…is working the casino circuit, and at Caesars Palace, no less:

President Bill Clinton will speak at The Colosseum @CaesarsPalace on Mon., Feb. 22 at 7:30pm. Tickets go on sale Monday!

via The Colosseum ColosseumatCP on Twitter.

Why do I say “another?” About a year and a half ago, Mikhail Gorbachev played the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Hotel and Casino.

So if the hierarchy is Clinton–> Caesars, Gorbachev–>Hard Rock, who is going to sign for the Star of the Desert Arena in Primm?

Seriously, that’s got to be a bit of a comedown–from leader of the free world to a casino showroom. At least Reagan could say that his gig at the New Frontier came 25 years before his presidency.

Linn Mills and Dick Post. Nevada Gardener’s Guide. Revised Edition. Franklin, Tennessee: Cool Springs Press, 2001. 272 pages.

Few, if any, people move to Nevada for the gardening, but it is possible to grow a healthy and productive garden in the Silver State. In the NEVADA GARDENER’S GUIDE, authors Linn Mills and Dick Post–respected authorities in Southern and Northern Nevada, respectively–help the novice gardener learn how to develop a greener thumb.

The authors start by walking the reader through the basics of Nevada gardening. As a desert region, Nevada has large swings in temperature. Two helpful maps show the heat zones and cold-hardiness zones, which the plant descriptions that make up the meat of the book refer back to. This is invaluable–by following Mills and Post, you will pick the right plants for your region, which should save plenty of heartache later.

Like other gardening books, the NEVADA GARDENER’S GUIDE has detailed information about individual plants. Most of the book is made up of single-page summaries of individual plants. Each has a photo, a descriptive paragraph written by one of the authors, , info on how to plant, growing tips, care instructions, tips on design, and the authors’ “personal favorite” variety. The full-color illustrations on each page give the reader a good idea of what their plant should look like when in good health. With the watering, sun, and pest-control information, keeping them in good shape should me much easier.

After the introduction, the book is divided into 12 parts, each dealing with a different category of plant: a few include annuals, cactuses, ground covers, palms, shrubs, and trees. If it grows in the soil (or a pot), you’ll likely find it in here.

In short, this is an indispensable aid to gardeners in any part of the state. Armed with the information here, you’ll feel better picking out plants in the nursery, planting at the right time, setting your watering timers. It’s a wonderful reference work that should pay for itself many times over.

There are a lot of corporate and property newsletters out there, and most of them promote upcoming deals, salute big winners, and generally promote the fun that’s going on. Wynn’s newsletter, though, takes it a step further–you actually learn more about the properties in some of the articles. Instead telling you when you can get a meal in a restaurant for cheaper, it enhances your understanding–and probably enjoyment of what you’re paying for. Case in point: Elaine Wynn’s description of Sinatra from the latest newsletter:

Our goal with the look of Sinatra was to pay tribute to the man without turning the restaurant into a museum. With that in mind, Roger conceptualized a lovely palette that was both neutral and fresh, and filled the space with highly sculptural pieces to offset the oversize portraits of Frank. A perfect example is this lovely antique ship; Roger came across this and the pair of obelisks that flanks it at the Paris flea market. The three pieces are Sicilian in origin and resided in an Italian restaurant in Paris, which sat empty for many years until it was dismantled. This trio happened to arrive the same day Roger was touring the flea market. He didn't have anything quite like this in mind, but as he tells it, he walked by the stall while they were being brought in, and he wasn't five steps away from the stall before he was returning to inquire about them.

via Wynn Las Vegas & Encore Newsletter – 2010 January – Moment of Discovery.

You should click through and read the whole story–it’s quite interesting.

Does knowing that Roger Thomas found these antiques by chance in a Parisian flea market add to your appreciation of them? I think so. The thing is, every casino has hundreds of stories like these, both about the places themselves and the people who’ve been in them. Obviously, most of the visitors don’t care about these stories–they just want a place to sleep, gamble, and eat, and if they can get a good deal, that’s enough for them. But I think that there are plenty of folks who would be intrigued by the stories–the lore, you could call it if you were feeling expansive–of casinos. It would make them feel more personal, and more fun.

Wynn’s got the right approach by sharing these sorts of stories. I’d like to see more casinos do this, either through blogs, newsletters, or iPhone apps. Just imagine a hotel-specific app that didn’t just tell you what a restaurant’s hours were, but related the bio of the executive chef adn talked about where some of the menu items came from. You wouldn’t just be selling food–you’d be selling a story for the same price. And people want stories.

A few weeks ago, I started talking about a tiered pricing model for Strip hotels on the Vegas Gang. I took some time to

On one side, pro-fee advocates argue that they offer convenience. On the other, resort fee opponents maintain that fees are poorly advertised and shock the customer. There may be a way to please both groups of visitors, those who want convenience and those who want low prices. A tiered pricing model, in which customers get to pick one of several levels of service for the same room, might help generate additional revenues and give guests a greater feeling of control over their experiences, which may translate into greater customer satisfaction and stronger bottom lines.

