimes on the planet – dating back to rolling of knucklebones during prehistoric times and the “casting of lots” in biblical times.

But the Internet has made gambling so easy that people can bet on just about anything at the click of a mouse, from sports to pop culture to politics.

Lawmakers in Washington want to clamp down on online gambling, but industry experts say it’s doubtful that even an act of Congress would be able to keep Americans from seeking out Lady Luck on the Internet.

“It’s definitely popular,” said David Schwartz, who runs the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. “In general, commerce is moving online and gambling is part of that.”

Sports – from football to auto racing to golf – remains one of the most popular subjects among Internet bettors. But gamblers are increasingly interested in wagering on current events and politics as well.

A few months ago, BetUS asked people to bet on whether the world would end on June 6, 2006 – the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of this century.

Thousands bet it would.

thedesertsun.com | Gambling on pop culture winning bet?

You would be a fool to bet ON the world ending, because if you won, you couldn’t collect. I suppose you’d have a few seconds of satisfaction as the planet disintegrated and its atmosphere boiled off into space, but you’d never see a return.

According to astronomers, the world will definitely end in 5 billion years when the sun stops converting hydrogen into helium and starts fusing helium into carbon. It’ll become a red giant and fry Mercury, Venus, and this island Earth along the way. Don’t bother getting any last bets down, because there won’t be anyone to pay you off.

Of course, by that time humanity (if it hasn’t already destroyed itself) should have already mastered interstellar travel, so we might be sitting pretty in another star system by then. On the other hand, given evolution and all that, humanity might not exist as we know it, either. But whatever species is around will probably be betting on something.

Wynn Las Vegas is changing the management structure of its casino games in a way that may prove revolutionary. From the LV SUN:

Wynn Las Vegas dealers – the highest paid in the city at a shade more than $100,000 per year, mostly from tips – will soon lose some of their tip income. Resort executives plan to reorganize the casino floor on Sept. 1, and to begin giving first-level supervisors a cut from the tip pool.

Dealers are expected to see their pay drop by about $10,000 per year, while some frontline supervisors would see theirs jump by more than 50 percent.

The high-rolling gambling action at the Wynn generates some big tips, money that now gets divided by casino dealers.

The problem is finding qualified floormen and pit supervisors. It’s tough for the casino to get dealers, the most knowledgeable candidates, to accept a 40 percent pay cut to take a salaried position as a $60,000-per-year floorman or pit supervisor.

Wynn said the disparity in pay isn’t fair.

“This is upside down,” Wynn said. “It’s inverted. It’s just outrageous.”

Wynn Las Vegas has 578 dealers. Of those, more than 100 have run shifts or been supervisors at other casinos.

“The current system makes the (200 supervisors and 38 craps boxmen) feel cheated,” Wynn said.

The pay disparity has contributed to a reduction in the quality of the front-line managers, the folks who resolve game disputes, rate gamblers’ play (how much is he betting and how long did he play?) and dispense comps such as free meals.

Wynn’s solution? Reorganize the casino chain of command, and group dealers together with newly named frontline managers, who will now be “casino service team leaders.” (Or, in the case of craps boxmen, they’ll be renamed “craps team leaders.”)

The casino is eliminating some of its top-level hierarchy. In the current chain of command dealers and clerks are supervised by floormen, pit supervisors and boxmen. They are supervised by pit managers, who themselves are directed by casino managers and assistant casino managers. At the top is the vice president of casino operations.

The VP of casino operations slot is being eliminated and each shift is being organized as a standalone entity. Each shift will have a casino manager at the helm with two specialists to assist him. The casino manager will supervise the service team leaders, who will manage one to four table games and their dealers along with a shared pit administrator who will handle regulatory and game inventory paperwork.

Las Vegas SUN: Jeff Simpson breaks down the reorganization of the pay scale among employees on the casino floor at Wynn Las Vegas, which Steve Wynn called ‘upside down’

There will probably be some griping about dealers giving up a share of their tip income (after all, who would be happy with a pay cut?), but this is an innovative approach that just might work. From the description, I’m not sure whether the “shared pit adminsitrator” is more of a pit boss or a pit clerk, but it sounds like the “team leaders” will replace floor people, and will get more power to settle disputes, rate players, etc.

