This probably isn’t new, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it, and I thought it was interesting. Apparently, there are two hotels at 3655 LV Blvd South. Sure, Paris Las Vegas is there, but according to Orbitz so is this place, which gets its own entry:

Gay Paris Las Vegas

3655 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV 89109

2 Miles North of Las Vegas McCarran Intl Airport

Orbitz: Gay Paris Las Vegas

It seems like something out of a sketch comedy skit–someone calls to check into the regular Paris hotel, but the staff thinks he’s looking for “Gay Paris,” and comedy ensues!

What makes this curious is that they can’t just advertise Paris as a gay-friendly hotel. They instead bifurcate their promotional efforts into “straight” and “gay” versions of the resort. Are they afraid that homophobes wouldn’t check into the Paris hotel if it was promoted as gay-friendly, and that they’ll think that “Gay Paris” is just another hotel somewhere else?

Circa 1952. This is a fun little thing that I dug up in UNLV Special Collections…well, I saw it lying on a desk. It’s sheet music to the 1952 chart-topper, “I Lost my Love When I Lost My Loot in Las Vegas.”

It’s not every singer who can appear on a sheet music cover shirtless and in a captain’s hat, a generation before the Village People, no less.

With lyrics by Adele Frazier and music by Gordon Vanderburg, the tune is meant to be sung in a bright moderato. Here are the words:

I Lost my Love When I LOST MY LOOT IN LAS VEGAS,
And that’s why I ain’t happy any more!
I Lost my Love When I LOST MY LOOT IN LAS VEGAS,
I got cleaned out and she got awful sore!

She said it wasn’t nice,
the way I rolled them dice,
I made a haul then lost it all,
When I threw those snake eyes twice!

I Lost my Love When I LOST MY LOOT IN LAS VEGAS,
And that’s why I ain’t happy any more!
I Lost my Love When I LOST MY LOOT IN LAS VEGAS,
I got cleaned out and she got awful sore!

Our love went on the blink,
When I made her pawn her mink,
Then she said, “We are washed up, boy,
It’s later than you think!”

I Lost my Love When I LOST MY LOOT IN LAS VEGAS,
but she’ll come back when I’ve got “jack.”

If I forget about about roulette, and bingo beans,
And slot machines, and horses slow that place and show,
Oh! how can I be happy any more?

This is so funny that I can’t even begin to explain why. It seems a travesty that “Viva Las Vegas” gets so much play and this perfectly good song in the key of F major is forgotten.

I’m going to be on Face to Face with Jon Ralston tonight, talking about the effects of the economic slowdown on outlying casino markets like Mesquite, Jean, and Primm. If you’re in the Las Vegas area, you can watch on Las Vegas One (channel 19) at 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 8 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and 3 a.m.

If you’re from out of town, it looks like the shows are archived on the Face to Face page, so check there.

My old stomping ground the Trump Taj Mahal has gotten a makeover and is getting a new hotel tower. From the AC Press:

They are de-Tajing the Taj. First they ripped out the gaudy pink and purple hues that dominated the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resorts over-the-top decor since the 1990s.

Then they converted the stark main hallway connecting the parking garage with the casino into a promenade of retail shops and restaurants called Spice Road to create a more inviting entrance.

Next came sophisticated European-style penthouse suites, a spruced-up casino floor and a sexy lounge called Ego that everyone jokes immediately brings to mind the swaggering personality of Donald Trump.

Now get ready for the most dramatic part of the Taj Mahals transformation: a brand new, shimmering $255 million hotel tower that rises 40 stories and symbolizes the rejuvenation of the Trump casino empire.

"For us, its really important," said Mark Juliano, chief executive officer of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., parent company of the Taj Mahal and two other Trump casinos. "With the limited amount of capital that the company has, we thought this was the best use of $255 million that we could have ever done."