For example, imagine a three-tiered pricing structure for a guest room, with “standard,” “gold,” and “platinum” levels.A guest booking a room at the “standard” rate would receive a room key and not much more. He or she would have to pay extra for virtually every other hotel service; for example, to visit the health club, use the Internet, or make phone calls.

At the “gold” rate, customers would receive everything that came with the standard, plus free wireless Internet, phone calls, bottled water, copies of the local paper, etc.

For guests looking for more, a “platinum” rate could deliver all the benefits of the gold rate, plus several extras — dining credits, a selection of prix fixe menus at select hotel restaurants, tickets to the hotels big show, complimentary spa services, and nightclub admissions.

Guests opting to “go platinum” will value cost-certainty and convenience over spontaneous choice.

Some resorts are already offering something close to platinum-tier pricing. Wynn Las Vegas, for one, offers several packages, including a golf getaway, jetsetter package, romantic retreat, and the Ultimate Wynn Package, that offer guests varying levels of amenities.

We’ve seen the trend towards cost certainty become popular over the past year in Strip restaurants. From all-day, single-price buffet offers to prix fixe gourmet dining, visitors have responded positively to the chance to pay one price for an expected level of service. It stands to reason that an operator to apply this model more broadly to the total guest experience could become a trend-setter.
Companies owning several properties along the Strip are particularly well-poised to offer a variety of dining and entertainment options that will generate true economies of scale and diversity.

Whether it’s called tiered pricing, a vacation package, or something else, this may be an idea that needs to be explored more aggressively as resorts seek to defend their market share in what promises to be a challenging year.

via Las Vegas Business Press :: David G. Schwartz : Tiered room pricing: A modest proposal.

I came in about 250 words over for the article which was shortened for publication, and I included some of the cut material in the quote above where I lay out the proposal.

The industry’s moving in a few different directions right now, and this is one of them. I’m sure that there are a million back-of-the-house reasons not to do this, but coming at this from the consumer’s perspective, it deserves consideration.

For several reasons, the political landscape in Florida has now shifted, and the expansion of commercial casinos is more likely than it has been in years. From the Miami Herald:

Ellyn Bogdanoff has given up. Once one of the most ardent opponents of gambling expansion in the Florida House, the Fort Lauderdale legislator is now ready to open the doors to full-fledged casinos because, she says, Florida “is losing the battle'' to the Seminole Tribe.

Backed by one of Las Vegas' largest gambling magnates, Bogdanoff wants to allow casinos at five to seven “destination resorts'' throughout the state through the Florida Gaming Equalization Act.

Under the plan, voters would first have to approve the casinos in local referendums. Then, a state gaming commission would grant permits for the convention-focused entertainment centers. Applicants could range from the big names of Vegas to Florida's parimutuel industry. The expansion would offer competition to the Seminole Tribe's Hard Rock casino resorts near Hollywood and Tampa.

Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., told The Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times on Friday that he is prepared to invest in bringing mega-convention centers and casinos to Florida that would include shopping centers, theaters, spas, hotels, restaurants and, yes, full casinos.

One possibility: a $3 billion resort casino that could create as many as 7,000 jobs, he said.

via Lawmakers push for full casinos in Florida resorts – Florida – MiamiHerald.com.

I did a little bit of consulting for a group that was investigating Florida gambling back in 2006, including a presentation before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Business Regulation, so this is an issue that I’m interested in. I’d want to look at the current numbers before saying anything concrete, but my analysis in 2006 showed that there was substantial room for growth in the state’s gaming industry. Since then, there has been expansion–Class III gaming, slots at tracks–and it would be interesting to run the numbers again to see how much more room for growth there still is. If nothing else, the past two years should have proven that the market isn’t infinite.

For those interested in the potential impacts and issues that the “mega-resorts” might have in Florida, I humbly recommend two books: my own Suburban Xanadu (particularly the last chapter), and Eadington and Doyle’s Integrated Resort Casinos.

Good news: we are able to offer the research felllowship program for the 2010-11 academic year. Here is the job announcement:

The Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas http://gaming.unlv.edu invites graduate students and academic faculty to apply for month-long residency fellowships. Fellows will spend one month doing research at UNLV Special Collections. Although primarily in English, the holdings include many texts in French, German, and Italian. This, the largest gambling library in the world, spans the 17th to 21st centuries and includes manuscript collections, casino corporate archives, promotional and publicity files, and government publications.