As far as eliminating the VP of casino ops and making the shifts independent, it could be a good idea, provided that policies and procedures remain uniform. Otherwise, you start creeping away from the standard, and people coming over from other shifts or working OT can be really confused.

All in all, it seems that the new system will put a bigger premium on customer service, which is precisely what you’d expect from a Wynn property. Wynn has long had a reputation for being very friendly to his employees, and this might be a way to encourage dealers to seek out managerial positions and to ensure that he’s getting the best talent out there.

Remember, this is the guy who, at the Golden Nugget AC, became a legend after giving all his managers cars instead of cash bonuses. It was a move that people there are still talking about, 20 years after he left the market.

Coincidentally, there are rumors swirling around Atlantic City that Wynn will soon return, either at the current site of Bader Field, or by buying the Sands property, demolishing it, and starting over. I’ve heard more buzz about the former than the latter, but I think that the center-boardwalk location of the Traymore site would let a Wynn Atlantic City become the dominant feature in the city’s skyline. You might remember what I said about the Traymore’s prospects a few months ago. I can easily imagine that Wynn would have both the capital and the vision to take that site and create something that completely transforms the Boardwalk.

Back to the casino shake-up–no one has discussed what the impact of all this will be for the player. I think it will be huge. Here’s why. In the current system, players toke (tip) dealers when they win. Dealers have a vested interest in the player winning. Casino managers are responsible for winning money–they don’t want to have to explain to the higher-ups why their tables are in the red. Many skill players allege that, because of this, suits will sweat them when they get “too lucky.” But under the new system, both the suits and the dealers directly benefit when players tip. So is this new arrangment going to make it easier on skill players? Then there’s also the problem of the person who’s making comp decisions potentially being influenced by a big tipper, but I say that’s more theoretical than anything else, because if someone’s tipping big, they are also betting big and therefore deserve comping.

It will be interesting to study toke rates over the long term and see whether the total number of tokes goes up or stays the same. I’d also be interested in seeing what happens to table game hold…if it goes down, I’d say it’s back to the drawing board.

I found out about this a while ago while doing some research on getting married in Clark County. Vegas is supposed to be a 24-hour town, but you won’t be able to get your marriage license on grave shift any more. From, improbably enough, Fox Reno:

Getting married is as much a tradition in Las Vegas as slot machines and buffets. But when the urge to merge comes in the wee hours, you’ll have to wait.

The county government said that starting next week, its marriage license bureau will no longer be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Citing budget constraints, county officials said the graveyard shift is being scrapped. Would-be brides and grooms will be able to apply for licenses only between 8 a.m. and midnight, seven days a week.

Officials told the Las Vegas Sun that there’s really not much demand for marriage licenses during the overnight hours. Fewer than 4 percent of licenses are issued on that shift, city officials said.

Among them was a license issued to Britney Spears. However, the marriage was annulled after two days.

foxreno.com – Travel – Vegas Ends Overnight Marriage Licenses

Anyway, if you need to know how to get a marriage license in Clark County, check out the Clerk’s page. And no, that’s not Clerks like the movie–no jokes about the Death Star or Frodo and Sam there–at least I hope not.

In this case it’s not the patients that drive in to the dentist’s office, but the dentist who drives to the patients. Confused? Read the article from the NY Times and learn:

Samantha Taube stepped out of the MGM Grand into the bright sun to walk to the parking lot. After a short distance, she approached a trailer, entered, sat in a dentist’s chair and had her teeth cleaned.

“If you know Las Vegas traffic these days, you know what a benefit this is,” said Ms. Taube, who trains employees in the huge casino’s slot machine operations. After 20 minutes, she was back at work.

Down on the Strip, Beverly Egan, a poker dealer at the Stardust Resort and Casino, sat in air-conditioned comfort, in another mobile dental office restfully decorated in pale blue amid menacing power drills and X-ray equipment. Ms. Egan had popped out to have X-rays taken before scheduled dental work. She, too, appreciated the convenience.

“I’d have to take three hours at least if I had to drive to an office,” she said. This visit took only 30 minutes.

The mobile units are courtesy of On-Site Dental, a Las Vegas company founded seven years ago by Chris Davenport, who is not a dentist but an entrepreneur. His company’s basic service combines technology, mobility and the American penchant for saving time.