Taj Mahal prepares to open doors on new 40-story hotel tower

Here’s the Chairman Tower, from the roof of the Showboat parking garage. I can guarantee that some of the guests in the CT will have stunning views of the Showboat’s garage:

Somehow “Chairman Tower” sounds wrong to me. It doesn’t sound like a building at all, but like the chairman of the Tower Commission.

That aside, the Taj looks great. There’s nary a sign of the old pink and purple anywhere. They didn’t get the casino carpeting right, but you can’t ask for everything.

Things are slow in Vegas, maybe, but they’re even slower in Mesquite. From the LVRJ:

If you think the slowing economy has hit casino operators in Las Vegas hard, travel 80 miles northeast to Mesquite.

Black Gaming, operator of three hotel-casinos in the town, reported an operational loss of $15 million for the quarter ended June 30, driving the company to a net loss of $20.3 million.

The latest loss is wider than the $2.6 million net loss posted for the same quarter last year. For the year, the company has posted a loss of $24.3 million.

Chairman and Chief Executive Randy Black Sr. said the company has been put in a "defensive position" and "at some point you just can't cut your way to profitability."

Late last year, Black Gaming, which owns the CasaBlanca, Virgin River and Oasis casinos along Interstate 15, began an aggressive campaign to combat the economic downturn by eliminating departments, reducing management salaries and conducting layoffs.

Black told investors the company cut more than $10.5 million in operating expenses in the first six months of the year, but it hasn't been enough.

"The combination of reduced spending by customers and price reductions we have implemented to remain competitive has impacted our profitability and continued to decrease our (cash flow)," Black said last week in a conference call with investors.

On Aug. 5, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Black Gaming's bond ratings for the second time in three months based on declining market revenues.

Black told investors that he believes an infusion of funds will be necessary next year for the company to meet "liquidity needs." However, enough money should be available to meet working capital requirements, capital expenditures and scheduled interest payments through the end of this year.

ReviewJournal.com – Business – Black Gaming posts $20.3 million loss for quarter

“You can’t cut your way to profitability” has become the new mantra of the gaming industry. It sounds like merging the sports book with South Point might help a little, but there are clearly some major structural issues here.

I can’t take credit for discovering these–they were forwarded to me by my Reno correspondent. They are a series of commercials for Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City. If you’ve got two minutes to spend, it’s worth it:

Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t think you’ll see officials in Nevada, or anywhere else in the US, adopting this approach any time soon. From Bloomberg:

South Korea’s National Gaming Control Commission yesterday said it intended to limit total annual revenue of the gambling industry, including horse racing, lottery tickets and casinos, to about 14 trillion won $13.4 billion.

“The governments plan may limit Kangwon Lands revenue from the casino business and this will lead the company to cut its profit forecast, Han Seung Ho, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities Co., said in a report today. Hes maintaining his “buy rating on the stock because the plans havent been completed.

The gambling industrys earnings accounts for 0.67 percent of gross domestic product in South Korea, according to the commission. Thats higher than the average 0.58 percent for members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

South Korea’s government plans to introduce an e-card system which will cap excessive betting of gamblers and tighten regulations on the entry of new players in the industry. The commission said it will complete the plans next month.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide.

“Cap excessive betting of gamblers?” What are they, crazy or something? Do they want to raise taxes? Do they want Farmer Jones to come back?

It’s like an alternate universe over there, where gaming revenues are discussed as public policy, divorced from budget needs.

This was a really funny piece from the LV Sun:

At least on the surface, this is a fight about a number: 7.

That digit is the only difference between the phone number of Michael Kolar’s income tax filing business, 866-MR-REFUN (866-677-3386), and the number people dial when they have questions about any of the seven properties owned by Ameristar Casinos Inc., which is 866-MORE-FUN (866-667-3386).

Written out, they look different. Punched on a key pad, they’re practically the same. And dozens of people mix up the two every month. This wouldn’t be a problem if Ameristar, a Las Vegas-based company, weren’t convinced Kolar, aka Mr. Refund, is taking calls intended for the casino corporation and saying cruel things — pretending to take reservations, offering callers specialized suites that do not exist, telling callers the casino company issues coupons to lure problem gamblers, that room rates are much higher than advertised and that any number of the hotels have burned down.