What you get
A $4,000 stipend to cover housing and expenses
Desk space in the UNLV Special Collections Reading Room

What you give
One month’s residency in Las Vegas
A public lecture relating to your research near the end of your residency
A brief paper that will be published as part of the Center’s occasional paper series
Ultimately, a larger publication article, chapter or book that showcases your research

Who’s eligible
Both academic faculty and ABD graduate students are encouraged to apply. Applicants primarily represent the fields of history, economics, English, history, sociology, and anthropology, though those from all disciplines with relevant research interests are encouraged to apply. Suggested fields of research include Las Vegas history, the history of gambling, and comparative studies of gambling in literature, history, and society.Before applying please learn as much as you can about the scope of the collections—priority will be given to applicants who specify collections they plan to use. Visit the Center website for more information about the program, past fellows, and the collections.How you applyFor the 2009-2010 academic year, please submit the following by July 16, 2010:
1. A cover letter briefly introducing yourself
2. A short 2-4 page description of the proposed research, with details on secondary research already done and sources to be used at UNLV
3. A full curriculum vitae
4. One letter of recommendation that evaluates your past research and current project
5. For graduate student applicants, a dissertation prospectus or article-length writing sample

Please send all materials and any questions about the program to the center’s director, Dr. David G. Schwartz, at dgs@unlv.nevada.edu. Please submit all materials electronically. Paper submissions and those that do not include each of the five above elements will be automatically excluded from consideration. Successful applicants will be notified by August 13, 2010 and will schedule their residency on a first-come, first-served basis.
UNLV is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity educator and employer committed to excellence through diversity.

You can view a printer-friendly pdf of the position description here.

via Center for Gaming Research: Fellowships.

If you are eligible, I encourage you to apply. The selection committee usually has dozens of applications to sort through, and we’ve gotten some very strong researchers in over the past few years.

A few more thoughts about Atlantic City, culled from a few

Advisers to Gov. Chris Christie have called for casino regulatory reform, a public-private Atlantic City marketing initiative and possible state intervention in city government as ways to save New Jersey’s casino industry from competition and its “failed” business model.

On Friday, Christie released 19 transition team reports containing dozens of recommendations for reducing and reforming state government. The detailed proposals include making Atlantic and Pacific avenues in Atlantic City one-way streets, accelerating Atlantic City International Airport expansion and building an Atlantic City Expressway interchange for the airport and a new aviation research facility.

Another idea mentioned, although not endorsed, is to privatize the state lottery and have it work with New Jersey racetracks, which have sought to install video-lottery terminals, which operate like slot machines. The report calls for consolidating New Jersey’s declining racing operations.

In a report critical of Atlantic City government’s handling of finances, transition team members called for an unexplained “state presence” in city government to ensure fiscal efficiency.

via Christie advisers call for casino regulatory reform, marketing of Atlantic City – pressofAtlanticCity.com : Today’s Top Headlines.

I believe that proposals to make Pacific Avenue one-way have been floating around since before World War II. I’ve come across them going back decades. These infrastructure issues don’t address the main problem, which is declining appeal for the city as a whole.

The report boils AC’s decline down to four issues:
1) Increased competition in “Convenience Gaming” in the 5 State mid-Atlantic region.
From 1990 to 2009, Atlantic City has gone from a “monopoly”, to a scattered
competitive marketplace of 26 existing alternatives of VLT/Slots with close to a
doubling of the supply of gaming product in recent years. Atlantic City remains the
only alternative in New Jersey, but has been surrounded by a “picket fence” of
competitive interests in surrounding states; the vast majority of which are
principally stand alone warehouses of slot machines with little non-gaming product
(no hotels and little in the way of night life, retail and food offerings). The newest
generation of increased Atlantic City competition through convenience gaming is
New York’s Aqueduct Racetrack pending 4,500 VLT facility. This needs to be
monitored.
2) Impact of the “Great Recession” on customer’s spending.
3) Partial Smoking Ban has material revenue impact (est. 10% decline).
4) Perception of Atlantic City as unsafe and unclean arising from a failure to invest in
the areas surrounding the casinos, and local government’s inability to manage this
current reality, in spite of unparalleled tax revenue per capita on a statewide peer
basis.

DRAFT TRANSITION REPORT
NEW JERSEY GAMING/SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT COMMITTEE

Here’s my take:
1. Competition: It’s not going away, and it was inevitable. National casino expansion really took off circa 1990, so the city’s casinos have had 20 years to prepare. One way to fight it, as this report suggests, is to follow the Las Vegas model and add unique attractions. That’s not going to be perfect–it increases dependence on fly-in and high-spending customers, who are more sensitive to economic fluctuations than moderate-spending day-trippers–but it’s a start. If you doubt that, compare the 20-year trends for Las Vegas and Reno.

2. Recession: Not much you could have done about this.

3. Smoking ban: Even a complete ban would lead to a temporary decline, but Delaware’s history suggests that the numbers will rebound within 3-4 years. If the current anti-smoking trend continues, I wouldn’t be surprised to see most American casinos limiting smoking within ten years.

4. Perception: This is an area where the city’s casinos can make a difference. The city needs a message, and needs to stick with it. I don’t think that people come to Las Vegas because it has a reputation as a particularly clean or safe place; most big cities, in fact, have issues with crime and blight. People come to Las Vegas to have fun. Can you have fun in Atlantic City? I think so, and potential visitors need to find that out.

The best thing for the people trying to restore Atlantic City to do at this point would be to take a long look at what Las Vegas has done right. Once, Las Vegas was primarily a gambling destination, with a heavy reliance on Southern California. In the past ten years, Indian casinos have cut into the Southern California market. But even with the recession, Las Vegas is in a better place now that it was in 2000–which is more than Atlantic City can say at this point. Why?