On-Site Dental owns two trailers, each fitted with two dental offices in which dentists and hygienists see about 1,000 patients every Monday through Saturday in the parking lots of 11 casinos in Las Vegas. Most of the patients are employees covered by the casinos’ dental insurance plans, which pay up to 80 percent of the costs of most dentistry. Entertainment headliners and chorus line troupers, who may have the greatest need for dazzling smiles, are contract employees with their own insurance. No plans pay for cosmetic work, like veneers and tooth capping.

Parking-Lot Dentistry Is Finding Its Niche – New York Times

This just seemed like a true Vegas story–entreprenuership, casinos, and convenience tied together.

Another mystery mammal has been found. From Maine Today:

Residents are wondering if an animal found dead over the weekend may be the mysterious creature that has mauled dogs, frightened residents and been the subject of local legend for half a generation.

The animal was found near power lines along Route 4 on Saturday, apparently struck by a car while chasing a cat. The carcass was photographed and inspected by several people who live in the area, but nobody is sure exactly what it is.

Michelle O´Donnell of Turner spotted the animal near her yard about a week before it was killed. She called it a “hybrid mutant of something.”

“It was evil, evil looking. And it had a horrible stench I will never forget,” she told the Sun Journal of Lewiston. “We locked eyes for a few seconds and then it took off. I´ve lived in Maine my whole life and I´ve never seen anything like it.”

For the past 15 years, residents across Androscoggin County have reported seeing and hearing a mysterious animal with chilling monstrous cries and eyes that glow in the night. The animal has been blamed for attacking and killing a Doberman pinscher and a Rottweiler the past couple of years.

People from Litchfield, Sabattus, Greene, Turner, Lewiston and Auburn have come forward to speak of a mystery monster that roams the woods. Nobody knows for sure what it is, and theories have ranged from a hyena or dingo to a fisher or coydog, an offspring of a coyote and a wild dog.

Now, people are asking if the mystery beast and the animal killed over the weekend are one and the same.

…

Mike O´Donnell, who is married to Michelle O´Donnell, said the animal looked “half-rodent, half-dog” to him.

It was charcoal gray, weighed between 40 and 50 pounds and had a bushy tail, a short snout, short ears and curled fangs hanging over its lips, he said. It looked like “something out of a Stephen King story.”

“This is something I´ve never seen before. It´s an evil-looking thing,” he said.

Residents wonder if dead animal is legendary mystery beast

Maybe Stephen King is onto something with freakish creatures and Maine.

Here are some pictures, courtesy of AOL. It’s not exactly a noble-looking beast.

I can’t wait to hear the explanation for this. My money’s on dog/wolf, but rat/dog, though biologically unlikely, has its upside.

Las Vegas’s Sands has been gone for a while now, but in Atlantic City a casino by that name soldiers on. And it will soon have a new owner, who might tear it down and start from scratch. From the AC Press:

Billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn is negotiating to sell the Sands Casino Hotel only three months after acquiring oceanfront property to transform the city’s smallest gaming hall into a major resort, according to newly released court documents.

Potential buyers have not been disclosed by the Sands, but Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. and the Cosmopolitan Hotel Resort & Casino have been mentioned in gaming circles as candidates. The purchase price is said to be about $250 million.

Rumors have swirled for months that the Sands was on the market, but there was no official confirmation until a July 12 bankruptcy hearing involving GB Holdings Inc., the casino’s former parent company and now a minority owner.

Attorneys for Icahn and GB Holdings are quoted as saying in recently released transcripts of the hearing before U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Judith H. Wizmur that talks were being held to sell the Sands, but they declined to reveal the name of the would-be buyer.

“They want to sell. … They’re just trying to complete a transaction,” GB Holdings attorney Gary M. Schildhorn told Wizmur.
Icahn: Sands is up for sale

As I said in an earlier post (Traymore returns?), I think the best thing would be to totally demolish the existing casino and build a centerpiece attraction on the Traymore site. Donald Wittkowski at the Press explains why this is a good idea, in pretty certain terms:

The Sands’ existing 600-room tower, marred by its budget-hotel architecture, is woefully outdated compared to the upscale hotel expansions at other casinos in town.