Kolar denies these allegations. And because he has to pay for the calls that come in to his toll-free number, he proposed a simple solution: Pay him $100 a month to tell callers looking for Ameristar they had dialed the wrong number.

Ameristar was not interested in that offer. Instead, it sued.

The lawsuit was filed against Kolar in Illinois, where he lives, and accuses Mr. Refund of malicious conduct designed to injure Ameristar. The company, whose closest casino is Cactus Pete’s in Jackpot, near the Idaho border, is asking the court to make Kolar surrender his phone number permanently.

Misdial casino, you may get Mr. Refund – Las Vegas Sun.

This guy may or may not be a jerk, but at least he’s creative. Anyone who can sell tourists “specialized suites that do not exist” is a genius. It’s a casino hotel room–how specialized can it be? Sure, you’ve got a few with bowling alleys or basketball courts (I’d hate to get stuck in the room under that one), but mostly you’ve just got one or more beds and bathrooms in there.

Just how specialized can you make a casino suite, anyway? I’m open to suggestions in the comments.

I caught this wide-eyed Vegas puff piece on an Australian news website, and I had to laugh. I’ll spare you the article, but here are the tips. I’ll let my readers deconstruct them at will. From NEWS.com.au:

# Stay on The Strip. All the action is there and everywhere else is a bust. Try to stay midweek, when room rates are slashed.

# Key mid-range casinos include Luxor, MGM Grand, Excalibur and Ballys, with high-end options including The Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas and The Venetian. If you’re down on your luck and need a cheap option on the Strip, try the Imperial Palace.

# Avoid Circus Circus at all costs. Travel agents here still have it on their books, but it is a run-down stinker.

# The best gambling casino is still Caesars Palace. Its magnificent after all these years and has been kept in tip-top condition.

# Explore The Strip yourself. Unlike in other major tourist spots, your hotel wont help you much, as it wants you to stay and gamble. Buy The Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper for $US1, with its daily visitor guide.

# Do not take a taxi down The Strip at night. The traffic is unbearable.

# Bypass the hordes of illegal Mexican immigrants in oversize T-shirts handing out advertising cards for hookers – the saddest sight on The Strip.

# Get out of Las Vegas, at least for a half-day, to check out the amazing surrounding sights including Death Valley, Red Rocks Canyon, Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Use a tour company, like Pink Jeep Tours, for these day trips.

A revamped Vegas stakes its future on class | NEWS.com.au.

If you read the article itself, you’ll see some revisionist history: the Bellagio is now given credit as the progenitor of “classy” Vegas, and New York-New York is singled out as “garish.” Strange.

I always thought it was “Red Rock Canyon,” but I guess with all of the economic problems we’re having we need more of them to attract tourists.

Big laughs at the “illegal Mexican immigrant” porn slappers. Talk about over-generalizing. Like this guy a) checked everyone’s immigration status and b) made sure that everyone out there’s from Mexico and not El Salvador, Honduras, or some other country. And if this guy’s got a tip on how to “bypass” porn slappers, he should have shared it.

It’s ironic that Jay Sarno’s two casinos are side by side here: Circus Circus is a “real stinker” and Caesars Palace is “magnificent.”

So if you don’t take a taxi down the Strip because of the traffic, you should take a bus? Limo? Monorail? Hovercraft? Teleport? Oh yeah, Star Trek: The Experience is closing up shop, so scratch that last one.

Back to the first item: so much for the Downtown revitalization, huh?

Historian James Karmel has let me know about a great oral history project that’s in progress in Atlantic City. From the AC Free Public Library:

The interviews will take place throughout the summer, with the final product scheduled to be made available to the public this winter. Once the project has been completed, the interviews will be stored and archived in the library’s Alfred M. Heston Collection room of Atlantic City history.