Las Vegas was able to transition into areas as disparate as business meetings and nightlife: Atlantic City should make investments in these, particularly in the meetings market, since that will boost mid-week occupancy and keep hotels full. A combination of business travelers spending more on f&b, lodging, and entertainment, supplemented by what remains of the day-tripper market, can give a mid-week base for both non-gaming and gaming revenues. Then on the weekend resorts can focus on attracting higher-end destination gamblers and travelers. The convention room rates will provide a base that will let the resorts offer better-class rooms that can make money seven days a week, not just two.

It won’t be easy–there are many negative perceptions to overcome, as well as some serious renovation and construction work–but at least it will give the city a chance.

Jane White. America, Welcome to the Poorhouse: What You Must Do to Protect Your Financial Future and the Reform We Need. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: FT Press, 2010. 247 pages.

I’m leery of anyone who tells you what bad shape you’re in, then says that they and only they can help you get out of the fix you’re in. It’s a modus operandi that snake oil salesmen honed to perfection years ago, probably because it works. Still, I approached this book with an open mind, despite the subtitle (”What you must do to protect your financial future”).

Then on pages 16 and 17, White says that it’s essential that 401 (k) participants be able to buy software that tells them to “contribute the maximum, don’t time the market, and stick with index funds,” helpfully disclosing to readers that she’s “interested in developing this software.” Suddenly, it seems that while the advice might be good, it’s at least a tad self-serving.

Indeed, the first part of the book is all about 401 (k) plans. White believes that it’s unjust that people aren’t forced to contribute more money to their 401 (k) plans, and makes no bones about the fact that ordinary people shouldn’t be allowed to “shoot themselves in the foot” by managing their own retirement portfolio. There are two numbers that she returns to, time and again, without explaining why they are important. Throughout the book, White insists that Americans must have ten times their “final” salary saved in their 401 (k) by the time they retire, without explaining why nine times is too little and eleven times is too much. Second, she proposes that the federal government mandate that all employers with more than 9 employees be forced to contribute 9 percent of their salary to a 401 (k) plan. Again, why 9 (for both criteria) and not 8 or 10?

White’s thesis–that it would be good policy to legislate adding an additional nine percent to labor costs overnight–seems to fly in the face of what we known about the economy. She doesn’t consider that employers might lay off employees or cut salaries to compensate. It’s like she thinks employers are just going to pull this extra nine percent in compensation out of the same hammerspace that she pulled the nine employees/nine percent number. I kept waiting for her to explain it in more detail, but she didn’t.

Besides the dodgy macro-economics, much of the book is partisan finger-pointing that doesn’t advance the debate on retirement security or help people planning for their retirement. At this stage, most Americans probably don’t care whether Bill Clinton or George Bush did more to contribute to the mess we’re in: they just want honest solutions to get out of it. More disturbing is White’s contempt for the rich, who she believes should have to pay proportionally more taxes, again without thinking that this might lead people to become less productive, which surely is to the detriment of everyone.

Personally, I got a hoot out of her statement that “a college education should be a taxpayer subsidized right for low- and middle-income Americans…no family earning $60,000 or less should have to pay anything for college.” I couldn’t disagree more, even though I’m a tenured faculty member of a university and were such a law to pass it would doubtless personally benefit me. That’s because I think that you don’t value what you don’t pay for. If you want a college education, you should have to pay at least something for it. White makes some good points about Sallie Mae wreaking havoc with the student loan process, but the solution is to mandate low-interest student loans and work study opportunities as well as merit-based scholarships, not give away college to anyone whose family happens to not make more than $60,000 a year (another arbitrary number).

White also snarks about gambling as “one of the sleaziest industries of all, in which the ‘house always wins’–otherwise how would the industry make any money?” in a throwaway line, that again betrays a misunderstanding of how businesses work. How does any business, from an ice cream stand to a 401 (k) manager, stay in business except by taking in more money than they pay out?

The book closes with some standard populist invective against “greedy and needy politicians,” with demands that Congress become “closer to Main Street than to K Street” (the Washington street on which many lobbyists have offices). It’s not particularly original. As political agitprop, it’s serviceable for those of both parties who want to “throw the bums out,” but it doesn’t help Americans trying to plan for their retirement.

In between all of this fluff, there is some helpful, but unspectacular, advice to Americans: spend less, save more, and stay out of debt. Of course, if everyone buys less the retail and ultimately manufacturing sectors will tank, so it’s probably best that not everyone takes her advice. The personal finance stuff in general is simple common sense, and nothing that would justify a $23 book purchase. So maybe readers should take her advice and economize–in this case you should take the money you would have spent on this book and save it for your retirement.

There’s another negative milestone for Atlantic City slots: in December, they got less play than slots in Pennsylvania. From the AC Press:

Gamblers are putting more money into slot machines in Pennsylvania than they are in Atlantic City.The Gaming Industry Observer says December was the first month ever that slot-machine handle in Pennsylvania surpassed Atlantic City's.