“Marred by its budget-hotel architecture” says it all too well. If you want more of my thoughts, check out Traymore returns.

There is an interesting piece in Forbes about the prospects for legalization of online gaming here in the USA:

For several rapturous years, hundreds of companies have been exploiting the fact that U.S. laws on online gambling are as hazy as your classic, smoke-filled casino. Even while the U.S. Department of Justice insists all forms of online gambling are illegal, based on the 1961 Federal Wire Act, that interpretation has not been accepted in some U.S. courts. And case law has given online gambling businesses cause to believe that non-sports Internet wagering is, in fact, legitimate. With no specific federal legislation on Internet gambling, this $12 billion industry has been able to garner half of its revenue from America.

The arrest of Carruthers, coupled with the passage of a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would ban the use of credit cards to pay for online gambling transactions, has sparked fear in the industry that a federal crackdown, and something reminiscent of the dot-com boom and bust, is imminent.

If you are the kind of investor who likes to gamble, this may not matter. “Even if prohibition comes into effect, I don’t think there’s anything the U.S. can do to these companies as long as you stay out of the country,” says professor Joseph Kelly of the State University of New York at Buffalo, one of America’s top consultants on the Internet gaming industry. “You can’t enforce it. People will just use electronic cash entities like NETeller.”

Washington state may offer an example of what could happen if the U.S. federally prohibits online gambling. “Gambling online in Washington is already a class C felony, which is the equivalent of being accused of sexual assault,” says Kelly. “Will they ever enforce this? No, because no jury is ever going to convict.” In the entire U.S., he adds, only one person has been prosecuted for gambling on the Internet.

Analysts seem to agree that the U.S. also won’t have the appetite to prosecute online gambling firms. “There has been a history of convictions for online gambling,” says Matthew Gerard, a leisure analyst at Investec. “But the common theme is that they all have been accused of doing something else, like money laundering, tax evasion or racketeering.” With one or two exceptions, the U.S. Department of Justice has not gone after companies solely for their gambling exploits.

But challenges will still be ahead for big hitters like PartyGaming, 888 Holdings and Sportingbet, which take bets from the U.S. “Ultimately, this market will legalize in the U.S.,” says GamingVC’s Barlow. “When it happens, the fact that we’ve been a clean company and have been playing by the rules will be in our favor.”

Posted in gambling & culture on 08/15/2006 01:29 pm by Dave

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There was an interesting piece in the Review-Journal on Joel Bergman, a prolific casino architect:

Joel Bergman dislikes awards.

He doesn’t enter competitions for them. He believes the application process can give away too much inside information about his company, one of the gaming industry’s leading architectural design firms.
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So when the Global Gaming Expo Institute awarded Bergman the 2006 Sarno Lifetime Achievement Award for Casino Design in May, he wondered who in the company submitted the application.

The recipient of the prize, named for legendary Las Vegas gaming pioneer Jay Sarno, was chosen at random by the American Gaming Association, producers of the G2E Institute.

The award recognized Bergman’s excellence in the field of casino resort design and construction.

Bergman’s résumé resembles a trip down Las Vegas Boulevard. That’s one way he shows off his work to out-of-town visitors.

“I have a four-passenger convertible and on a nice summer night, I’ll give my guests a tour,” the 69-year-old Bergman said. “They get to see everything and I give them a little history of my own personal involvement.”

The Southern California native designs, what he calls, “entertainment architecture.”

Bergman spent 15 years working with Atlandia Design, the in-house architecture firm for Steve Wynn’s Mirage Resorts. His first casino project was in the early 1970s when he helped design the Las Vegas International, now known as the Las Vegas Hilton.

In his career, Bergman has played a role in helping develop or redevelop The Mirage, Treasure Island, Paris Las Vegas, Bally’s, Sahara and Caesars Palace. The Golden Nugget casinos downtown and in Laughlin also carry Bergman’s signature.

But Southern Nevada isn’t his only canvas.

In Atlantic City, Bergman worked on the expansion at Resorts International and is currently working on the Atlantic City Hilton.

As gaming expanded nationally, Bergman and his company, Bergman, Walls & Associates, which he founded in 1993 with partner Scott Walls, continues to leave a mark. The company designed the Barona Valley Ranch in San Diego, the Agua Caliente Casino in Palm Springs, the Suquamish Clearwater near Seattle, L’auberge du Lac for Pinnacle Entertainment in Lake Charles, La.