Dr. James Karmel is the contractor for this project. He is a professional historian and author of Gambling on the American Dream: Atlantic City and the Casino Era, which is based on oral history interviews he conducted from 2002-05. He is an associate professor of history at Harford Community College in Bel Air, Md.

This is the librarys second oral history project involving Atlantic City and casino gambling.

In 1978, the library interviewed 68 people representing the culturally and economically diverse mix of people who live or work in the city – small business owners, lifetime residents, city government officials, transients, school teachers and local celebrities. The interviews focused on the city’s history, the interviewees’ relationship to the city and their thoughts on the city’s future. More information on the 1978 Living History Project

Atlantic City Free Public Library.

I wish I had access to the 1978 project here. I could write some really interesting Casino Connection columns, I’m sure. Dr. Karmel and the ACFPL are doing valuable work here–this sort of thing is incalculably useful to future historians.

Chris Columbo, who was interviewed in the 1978 project, was a really good friend. I always said he was the great-grandfather I never had. I used to hang out with him when he was playing drums down at the Showboat and listen to his stories about the old times. Growing up around people like that might have been what sparked my interest in history. When you’ve got someone telling you what it was like to play with Lester Young, you really get an appreciation for all of the stories that are out there. I went to school and everything, but I think I learned a lot more from Chris and a few others back in Atlantic City.

A psychological study unveiled at the convention of the American Psychological Association makes a bold claim: that 2 percent of all gamblers account for nearly 25 percent of all casino wins and losses. From Science Daily:

In another study, psychologist Arch G. Woodside, PhD, of Boston College, and Ralph Perfetto, PhD, of the University of Rhode Island, found that while most people do not gamble, the majority who do gamble, do so most weeks of the year. They have moderate incomes and are at the highest risk for financial and psychological trouble.

Using data from the annual DDB Needham Life Style Survey, Woodside and Perfetto looked at casino gambling patterns among 20,568 adults from 1993 to 1998. They found that less than 2 percent of all casino gamblers are responsible for nearly 25 percent of all casino gambling wins and losses – referred to as the extreme or X-gamblers. The authors identified three sub-types of X-gamblers. "Whales," are mostly white, middle-aged men with high incomes who go to casinos most weeks of the year. They spend the most money. "Jumbo shrimp" are mostly older white females with very low incomes and visit casinos most weeks of the year. Finally, "big fish" are very frequent gamblers with moderate incomes and make up more than half the X-gamblers. Most middle-income X-gamblers come from mixed demographic backgrounds. X-gamblers visited casinos 25 times or more a year.

"Understanding the demographics and the different influences that play into gambling can help psychologists tailor their interventions for people who get into trouble," said Woodside. "Moderate-income X-gamblers – big fish – are at the most risk for losing the most money and suffering the most overwhelming financial and psychological consequences. The whales can afford to lose money and the jumbo shrimps don’t have much money to lose."

Americans Spending, Gambling, Saving: Who’s Happiest, Who’s Most At Risk?.

I’m going to try to get a copy of this study to examine the methodology. I’d like to see how they calculated what percentage of customers are responsible for what percentage of casino revenue. I always thought that you couldn’t do that with any certainty unless you had 100% of all players using player-tracking cards and, of course, access to the data.

I also threw up a little when I read the phrase “extreme or X-gamblers.” Well, not literally, but I did in my mind. It just sounds like radical dudes slamming Mountain Dew, skating down to their local casino, doing a wicked railslide down the handicapped entrance, and taking keno to the Xtreme. And the whole gambler food chain–whales, big fish, jumbo shrimp–seems a bit simplistic as well. I’m all for presenting your material so that it’s accessible to the masses, but come on.

I’ve emailed one of the authors to get a copy. If I do, I’ll follow up with a more comprehensive critique.

Seriously–I know people who think that “disordered gaming” is a euphemism. I think that “pathological gambling” sounds too pop psychology-ish (like “pathological liar’), so I’ve always preferred “problem gambling.” But “extreme gambling” just sounds like people with bad tattoos and ill-advised piercings hitting “max bet.”