Editor Joseph Weinert calls it a milestone that is a result of declining slots play in New Jersey and rising slots play in Pennsylvania.The difference was $2.1 billion in Pennsylvania to about $2 billion in New Jersey. On top of that, Weinert is forecasting an increase in Pennsylvania's slots revenue in 2010 and a drop in Atlantic City's.

However, Atlantic City casinos brought in more money total because of table games revenue there. Pennsylvania just legalized table games earlier this month.

via Pennsylvania slots revenue surpasses Atlantic City for first time – pressofAtlanticCity.com : Latest News.

There were some interesting comments on the article, including one about parking that says pretty much what I’ve been saying for a while, namely that Atlantic City casinos should not charge for parking. If you are driving to Atlantic City from the Philadelphia area, here are the tolls you’ll pay: $4 to get back into Philly, $6 roundtrip at the Egg Harbor toll plaza, and $1.50 roundtrip at the Pleasantville toll plaza. That’s $11.50, just to get to town. Factor in gas (probably 5-6 gallons, roundtrip, at $3 per) for another $15 or so. Then add a parking charge that can be as high as $25 if there’s a convention in town. We’ve got $27.50 total driving costs before the parking, and then another $5 to $25 on top of that. At a minimum, that’s $32.50 or so that the patron has spent to get to your casino.

Why should they pay more and spend more time getting to Atlantic City when they can get to a PA casino quicker? Even if they have fewer comps, they’ve just saved themselves the cost of a meal by cutting out those driving costs.

If I was running an AC casino’s marketing department, I’d seriously consider giving anyone with a PA driver’s license $30 in freeplay just for walking through the door and comp their parking. That might make it worth their while to make the drive. Sure, it’s a big giveaway, but at this point it should be clear that it’s necessary.

PA slot casinos have an effective tax rate of 55%. AC casinos have an effective tax rate of about 9%. Shouldn’t they be able to offer a better experience to players if they invest part of the 46 cents on the dollar more that they keep back into the facility or into marketing?

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. I was at the Winter Getaway over the weekend, and since coming back I’ve been absorbed in some faculty governance work that is time-consuming and tedious. It’s mostly very dry procedural documentation and that sort of thing, but it’s actually made me look forward to getting back to crunching the Delaware revenue numbers.

Anyway, I saw this story in the LVRJ and had to post it as one of those “only in Vegas” things:

The Wetlands Park nature preserve will be closed until at least Saturday due to slight flooding, Clark County officials said today.

via Flooding brings closure of Wetlands Park – Breaking News – ReviewJournal.com.

Is that an example of irony? The wetlands park is closed because it’s too wet? My east coast residents got a good chuckle about the Christmas wonderland thing that Opportunity Village does being closed last year because of snow, and I’m sure they’d get a laugh out of this, too.

Kim Nelson. A Desert Gardener’s Companion. Tucson, Arizona. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2001. 328 pages.

Gardening in a desert isn’t easy, but in A DESERT GARDENER’S COMPANION, Kim Nelson offers helpful advice about how to tend trees, flowers, vegetables, and herbs in the arid southwest. Written from her Arizonan perspective, it’s nonetheless valuable to those who live throughout the region. There’s not much that Nelson doesn’t cover, including loads of information on how to buy seeds, when and how to plant, how to irrigate, how to arrange plants for maximum aesthetic appeal, and pests to watch for (and how to counter them).

The book is laid out chronologically, starting with the first week in January and ending in the last week of December. Nelson provides week-by-week guidelines for what to sow, what to plant, and what to cut back. As a cover-to-cover read, the mass of information that Nelson presents might be overwhelming–and intimidating to novice gardeners. It’s particularly disquieting to learn just how much can go wrong, from root rot to fungal diseases to insect herbivores. If your plants can survive this Biblical onslaught, however, you get the sense that you’ll have a pleasant, productive garden.

In addition to supplying the nuts-and-bolts details of selecting and cultivating plants in the desert, Nelson shares her passion for gardening with the reader. This might be the best part of the book–feeling the excitement that soil, plants, and sunlight can stir in someone. If I get a tenth of what Nelson gets out of gardening, the reader might think, I’m going to love this.

Considering you could easily spend more than the cost of this book on a terra cotta planter, A DESERT GARDENER’S COMPANION is a wise purchase for anyone looking to grow a desert garden. You’ll be much better informed and more confident buying plants at the nursery and shepherding them to full growth, and probably save a great deal of costly trial and error. I look forward to letting Nelson guide me as I work with my own modest corner of the desert over the next year.

Breaking news from the LVRJ:

Penn National Gaming will not submit a bid for next week’s planned bankruptcy court auction of the shuttered Fontainebleau project, a company spokesman said Thursday.

via Penn won’t pursue Fontainebleau – Breaking News – ReviewJournal.com.

What? I don’t believe this. It was supposed to be a sure thing! This is shocking news. Now, if this was a company that had been talking about getting on the Strip for years and had failed to pull the trigger on more than one deal in the buyer’s market of late 2008/early 2009, I could see why people would be skeptical, but…

Oh, right.