Bergman has been in the business for so long, he’s now redesigning casinos he originally developed. Colony Capital has enlisted Bergman Walls to remodel the Atlantic City Hilton, which Bergman first designed 28 years ago for Wynn when the casino opened as the Golden Nugget.

“The Golden Nugget was the first project I did for Steve and now we’re doing it again. How cool is that?” Bergman said.

Bergman has also found his way into condominiums. His company designed the Trump International Hotel & Tower and the Residences at MGM Grand for the Turnberry Group.

reviewjournal.com — Business – NEVADA AT WORK: Up and down the Strip, architect sees reminders of his work on projects past

I remember when the Golden Nugget opened in Atlantic City. It really was way beyond anything the city had seen up to that point.

Reading this, I’ve got a new ambition–to see some of those unbuilt projects and hopefully get some record of them for UNLV Special Collections. The only thing more interesting than the casinos that were built is the ones that weren’t.

With the closing of Bet On Sports’ American operations–and effectively its entire business (story here), it is clear that this case will be much different from the 2000 Jay Cohen trial.

Some in the media have expressed wonder at the “secret” website launched to support indicted former BOS CEO David Carruthers. As I said in an earlier post, nothing posted on the Internet is secret, but some things can be mysterious, enigmatic, or inexplicable.

The site’s webmaster has sent me an extensive Q & A that explains who he is (though it doesn’t reveal his “secret identity,” for reasons that seem plausible enough). Here it is:

Q: Who are you?

A: I’m an independent security consultant in the online gaming industry.

Q: Nationality?

A: British.

Q: Do you have any affiliation with BETonSPORTS Plc, David Carruthers, or
his legal team?

A: No. Unlike for example the now archived FreeJayCohen.com,
FreeDavidCarruthers.com is a completely independent effort.

I don’t own any stock in BETonSPORTS Plc either.

Q: Are you an ex-colleague of David’s? Did you work at Ladbrokes or
BETonSPORTS before or after its listing?

A: No. I have never met David but I, like many, wish him and his family well.

Q: Are you being supported by anyone financially or otherwise to do this?

A: No, I’m doing it completely under my own steam, and completely at my
cost both in time and money.

Q: Why are you doing this?

A: The David Carrruthers and Nigel Potter cases are indicative of the
complete failure of the Blair administration to stand up for the rights of
British citizens. The actions of certain ambitious District Attorneys in
the US are no less foul in their callous disregard for those people who’s
lives they destroy as a result of prosecutions like these, but it is the
passivity and inaction of the Blair administration that is the most
contemptible.

You have to draw a line in the sand about remaining silent in the face of
injustice. With the arrest of Carruthers and clear intention of Blair to
sell more British people down the river via the Extradition Act 2003
(evidenced by the NatWest Three’s recent plane ride to Texas) that line
was crossed.

You might say that I believe that one man can (and should) make a
difference. I hope to do so.

Q: Why won’t you tell the world more than your first name? What do you
have to hide?

A: The current US administration does not tolerate dissent, and I do not
wish my name to be on a watchlist when I travel, so that as happened with
David, when the passenger’s details are shipped off under the US-EU
Passenger Name Record agreement within 15 minutes of the plane taking off,
I do not receive what the US Administration deems appropriate ‘treatment’
when I land.

Q: Are you anti-American?

Not at all. I am a big proponent of the special relationship between the
UK and US, and the Anglosphere.

Q: What are your politics?

A: I am skeptical of all politicians, of left or right, in the UK or
elsewhere. People from the US in particular have let their politicians run
amok since 9/11/01 and to grab all kinds of power they should not have, in
the name of the so called ‘War on Terror’.

I wish more people from the US would watch Adam Curtis’ ‘The Power of
Nightmares’ and understand that unless restrained by sensible people,
“those with the darkest fears became the most powerful”, and cast that
shadow into the every day lives of everyone.

Q: Do you dislike journalists?

A: I dislike sloppy, lazy journalism, like Sharon Churcher’s article in
the Mail on Sunday about the BETonSPORTS case. Articles like that are the
reason why blogs are becoming far more trusted and frequently read than
the newspapers. Each time poor articles like that are published, the
reputation and influence of the fourth estate is further diminished. This
is not 1986.