The Center for Gaming Research has just been named an Associate Sponsor of the 14th International Conference on Gambling and Risk-Taking. This is a good thing, and a very big deal. What’s the ICGRT? Only the most prestigious gambling-related academic conference in the world. Learn more here:

The primary objectives of the conference are to contribute to the base of scientific knowledge about gambling in all its dimensions, stimulate further research and facilitate discussion and dialogue.

This important event brings together the world’s top gambling scholars to present, discuss, and debate the latest trends and findings on gambling and commercial gaming. This diverse group includes international researchers, academics, gaming industry leaders, regulatory and government officials, and professional gamblers. Topics will cover a broad variety of disciplines including economics, public policy,
mathematics, social sciences, psychology, and treatment.
University of Nevada Reno::Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming

The conference only happens once every three years. It’s being held in Lake Tahoe May 25-29, 2009. If you are interested in gambling, I strongly encourage you to submit a paper. For more information, visit the UNR gaming website.

A reporter for that well-known bastion of literary tradition, the LV Sun, has weighed in on the reading habits of Las Vegas library-goers:

Las Vegas, the old truism and sometime political talking point says, is at the bottom of every good list and at the top of every bad one. But what about the lists we keep for ourselves?

To take one instance, what about a list of the most popular 15 fiction books checked out from the Clark County Library District last month? What does that say?

A third of the time, it says, “By Patterson, James.”

Oh, sweet Xenu, what does that say about us?

“Yes, there sure is a lot by James Patterson,” said Robb Morss, the library’s deputy director of public services. “But, you know, good for him.”

Maybe, although Patterson, a former advertising executive, would probably prefer to sell them.

Patterson dapples The New York Times best-seller list with novels like a starling decorating the side of a building. To say his books are bad is to, like Patterson, ignore the descriptive possibilities of the English language. The books are bad the way the sun is yellow: They are massive radioactive balls of flaming badness. They are literally, no exaggeration, honest-to-goodness, worse than “The Da Vinci Code.”

A reading of Las Vegas’ intellect – Las Vegas Sun

I’m not so sure that this is news. After all, it’s been more than fifty years since Theodore Sturgeon said that ninety percent of everything published is crap. I haven’t seen much evidence against his proposition. So out of a list of 15 books, you’d expect all but one or two to be awful.

Perhaps Las Vegans are just being smart consumers: if the Patterson books really are so crappy, they’re being quite savvy by not buying them.

And who is sweet Xenu? Is that like “Sweet Caroline?” A good piece about a Neil Diamond impersonator ran yesterday, so maybe there’s a connection.

There’s a good piece on the far, far south M Resort in the LV Sun. Here’s some of the most interesting bit, but you should read the whole piece:

The M Resort, at the southwest corner of St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard, more than 10 miles south of Mandalay Bay, will be the southernmost casino in the Las Vegas Valley. The 400-room property, which is expected to get most of its customers from nearby neighborhoods, including Southern Highlands, Seven Hills and Anthem, will face stiff competition from nearby locals casinos as well as the Strip.

Unlike newer locals casinos, which get about half of their business from out-of-town visitors, M Resort will get 80 percent of its revenue from locals, said Marnell, who began work on the $700 million project five years ago.

That’s partly why Marnell, who helped open one of the valley’s first major night clubs at the Rio, wants to avoid the night club crowd. Booming, boisterous clubs can be more trouble than they’re worth for management, while turning off locals trying to enjoy a more relaxed night out, he said.

Locals favorites such as a buffet, poker room, deli and a sports book with reclining chairs and about 100 beers on tap, will be near a 2,000-car garage for easy access.

Little of what Marnell calls the resort’s “modern Italian design” is yet visible, though the crescent-shaped glass shell hotel tower was topped off Friday and construction of the giant, zinc-encrusted porte cochere is under way on the side farthest from the Strip.