One of the things that’s been keeping me from rolling out that slot hold survey is the jurisdictions section of the Center for Gaming Research website. During the podcast I did with Steve Bourie, I talked a bit about how the section was a work in progress. Since then, I’ve been trying to get it somewhere close to what I envision for it.

Optimally, I want the section to become a starting-point for research into gambling in all the US states, with historical info and stats on lotteries, pari-mutuel wagering, commercial casinos, and Indian casinos.

I’m posting the first jurisdictional summaries with less than this–mostly lottery and commercial casino info–because I figure it’s better to get started and get some of the info out there than to have nothing at all.

So, here are a few summaries that you can browse:

Nevada

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Delaware

Iowa

Colorado

Illinois

Mississippi

I’m in the process of doing the Delaware summary, and it’s a lot of fun. The regulators post the monthly slot data, but no annual summaries, so there’s a lot of math involved, with plenty of room for error, which means I have to do a lot of double-checking. It keeps me off the streets.

…rather than the opposite, as this incident–unfortunately caught live on camera–from CES shows:

Reporter Dan Simmons from the BBCs technology show Click managed to break a mobile phone marketed as “unbreakable”, during a demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

via BBC News – Reporter breaks an unbreakable mobile phone at CES.

Click through to see the video–you’ve got to feel bad for the CEO.

Is there a law that the more assiduously something is promoted as unbreakable, the more likely it is to break in a high-profile and often-embarrassing way?

Things are looking up in Nevada for the first time in a long time. The state’s casinos won more money from gamblers this November than they did last November. Yet there may be another story that isn’t as positive lurking beneath the numbers. From the LVRJ:

For the first time in 23 months, Nevada gaming revenues increased with casinos statewide collecting $873.2 million in November, a 4.35 percent climb compared to the same month a year ago.On the Strip, gaming revenues were also up for the first time in almost two years. Strip casinos collected $473.8 million, an 8.3 percent jump compared with the figures from November 2008.

In the locals market, November gaming revenues were up 19 percent on the Boulder Strip, almost 21 percent in North Las Vegas and 2.6 percent in the balance of the Clark County.

via Nevada gaming revenues increase for the first time in 23 months – News – ReviewJournal.com.

There are some very interesting patterns here. The big winners statewide were baccarat and pai gow, which increased 136.9% and 26.12% respectively. Slot machines actually did a little worse (down 1.58%), and since they account for the bulk of the state’s gaming, it’s very fortunate that bacc win more than doubled.

Does this mean that we’re out of the woods? Handle, rather than win, is probably a better gauge of consumer interest. Let’s look at the total money played on baccarat in the past two Novembers:

Month Win Hold% Handle
Nov 2008: $39,780,000 10.45% $380,669,856
Nov 2009: $94,237,000 13.54% $695,989,660

So while the casinos got much luckier in November 2009, the total amount played increased by about 83%. Even if they had won at the same rate that they did in November 2008 (10.4%), they still would have made about $73 million from baccarat–a definite step up.

Let’s look at slot handle:

Month Win Hold% Handle
Nov 2008: $558,114,000 5.73% $9,740,209,424
Nov 2009: $549,340,000 6.28% $8,747,452,229

So if you’re a glass-half-full kind of person, you can say that slot play decreased by about a billion dollars from year to year–not the stuff of a major comeback, and certainly nothing to pat yourself on the back about. The hold percentage increased by about a half-point. Could this have something to do with the decline in handle? It’s worth considering. While most of the increase in hold has been driven by players migrating to higher-hold denominations rather than managers tightening up existing machines, the decline in slot machine handle is cause for concern.

It’s paradoxical because players are voting with their feet in two separate directions. On one hand they are playing the high-hold denoms more: statewide win on pennies rose by about 10%, on multi-denom by 4%, and dropped off considerably for everything else, including massive declines in every denom over a dollar (though the $100 drop is complicated by a miniscule ,069% hold percentage). On the other hand, they are playing less, almost exactly 10% less than the year before.

Looking at hold is only part of the picture–looking at handle says a great deal more.

How about the Strip? Here are some highlights from November 2009: Bacc win, up 136%, pai gow, up 58%, and bingo, with total revenues of $212,000, up over 800%.
The lowlights? Craps was off by 32%, due in part to a lower than usual hold percentage; slots were down by about 4%, and sports books won much less in football betting than they did the year before, though the hold (5.23%) was a bit on the low side.

With slot handle down and bacc handle up considerably, the lesson seems to be that the high end is doing better than the low end. From that perspective, it’s good news for City Center and bad news for the lower-tier operators on the Strip and statewide. There appears to be some room for growth in the high-end market that will justify the increase in supply, but it looks like demand for slots continues to weaken.

In a nutshell: good news for some, but I’d keep the champagne on ice, at least until someone figures out how to get slot players to come back en masse.

The November 2009 visitor numbers are positive, with the caveat the the increase in visitation (2.9%) was slightly outdistanced by the increase in room supply (3%). People are coming back to Las Vegas, but they are spending less on their rooms (room rates are down 23% year-to-date) and less at the machines.