Q: What do you think the main effects of the David Carruthers arrest have
been?

A: Apart from hitting share prices, causing British CEOs to rethink their
travel plans and their ‘directors and officers’ insurance cover, the
arrest has caused two short-term effects;

The first was to ensure that other sports betting operations just got a
boost from all of the publicity regarding the case, and not just from the
‘ex’ customers of BETonSPORTS who currently haven’t a place to bet but
completely new customers too;

The second is that many US-facing sportsbook operations (such as
Sportingbet USA) have abruptly stopped taking telephone wagers, and are
moving their operations completely to Internet-only wagering platforms
such as Finsoft or SportsPulse. While there is no expectation that the US
‘Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act’ will pass the Senate, there
is a rightful concern that continuing to take telephone wagers now opens
operators to further prosecutions based on the 1961 US ‘Wire Act’.

Q: What about the future effects?

A: This is less clear, and depends on the Blair government getting its
collective thumb out of its posterior and standing up for its citizens for
once.

Three good things the Blair administration has done in the last nine years
in office are making the Bank of England independent, liberalising the
alcohol licensing laws to permit 24hr drinking, and the Gambling Act 2005.

That they are now not standing up for British businesses who are prepared
to bring the government revenues under that Act by operating foreign
facing remote gaming sites is unbelievable.

Q: What is your vision for the FreeDavidCarruthers website?

A: I intend it to become a central rallying point for discussion of the
David Carruthers case and its injustice, the plight of UK businessmen
under the Extradition Act 2003, and the issue of online gambling and its
regulation in general.

Previously, I’d considered the Carruthers case chiefly in light of American online prohibition efforts, but it’s interesting to see how others in the world see it.

The 2006 edition of the World Series of Poker is nearing its climax. The final table will start playing in about a half an hour down at the Rio. Read Card Player’s recap of Day 7, via video, for all the details of the tournament’s penultimate day.

I’m going to head down to the Rio to see history unfold–and check, raise, and fold–but for those of you who can’t make it, here’s some poker action courtesy of YouTube:

If that was too real and too raw for you, this cinematic gem, which captures the essence of poker attitudes–for teenagers. At first, I thought that “Rough Tilt Poker” might not be suitable for a blog with middling to high standards of propriety, but it’s not offensive at all, unless young kids aping poker desperados offends you:

For a while, I searched ebay for strange gambling auctions when I had a dearth of news to comment on. But between YouTube and MySpace, I’ll have plenty of material on even the slowest days. But check out those gambling auctions–I didn’t know you could buy a foreclosed house on ebay.

Everything in this entry makes me wonder whether the Internet is the greatest or worst thing to happen to human culture in the past hundred years. On one hand, you can connect with millions of people…and on the other, you can connect with millions of people.

Not content with being a gaming and tourism juggernaut, Nevada is actively courting non-gaming development–at the expense of other states. It’s hardly surprising that New Jersey is at the top of the list of targets. From the AC Press:

When the Nevada Development Authority, or NDA, picked New Jersey as the first target of its new East Coast campaign, they weren’t looking for gamblers.

“Las Vegas. Always Open For Business,” boasts the NDA’s full page ad, which appeared in Monday’s Press of Atlantic City.

“Nevada’s nongaming sector is growing in leaps and bounds,” said Somer Hollingsworth, NDA’S president and CEO. “We don’t do gaming companies. We don’t do retail.”

Instead, the 50-year-old nonprofit group looks for states that have anti-business legislation, then plays up Nevada’s business-friendly qualities to lure companies in.

“You guys were at the top of the list of anti-business taxes,” Hollingsworth said. “You have the worst taxes for businesses of anybody.”
…
“Obviously, they have too much money,” Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority Executive Director Jeff Vasser said of the campaign. “If we had a couple million like they have for advertising, I guess I could do fun things like that too.”

But Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s office isn’t buying whatever the NDA is selling.

“What a good bluff, but our friends from the desert should try again,” spokesman Anthony Coley said. “Nevada’s gaming industry is understandably nervous about Atlantic City’s renaissance and by the fact that Gov. Corzine, the former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, knows how to create an environment that grows the economy and makes business successful.”

