Monthly Archives: May 2008

Wastin’ Away on Huron Ave

May 30, 2008 10:33 am

Unless something derails the deal (and how often has that happened with the Trumpster’s Atlantic City casinos?) the Trump Marina will soon become the Margaritaville casino resort. From the AC Press:

Trump Marina Hotel Casino is being sold in a $316 million deal that will transform the poorest-performing property in Donald Trump’s gaming empire into a “Margaritaville” casino of singer Jimmy Buffett fame.

The buyer is Coastal Marina LLC, an affiliate of Coastal Development LLC, a New York company headed by former-Trump-business-associate-turned-enemy Richard T. Fields. As part of the Marina sale, Trump has agreed to end a four-year legal battle that accused Fields of cheating him out of developing the Hard Rock casinos with the Seminole Tribe in Florida.

“They’re getting a terrific building in a great location and a wonderful potential redevelopment site,” Trump said in an interview Thursday after the sale was announced.

Fields plans to rebrand the Marina into a Margaritaville concept in partnership with Buffett, the singer-songwriter whose career has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years thanks to his legions of “Parrothead” fans. Buffet’s 1977 hit song “Margaritaville” reflects the ultimate laid-back lifestyle of soaking up the sun and margaritas in Key West, or “wastin’ away again in Margaritaville.”

“Together with Jimmy Buffett’s team at Margaritaville, our plans are to create an exciting new property that we believe will tap its full potential and make it one of the most successful destination gaming resorts in Atlantic City,” Fields said.

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., owner of four Atlantic City casinos, is developing the Margaritaville Casino & Resort in Biloxi, Miss., also featuring a Buffett-inspired theme.

Trump Marina to become “Margaritaville” casino in $316M. sale

If you click over to read the whole story, you’ll see a few interesting details: Coastal paid more than $20 million an acre for the Marina, which would seem to be well above market. But since Atlantic City casinos tend to be on a smaller footprint than their Strip counterparts, I don’t know if I would value a casino transaction based on its acreage. Casino income is probably a better yardstick.

Now, what about “Margaritaville?” I think it’s a great idea. The casino itself isn’t much, but the marina is a real amenity that I think has been under-played in the past. Harrah’s let their marina silt up (or something; I’m not sure of the details) and has it sitting idle, which I think is really short-sighted. First of all, they are cutting themselves off from a lot of potential players–boats aren’t exactly cheap, and I think that you’re going to find some high-value players among the people who care enough about their recreation that they buy themselves a boat. Like casino gambling, it’s not the sort of purchase that generates a return on your investment. Second, having abandoned boat slips and decaying wood surrounding your property’s best feature–its waterfront–is downright idiotic.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly why Trump initially called the casino “Trump’s Castle.” It’s not like he’s Merlin or something–you wouldn’t be expecting him to live in a castle. So it’s 1985, you’ve got a building designed to look like a Hilton with a marina on the bay in Atlantic City, and you call it Trump’s Castle? Why? Why not “Trump Bayside Tower” or the name they eventually migrated to, Trump Marina?

I can see how the Margartiaville name and vibe will work really well for that property. It won’t be competing head to head with Borgata, for one. A few years ago I heard Bob Boughner speak about designing the Borgata and he said that when they were developing and branding it, they decided that if it was a watch, it would be a Movado–a recognizable luxury item that’s still within reach for many people. I can see Margaritaville being a Timex with sand stuck under the band that’s running a few minutes late–but it doesn’t matter. The luxe wave–Borgata, Harrah’s revamp, and the coming Revel–will appeal to many people, but so will Margaritaville, especially in Atlantic City.

Needless to say, this name would not have worked for the big casino resort at City Center.

And if the headline is unclear, Trump Marina is on Huron Avenue.

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Why is Vegas Vegas?

May 29, 2008 12:18 pm

What makes Las Vegas…Las Vegas? John Pryzbys (it’s pronounced like “frisbee” but with a “b,” if you’re curious) has an article that asks that question in today’s RJ. And I’m one of the ones who offered some answers. From, naturally, the LVRJ:

What is Las Vegas?

A place. An idea. A stereotype. And, for those of us who happen to live here, a city that defines us in ways we probably don’t even realize.

Las Vegas is a place steeped in contradiction and shaped, either subtly or overtly, by both natural and man-made forces that, in turn, shape us.

That’s why we batted around this question: What are the basic forces — things, ideas, conditions — that define Las Vegas and make it different from any other place in the world?

Here are our conclusions. We don’t pretend that our conclusions are the final word. Feel free to do some batting around of your own.

VARIETY OF INFLUENCES: What Makes Las Vegas Las Vegas

Here’s what I had to say about “transience:”

Some newcomers, Schwartz says, have a “boomtown mentality.” They want to get everything they can out of Las Vegas and move on. “We’re like a modern-day Virginia City or Goldfield or Searchlight with nicer buildings.

“People move here and think, ‘I’m going to get a great job and make $50,000 parking cars, and I’ll do that a couple years, save up, buy a house, get a lot of equity, trade out and move back home.’ And it doesn’t always work.”

It’s an interesting question–a sort of “why is this night different from all other nights?” query that leads to more questions than an actual answer.

One could write a whole book on the subject. Or two.

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VT takes on casino logos

May 28, 2008 6:35 pm

I’m fooling around with using ScribeFire to create posts, so this might not work. Hopefully it does, because I really think people should check out this neat feature at Vegas Tripping, a detailed rumination on the evolution of Las Vegas casino logos:

But what is it that makes for a successful logo in Las Vegas? How does
a casino’s logo typographically distill a properties essence into a
single, identifiable mark? What does a continually changing logo tell
us about the validity of given properties theme or identity?