The Atlantic City gaming numbers are in, and 2009 was definitely not pretty. From the AC Press:

Casino revenue plunged for the third straight year in 2009, falling below $4 billion for the first time since 1997 as the soft economy and competition from neighboring slot parlors continue to erode the Atlantic City market.

Year-end figures released today by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission show that revenue from slot machines and table games declined 9.8 percent in December and fell 13.2 percent for the entire year for total winnings of $3.9 billion.

Analysts predict there will be no recovery in 2010 because of the persistently weak economy and even fiercer competition from the Pennsylvania and Delaware slot parlors. Both states will be adding Atlantic City-style table games this year in a major expansion of their gambling industry.

Atlantic City has been on the decline since peaking at $5.22 billion in revenue in 2006. Revenue slipped 5.7 percent to $4.92 billion in 2007 and was down 7.6 percent to $4.55 billion in 2008.

In contrast to Atlantic City, Pennsylvanias gaming market posted a 28.1 percent jump in December slot revenue, thanks to the grand opening of the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem and the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh in 2009.

via Atlatnic City casino revenue off 13%, 3rd straight year of decline. – pressofAtlanticCity.com : Latest News.

You can check the Atlantic City casino stats page to verify that, indeed, Atlantic City has retreated to 1997 revenue levels.

Let me put that in a different way. The last time casinos made this much (or little), Bally’s Wild Wild West was the latest and greatest thing on the Boardwalk. Twelve years of growth–factoring in everything from the opening of the Borgata to expansions at the Taj, Tropicana, and Harrah’s–has been wiped out.

I’ve always been opposed to talk of a “death spiral” in my hometown, but it should be clear at this stage that the city needs some bold, dramatic action to turn things around.

If you want to read more about Atlantic City, check out Part II of my brief history of the Tropicana in the month’s Casino Connection. Enjoy.

Miklos Vamos. The Book of Fathers. Translated by Peter Sherwood. New York: Other Press, 2009. 480 pages.

This is a thoroughly Hungarian novel that has some crossover appeal, particularly if you think 19th century Russian novels are too light-hearted. Twenty pages in, an entire village is laid waste, not for any strategic military objective, but just out of wanton cruelty. And that’s just the beginning. The novel traces the Csillag/Sternovzsky/Stern/Csillag over twelve generations. Each chapter tells the story of one of the sons/fathers, and along the way the reader learns a bit of Hungarian history. If you already know a great deal about that country, you’ll probably understand the context of the tragic action much better, but if you don’t know much, it might whet your curiosity. In a novel like this there isn’t a plot, in the sense of a hero chasing a Mcguffin before a resolution a few pages before the end. Instead, it reads like a personal history of 300 years with the focus shifting from father to son through the generations.

That being said, it’s an intensely absorbing work, if you can handle the emotional sledgehammer that slams down at the end of just about every chapter. Just as you become engrossed with the life of one of the Csillag men, it invariably ends in tragedy–banditry, dueling, pogrom, political execution, Holocaust. There are not many happy endings in these pages.

I don’t think I’m overstating the violent tragedy of much of the novel. Indeed, the author addresses the issue in a delightful epilogue, noting that Hungarians have been on the losing side of every important war and revolution they’ve partaken in since 1490 before repeating a well-worn but nonetheless apt Hungarian joke whose punchline I won’t spoil, but which perfectly reflects Hungarian history.

The epilogue also puts the book into better context–it certainly makes the larger story that surrounds the Csillag clan much more lucid for non-Hungarian readers. You may want to read it first, for insights into the psyche of both the nation and the author. In some senses a meditation on nationhood, in others a study of the loss of familial memories over time, THE BOOK OF FATHERS is a thought-provoking and amazing read.

Great news for Pennsylvanians who like to play table games, bad news for Atlantic City, as Pennsylvania has, to no one’s surprise, approved table gaming. Here’s the reaction from the AC Press:

Pennsylvania’s slot parlors won’t stop at table games as they prepare to evolve into Atlantic City-style resort casinos in a fierce battle with New Jersey for gambling customers.Blackjack, craps, poker and other games will help generate revenue for construction of new hotel towers, retail shops, restaurants, spas and nightclubs — which in turn will broaden the appeal of the Pennsylvania gaming market, casino executives say.

Previously, Atlantic City casino executives had mocked Pennsylvania’s slots-only gaming parlors as “one dimensional.”Much is at stake in the competition between Atlantic City and Pennsylvania. Table games generated $1.4 billion in revenue in 2008, about 30 percent of Atlantic City’s overall take of $4.5 billion. The remaining 70 percent, or $3.1 billion, came from slot machines.

Atlantic City’s revenue figures for 2009 will be announced Monday, though Atlantic City already is hurting from competition from Pennsylvania for slot customers and the weak economy. Through the first 11 months of 2009, the city’s gaming revenue fell 13.5 percent, to nearly $3.7 billion.

via Tables turn in Pennsylvania’s favor: Casinos hope to attract more players with better games – pressofAtlanticCity.com : Atlantic City.