The NDA isn’t looking to steal gamblers or visitors, Hollingsworth said. It’s all business. Well, almost.

The ad includes a list of “Six Reasons To Bet On Las Vegas” next to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman — a former East Coast lawyer who once defended Nicodemo Scarfo’s nephew, mobster Philip Leonetti.

Reason No. 6? “Our mayor is more fun than your governor and your legislature!”

“I’ve met our governor, he was pretty fun,” Vasser said of Corzine. “I’ll put our governor up against Mayor Goodman any day.”

“That was kind of the kicker for us,” Hollingsworth said of the tongue-in-cheek comment. “We’re serious about what we’re doing, but we can still poke a little fun.”

Vegas takes a shot at Jersey’s business climate

“Our friends from the desert?” It makes it sound like Nevadans are riding around in a caravan, looking to loot oases and trade routes.

On the other hand, I haven’t heard too many Nevada casino executives growing “understandably nervous about Atlantic City’s renaissance.” Forgetting for a minute that most major Nevada gaming companies have interests in Atlantic City (Harrah’s, MGM Mirage, and Boyd are the most prominent), the whole idea is kind of funny.

MGM Mirage is announcing the formation of a new realty group, so if you want to buy a piece of the Strip’s biggest development project, you are in luck. Straight from the press release:

With construction now underway at Project CityCenter, MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM) delivers yet another illustration of its industry-leading innovation: the formation of CityCenter Realty Corporation (CCRC). The announcement marks the company’s official brand extension into the real estate/residential industry. The division will focus on sale of CityCenter’s approximately 2,800 luxury residences and will enable buyers to purchase direct from the developer. MGM MIRAGE has chosen Bob Hamrick (Senior Vice President), Grant Murray (Vice President of Sales) and Anna Houssels (Director of Sales) to lead the division.

With these three industry leaders at the helm, CCRC will continue its search for the best and brightest real estate professionals in the country. Placing an emphasis on building long-term relationships with clients and delivering flawless customer experiences, CCRC will provide sales executives with an unparalleled compensation package including salary, performance-based bonus and full benefits. As a member of the exclusive CityCenter sales team, executives will be part of an extensive training program that takes personal selling to a new level with a branded customer-experience process. Executives will have the opportunity to share in an iconic, privately funded project that will forever change the face of Las Vegas.

“We’ve designed CityCenter Realty Corporation to stand out in a sea of commission-driven agencies with a sales approach and compensation package that truly focuses on building relationships with our clients,” said Bob Hamrick. “Having been a local Realtor for 26 years, I recognize the importance Realtors can play in the success of a development. For that reason, we’ve also created a co-op recognition and compensation program that will excite and engage our Realtor partners to place CityCenter on the top of their lists when working with qualified buyers.”

A design collaboration between MGM MIRAGE and six internationally acclaimed architects, Project CityCenter, an unprecedented $7 billion urban metropolis, will feature a soaring 60-story, 4,000-room hotel/casino; two 400-room, non-gaming hotels; 500,000 square feet of retail shops, dining and entertainment venues; and approximately 2800 luxury residential units.

Project CityCenter’s residential Presentation Center will open in January 2007.

For employment information, please call 702-590-5909.

So even if you don’t want to buy a luxury condo, this may be a helpful post, because they included that job info as well.

What do extreme sports, golf, and poker have in common? A great deal, if my thoughts on the topic are to be believed. I develop this theory in this week’s column in the LVBP:

The emergence of poker as a lifestyle means that the game has become more than a game — it is a way of life, or at least a way of living.

In this way, poker might be best compared to golf or extreme sports, two “sports lifestyles” that, though they are usually lined to radically different demographics, aren’t that antithetical.

Both are relatively expensive recreational sports — neither a set of clubs nor a snowboard is exactly cheap. There are professionals in both: The PGA and LPGA and the athletes of ESPN’s X Games. And there are many fans of each — those who watch on television but never play.

But the vast number of those interested in both golfing and extreme sports (e.g. skateboard, motocross, surfing) straddle the line between fan and athlete, playing regularly (or not so regularly) and wearing clothes associated with the sport. They might put on a golf shirt for casual Friday or wear board shorts to the pool Saturday, but they are living the golf or surfing lifestyle as best they can.