Vegas Casino Logos – Turning A Name Into A Vibe – VegasTripping.com

Chuckmonster’s done a great job of running down how several MGM Mirage logos have changed over the past few years.

A while back I was doing some research on casinos in the 1970s, and I was amazed at how haphazard many of the logos were. Different publications used really different logos and typefaces for the same casino, and there didn’t seem to be any real rhyme or reason for it. I’m almost positive there was no professional design firm at work; instead, it was just whatever the ad designers had lying around that filled the space.

One thing’s clear: casino names are getting less directly evocative these days. There’s not the same immediate semantic difference between, say, Echelon and Cosmopolitan than there was between the Stardust and the Tropicana.

Now that I think about, I might be cherry-picking there. For a while, Strip casino names tended to reference the desert (Sahara, Sands, Dunes, Aladdin, Desert Inn). And names like Riviera and Last Frontier were hardly unique, particularly when Las Vegas itself was promoting itself as “the last frontier.” Even Stardust and Tropicana are kind of vague, though you get the point that one of them will have sparkly things on the ceiling and the other will have lots of water and vegetation. Don’t ask me how the Tiffany glass windows got into the mix over at the Trop, or the ski chalet lowrises. Clearly, someone was going off message.

Maybe we should give Jay Sarno credit for bringing specific names and property identities to the Strip. As Chuck pointed out, the Circus Circus logo hasn’t changed since he opened the place, and the Caesars Palace typeface has remained the same. There was a big logo change, though. Originally, the logo was a fat Caesar lying on a couch being fed grapes by two girls, but in the 1980s they dumped that for the angry-looking centurion. What better way to say, “the corporate era is here?”

In any event, that’s a great feature that everyone should read.

And there’s also a great review of Hooters up, with an embedded video that answers the question, “what do the air conditioners at Hooters sound like?”

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Book review: Ghosts at the Table

May 28, 2008 9:05 am

Here’s a brand new review for a book that’s only been out a little more than a month! Am I on the ball, or what? And it’s not a random book that I’ve plucked from the shelves at Lied Library–it’s a poker book.

And it’s a good one. Read on, and you’ll see what I think about the book, as well as my ruminations about history, ghosts, and poker.
Continue Reading →

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Strip shell game!

May 27, 2008 8:16 am

It’s hard to believe, but one of the oldest gambling con games is alive and well in the shadow of the Las Vegas Strip. I snapped some pictures of a shell game in action on Monday between the Tropicana and Hooters. Technically that’s not the Strip, but it’s in the Strip tourist corridor, so the headline is accurate. Click through to see indisputable photographic evidence and some homespun analysis.
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Remembering Day One

May 26, 2008 6:01 pm

Casinos have been Atlantic City for thirty years, and there are still some people who remember Day One. From the AC Press:
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My neighbor’s beanbag

May 23, 2008 2:40 pm

Maybe someday I’ll write a children’s story with that title. It doesn’t have the fanciful longing of My Father’s Dragon, but maybe it’s appropriate for today’s lowered horizons.

I just thought I’d fool around with WordPress’s photo uploading and provide some commentary on life in Vegas. You’ve really got to see this–a sociologist could spin a whole article about anomie or something out of this.
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Psychics amid the slots

May 22, 2008 10:11 am

Las Vegas entertainment is usually pretty predictable. You might see a comic, a singer, a revue show, a big production extravaganza, or a headline entertainer, which could mix any of these. But as the Las Vegas Sun reports, a new, seemingly anomalous presence is taking over Strip showrooms: psychics bent on exploiting grief. It seems a strange combination. Keep reading for an excerpt of the story, and my extended thoughts on the phenomenon.
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Book review: The Fortune Machine

May 21, 2008 1:25 pm

This is another paperback I discovered in the catacombs of the UNLV Special Collections stacks. The tagline is what sold me: “The most beautiful girls in Las Vegas couldn’t stop Eddie from winning.” Also, Library Journal called it “a groovy novel.” So, I figured, it’s about a card-counting Greg Brady. This might make for an entertaining 250 pages. It was really, really weird.
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Responsible gaming monitors redux

May 20, 2008 12:54 pm

I’ve got a more in-depth look at the Canadian responsible gaming monitors in the LVBP. Here’s a snippet:

Recently, the British Columbia government announced plans to hire nine “responsible gambling information officers.” These new deputies of safe gaming will spend their working hours hanging out in casinos throughout the Canadian province, looking for “distressed gamblers” with whom they will discuss gambling.

Like many Las Vegans, you may not be quite sure what to make of this news. Is this a case of our Canadian brethren (or at least their elected officials) having a more finely developed social conscience than us hardscrabble, self-reliant Nevadans, or just the nanny state run amok?

Canada sends problem-gambling monitors to casinos

Strangely, what I thought was the most uncontroversial part of the piece: that “The industry has an obligation to ensure that all of the games are actually as they are advertised,” and that players have the right to learn about game odds, was reprinted below the column under the header “Sounding Off.” I don’t know if this means that I was sounding off when I said this, or that readers are welcome to write in defending the right of Nevada casinos to surreptitiously alter the odds of the game. I’d like to see someone write in to say that if a casino wants to take all of the tens out of their blackjack shoes without saying so, it’s totally cool with them as a player. It might be fun, just to see someone’s head explode with fury over at the Las Vegas Advisor.

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