Many venues at the M Resort will face the Strip, with floor-to-ceiling views overlooking a pool and outdoor amphitheater, which will host concerts that restaurantgoers can see and hear.

It’s on Las Vegas Boulevard, but M Resort aims mostly at locals – Las Vegas Sun.

I’m really looking forward to the “modern Italian design.” It’s funny how in the past few years more and more casinos are borrowing elements of the original Caesars Palace–crescent-shaped towers, “modern” design, and much more.

This sounds like a great project–certainly there’s a huge attention to detail. Even though it’s not going to be marketed to tourists, I would guess that this is going to be a place to check out.

I’m a bit unsure about the self-serve soft drink station–that might be a little too relaxed even by locals standards. Having worked in security, I’m envisioning patrons trying to smuggle in empty 2-liter soda bottles and save themselves a dollar on their home supply of Diet Pepsi. I’ve personally seen patrons smuggling shrimp out of the buffet in their coat pockets, so I wouldn’t put anything past anyone.

The shrimp smuggling thing is a real ethical dilemma. On one hand, it’s not exactly stealing, because if the patron had wolfed it down while inside the buffet, there wouldn’t be a problem. On the other, it IS stealing because you can’t take food out; it’s a real “slippery slope” type thing, because if you let them take a few pieces of shrimp, what’s to stop them, logically, from taking out a whole carving station next time? But you really muddy the waters when you factor in that the smugglers tend to be older people, who in my experience eat less in a single sitting. So by prosecuting seniors who take 2 or 3 extra shrimp for later that a younger person might have had inside, are you opening the company up for an age discrimination lawsuit?

I’d love to see them tackle this kind of case on Law and Order someday.

I’ve managed to squeeze in some time to update the carpet gallery. I’ve got new shots of the Excalibur, Luxor, Monte Carlo, Palazzo, and tons more in the Strip gallery.

I’ve also streamlined the downtown gallery and placed all non-Strip, non-downtown carpets in the Clark County gallery.

Plus I’ve added a Hall of Fame with old carpets and carpets from demolished hotels.

When I have the time, I’m going to make a trip downtown with the camera and get some updates down there, as well.

Someone had to do it, so why not me? I’ve eaten at each of them. Here goes, in bottom-to-top order:

4. Burger Bar, Mandalay Place
If you’re in that part of town and in need of a gourmet burger, you can’t do much better. There’s nothing at all wrong with the place–in fact I recommend it–but someone had to be at the bottom of the list.

3. Le Burger Brasserie, Paris (near Bally’s)
It’s good too, and the vegetarian options are probably best here. But it’s not as ambient as the last two places on the list, which is sometimes a good thing.

2. BLT Burger, The Mirage
This is the new kid on the boulevard. Opening in the former white tiger habitat means that the place has some big shoes to fill. The loud music might turn some people off, as might the general trendy vibe. But the burgers are great and they’ve got fried pickle chips. I haven’t tried any of the milkshakes, so I can’t vouch for them. And they don’t even have a framed 8X10 of the white tigers behind the bar. That’s a bummer.

1. Strip Burger, Fashion Show Mall
There’s seating outside, for great people-watching. It’s not that much pricier than the food court upstairs, and is a much, much, better value. If you’ve ever eaten in the food court, you know what I mean. They’ve got all kinds of burgers and, yes, fried pickle chips. Those things are surprisingly good.

Coming back to this, it’s all Atlantic City, all the time. I’ve got a few Vegas things I’ve been kicking around, including my personal ranking of the high-end burger places on the Strip and a book review or two. But then the AC Press goes ahead and runs a HUGE Pinnacle spoiler:

Giving a sneak peek of the closely guarded concept for its proposed casino, Pinnacle disclosed Wednesday that a "beach house" theme is under consideration as it tweaks the designs for the estimated $1.5 billion to $2 billion project.