Poker has evolved into a lifestyle ’sport’

I think that because poker has broken through and become more a lifestyle than a mere game, the poker boom is here to stay. I’m probably going to be fleshing this out a great deal more for an extended piece somewhere, and I’ll keep you posted.

Of course, it would be really great if the arbiters of the new poker lifestyle decided that a 600-page book about the history of gambling was essential for leading the poker life.

I don’t want to go on a semantic binge here, but please explain to me why freedavidcarruthers.com is secret. From the NY Post:

Someone’s making a long-shot bet that a Web site will help free David Carruthers, the former BetonSports boss locked up in a St. Louis jail for promoting illegal gambling.

It’s unclear who’s behind the new site, freedavidcarruthers.com, which appears to have gone up soon after Carruthers was fired by BetonSports PLC, the offshore sports-betting operation indicted about two weeks ago by U.S. authorities in St. Louis, Missouri.

BetonSports dumped the Scottish-born CEO last Tuesday, a little more than a week after FBI agents nabbed him at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport as he waited with his wife to board a plane to Costa Rica.

SECRET SITE BACKS CARRUTHERS By JANET WHITMAN – New York Post Online Edition: Business

If we don’t know who owns the site, I think that it is in fact “mysterious.” If no one knows about the site, then it is secret. Anything posted on the Internet is, by definition, not secret, though much of it should be.

The site, which is at www.freedavidcarruthers.com, is pretty much along the lines of freejaycohen.com, in that it has information about the CEO’s legal case and related links.

Carruthers, it appears, is making his trial an issue not of violating the law, but of the justice of that law. While that strategy didn’t work for Cohen, there is far much more exposure to Internet gaming today, so there’s a chance it might work.

There’s another article about the Carruthers case from the Washington Post today that gives a good summary of everything to date.

Regular readers might know that I’ve got a strange fascination with weird animal stories (remember the mystery mammal?) and it should be obvious that I write a great deal about casinos. So I’m all over a story that combines both. From the AP:

A Lake Tahoe casino that promotes a “habitat for everything wild” found truth in advertising over the weekend when a wayward bear wandered in through a rear loading dock.

The 150 pound yearling walked around employee hallways at MontBleu Resort Casino and Spa early Saturday and sauntered toward a cafeteria before it scurried out the way it came in, apparently frightened off by several workers, employee Earl Zeller told the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

In one MontBleu television commercial, a cocktail waitress walks past urban-dressed guests in lounge, then throws a fresh fish to a waiting bear.

“Evidently the bears out there heard the story that bears can be fed at the nightclub at MontBleu,” Zeller quipped. “I guess we reached our target audience.”

General Manager Patrick Basney said employees got a laugh from the incident but also recognized the “need to secure our area a little better.”

Montbleu is the former Caesars Tahoe.

Bear wanders into Lake Tahoe casino

Even bears avoid casino cafeteria food, especially on grave shift.

I want to know what “urban-dressed” means. Wearing clothes suitable for a city? As opposed to hunting camo or backpacking gear?

Who doesn’t like a toga party? Outdoors, in Las Vegas? Someone, I’m sure. In any event, Caesars Palace is having a toga party TONIGHT to celebrate its 40th anniversary. I go this email in my inbox today:

FREE Toga Party!

Caesars Palace Celebrates ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY!

Featuring celebrity host
Jenny McCarthy and music by
Otis Day and the Knights

Wednesday, August 2 9pm (doors open at 7:30pm)

Caesars Palace will celebrate it’s 40th anniversary with a toga party at the
legendary resort’s outdoor Roman Plaza amphitheater.

Only those guests who arrive in a toga will be granted admission to the
outdoor concert and toga party. Following the toga party, toga party
attendees are invited to an after-parry at Pure Nightclub, FREE. Doors to
the outdoor concert and toga party open at 7:30pm and Pure Nightclub will
open at 10pm

Caesars always has trouble with apostrophes (yes, I know that not having one in the name is deliberate). Whoever wrote this release got it right in the headline, but botched it in the actual release. Remember, it’s=it is; its=possessive of it.

I don’t know exactly what’s going on there, outside of Jenny McCarthy and the music, but it could be a lot of fun.