You can find more details of the bill at Gaming Today. Basically, racinos and slot parlors will be able to add 250 games (for reference, the standard Strip casino has 80-100) and the resort casinos can have 50 tables, but can add more slot machines.

Atlantic City has until the summer, or maybe the fall, before the first cards are dealt. The clock is ticking. Unless the casinos can develop some kind of attraction that the Pennsylvania casinos don’t have, or can somehow deliver a customer experience that would justify the extra hour drive and expressway tolls, they can consider the Pennsylvania market–and maybe parts of New Jersey and New York–lost.

There’s a very real possibility that Atlantic City will become a local gaming hub for New Jersey and a few nostalgic Philadelphians.

For a while in the early 1980s, Atlantic City was out-earning the Las Vegas Strip in gaming revenue and visitation, and was being hailed as the up-and-comer. Then as the Strip pulled ahead, it settled into a position as “the casino capital of the East,” with pretty much everything east of the Mississippi potentially feeding it. Then the spread of Indian and riverboat casinos started cutting into that market–Delaware racinos and Connecticut Indian casinos most remarkably.

In the early 1990s a few innovations–24-hour gambling, poker, and keno were the biggest–gave the city’s casinos something new. In 2003 the opening of the Borgata proved that Vegas-style resorts could work. Still, revenue and visitation numbers have been declining. Here are some figures from UNLV’s Atlantic City casino page:

Visitation
2005 34,924,000
2006 34,534,000
2007 33,300,000
2008 31,813,000
2009 ???

Total Resort Revenues (Gaming+Non-Gaming)

2005 6,264,017,000
2006 6,528,927,000
2007 6,256,038,000
2008 5,839,136,000
2009 ???

Gaming Revenues
Year Total win Slot win Table win
2001 4.3 billion 3.1 billion 1.2 billion
2002 4.2 billion 3.3 billion 1.1 billion
2003 4.5 billion 3.3 billion 1.2 billion
2004 4.8 billion 3.6 billion 1.3 billion
2005 5.0 billion 3.7 billion 1.3 billion
2006 5.2 billion 3.8 billion 1.4 billion
2007 4.9 billion 3.5 billion 1.5 billion
2008 4.5 billion 3.1 billion 1.4 billion
2009 about 4.0 billion? (rough mathematical projection based on 11 months at $3.7 billion)

You’ll notice that visitation has declined since 2005, and total revenues have declined since 2006, which makes this a pre-recession problem.

In the last table, you’ll see that slot machine win has fallen to 2001 levels, offset slightly by an increase since then in table game revenues, which is attributable to the competition from Pennsylvania slots after 2007. Pennsylvania tables will undoubtedly cut into the AC table game win in 2010, so it’s possible that the industry will fall well below 2000-era revenue levels. Nevada, by comparison, is back to 2004/05 gaming revenue levels right now.

At this rate, Atlantic City’s going to end up in the stone age in ten years.

Did you know that there is a casino named the Las Vegas Sun? It’s in Cambodia, according to casinocity.com:

Las Vegas Sun Hotel & Casino Address
Chantrea District
Bavet, Svaay Rieng
Cambodia
Contact Information
General Information – +855 44 945 045
Las Vegas Sun Hotel & Casino Hotel

* Las Vegas Sun Hotel (Casino located within the Hotel)
Contains 120 Standard Rooms.

via Las Vegas Sun Hotel & Casino – Casino City.

What they don’t tell you is that the hotel is actually named “Las Vegas Review-Journal,” though they have separate management teams.

I’ve never been inside the Las Vegas Sun casino, but I wonder if they even know that they’ve used the name of a longtime Las Vegas newspaper. Maybe they do, and they’ve got a statute of Hank Greenspun out front.

It makes you think that we’ve just scratched the surface with casino themes. Perhaps media-based themes are the next big thing?

Or perhaps not.

If you’re curious, here’s another podcast interview that I’ve done in the past few weeks, with American Casino Guide:

For the January podcast Steve interviews David Schwartz, Director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. They discuss some of the materials contained in the Gaming Research collection, plus they talk about some of the unique documents and artifacts that are featured on the Center's web site.

To visit the podcast page, go to: www.americancasinoguide.com/podcasts.shtml

On that page you can also access past interviews with noted gaming authorities, including: Jean Scott, Max Rubin, Bob Dancer, Stanford Wong, Arnold Snyder, John Grochowski, Henry Tamburin, John Robison, The Wizard of Odds, Bill Burton, Jeffrey Compton, Anthony Curtis and Linda Boyd.

via January 3, 2010 Vegas Values Report – American Casino Guide.

I mostly talk about the Center for Gaming Research website, so if you haven’t checked it out, now you’ve got a personal tour. I’ve been spending most of my time since I did the interview sprucing up the jurisdictions section. There’s four projects there: converting the existing pages to the new CGR page format, which is wider and centered (in line with the eventual UNLV web standard); getting ready to add material from the 2009 Nevada Gaming Abstract; adding more states to the mix; and adding lottery statistics to states with lotteries. It’s time-consuming, but I’m making some progress.