"Were on the beach, and its a great distinguishing factor for our project versus some of the newer gaming facilities or projects in the region – Philly, Catskills, etc." Pinnacle spokeswoman Pauline Yoshihashi said in an e-mail statement.

But at the same time, Pinnacle executives reiterated that the casino is in limbo until the global credit crisis passes and the company can secure financing for the Las Vegas-style megaresort.

Beach-themed Pinnacle casino still captive of financial tides.

Between this and the Revel “ocean” theme, I’m happy. Seriously, it’s a good sign that we’re moving away from Wild West-themed casinos on the Boardwalk. I’ve always said that Atlantic City would be better off if it was honest about what it was–a small, urban resort on the Atlantic Ocean–rather than trying to be Las Vegas East.

There’s a big potential for “beach house” to turn out badly, though. I’m thinking suites that look like weekly-rental houses that pack in 20 college kids, with cigarette burns in the carpet and red cups with warm beer littered throughout the place. Couches with sand caked into them, that sort of thing. The concept itself doesn’t scream “elegance,” does it? Are the employees going to be required to wear flip flops? Will the security podium look like a lifeguard stand? How far are they going to go with this?

At its worst, this ends up looking like a TGI Friday’s with a deck, with all sorts of “beach memorabilia” stuck on the walls. Although it would be neat if the security officers got whistles, like lifeguards.

At the other end, a beach-centered resort could work very, very well. This cloak-and-dagger secrecy’s a bit off-putting, particularly since there’s only a 50/50 chance the thing is ever built. That’s a whisker away from being a negative expectation game.

So how’s the Tropicana in Atlantic City doing these days? I got curious enough today to check out the vox populi of tripadvisor.com.

There are reviews for July up, so this reflects the property well after the Columbia Sussex retreat. And most of the people are happy, though the ones who aren’t have some horror stories.

Here’s one example that the AC tourism folks should really examine, since it’s written as representative of the city as a whole, not just the Trop:

Every staff member I encountered acted as though they were being inconvenienced by my arrival. Smiles? none. Eye contact? Minimal. Clear answers to questions? None. The room was not bad, the carpet appeared new but the bedclothes looked shabby. The hallway was also shabby and pooly cleaned. The location of the Trop is rather far from the center of the Boardwalk and the guys manning the pedicabs looked dangerous. Atlantic City as a whole is a bit of a joke and the Trop is doing nothing to make it better.

Tropicana reviews

Of course, many other guests found the place passable or even pleasant, and one even said that it was “lovely.” So obviously the Trop has some fans.

Here’s the funny thing. Over on ratevegas a while back, there was a debate over the Sahara offering $200/night room rates after a mythical remake. Lo and behold, the Trop AC’s average rate is $218 a night. Now, I’m as big a fan of the Morris Avenue corridor as anyone, but that seems like a big price for not such a great location or experience. Then again, the nearby El Greco motel has an average rate of $173 a night, so that might be a smoking deal. The Borgata, by comparison, is $349, so what this says to me is that, judging from the pricing, the Trop is closer to the El Greco than the Borgata. That’s food for thought.

But the Tropciana is ranked #9 on TA’s list for AC hotel, absolutely annihilating the Borgata’s new Water Club, which is really getting hammered.

While I might actually be, I hope that’s not true. I wanted to examine and deconstruct this Chronicle of Higher Education piece on stupidity in American culture (particularly among the youth), but I’m way too busy. And next week is looking even worse, so don’t expect much here. Hopefully by the end of the week things will clear up.

As far as the article goes, I’ve got one thing to say, in reference to the list of deficiencies among college students: it’s the chickens coming home to roost–half of these can be traced to the triumph of extreme relativist epistemology, while the other half I lay at the feet of scholarly torpor. It’s for reasons like these that make it a point never to ask students how the readings make them “feel.” Instead, I demand to know how they think, and try to cultivate ideas like supporting evidence and logical thought.

Just think, if I was a little less busy, you’d be getting a thousand words of that today. Small miracles, hmm?