This is the online home of David G. Schwartz, who writes extensively about Las Vegas, gambling, and history. He's the Director of the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV and has a Ph.D. in United States history from UCLA.
You can learn more on the about page.
…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.
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?
Taking a minute from the grind of analyzing the April Nevada gaming revenues, I figured I’d post this story, which surprisingly hasn’t really been picked up by the Vegas blogosphere. From KLAS:
The Raelian Movement is announcing plans to build a UFOland in Las Vegas where visitors can attend a Happiness Academy and see a full-size replica of a UFO.
Raelians believe that humanity was created by extraterrestrial scientists and they want to share their belief with visitors to Las Vegas. They will also host a museum and a 1000-seat theatre where their spiritual leader, Rael, will give lectures.
"The museum will display all the evidence weve gathered for the past 35 years that shows we were indeed created by scientists — highly advanced human beings from another planet," said Ricky Roehr, leader of the North American Raelian Movement.
He said he expects the UFOland to become one of the most popular destinations in Las Vegas within the next five years.
If I recall correctly, these are the same folks who announced that they’d cloned a human being several years ago.
I wonder if they’ve spent much time in Las Vegas, though. Unless Rael is going to do impressions, magic, ventriloquism, comedy, or all four, I can’t see him filling the room.
I’m not entirely convinced that calling their spiritual center “UFOland” and putting it in Las Vegas is the best way to establish their legitimacy. Slot machines did pretty well for the Fosterites, so maybe I’m wrong here.
In 1969, Florida-based fast-food chain Lum’s bought Caesars Palace. Lum’s was best known for their hot dogs and beer, but the company owned a slew of businesses, including the Abner’s family fast food chain (which didn’t serve beer), Dirr’s processed meats, and Eagle Army-Navy stores.
One of the top items on Lum’s menu was the “Lumburger” which was probably just an ordinary burger cooked at Lum’s.
Why is this notable? If you’ve seen Office Space, you already know. If not, here’s a clip of the unforgettable Bill Lumberg in action:
I just picture ordering the burger as being something like this: “Yeaah, I’m going to have to go ahead and ask for a Lumburger, all right? And could you throw some tomatoes on there too? Is that a problem?”
This was funnier in my head than it is on the web.
I guess this is what’s going to become of the Cosmopolitan. from the LV Sun:
Hilton Hotels Corp. of Beverly Hills, Calif., said Tuesday its creating an eclectic brand called Denizen Hotels and is working to bring that brand to Las Vegas and other major destinations.
"Denizen Hotels, a lifestyle brand that will attract business and leisure travelers across cultures and generations and has an authenticity that will appeal to today’s sensibilities, will be highlighted by exceptional design and service at an accessible price point," Hilton said in a statement, adding it will be part of Hiltons luxury portfolio that includes the Waldorf Astoria and Conrad Hotels & Resorts brands.
I don’t like pooh-poohing new ideas, but this brief description seems remarkably free of any real meaning. “Lifestyle brand” is empty corporate-speak, and by their very nature most hotels attract a range of travelers from different backgrounds, who have in common one thing: they don’t mind paying for their room. “Exceptional design and service at an accessible price point” is in the eye of the beholder–I certainly wouldn’t take their word for it.
Some specifics would let potential visitors make up their own minds. Obviously, you can’t have that for a “brand concept,” but without those specifics, the brand really doesn’t stand for anything.
Outside of saying, “we’re opening a new hotel,” does this sound like anything besides pretentious babble? In establishing a “brand” before anyone’s stayed in a room, they’ve really put the cart before the horse or, in this case, the room service.
As more people have less cash, many of them are turning to bartering goods and services. It’s a bold leap back to the Iron Age for America’s formerly fastest-growing metropolis. From the LVRJ:
According to a craigslist spokeswoman, the site has seen a "significant growth in our bartering section as craigslist users get creative to keep their cash in their wallets during this troubling economy."
In November, 1,681 Las Vegans posted ads on craigslist offering trades. That's up from November 2007 when 1,081 ads were posted.
The Barrs placed an ad in December offering mechanical work, housecleaning, welding, yardwork or massage to anyone who had a Barbie Power Wheels Jeep to trade. It was to be a gift for their 3-year-old daughter, one they couldn't afford to buy. They haven't found any takers, yet, but Amanda Barr says they've had many past successes.
"It's actually worked out really well," she says. "We helped people move last week and they said, 'Whatever we don't fit in the van, you guys can have.' "
They have traded for tools, dirt bikes, four wheelers, home goods and other items.
Wendy Mackin has a 65-inch HDTV. She bought it three years ago for $7,000 but wants to replace it. For two weeks, she tried to sell the TV but had no takers. Finally, Mackin offered it on craigslist in exchange for an exterior house paint job, landscape work, irrigation repair or other outside work.
The response was strong and immediate. She negotiated a deal with a licensed painter.
Too bad there’s not a big demand for writing and editing services out there–it looks like I’ll just have to keep paying cash for everything. But if there are folks out there who’d be willing to trade for a high-energy, humorous forty-five minute talk on the history and secrets of casinos, shoot me an email.
It’s apparently official: Devine Racing will be out of the Las Vegas Marathon after this Sunday’s run. From the LV Sun:
Devine will not manage the race after this year. A company that operates successful marathons across the country is taking over. San Diego-based Competitor Group Inc. thinks it can eventually draw as many as 30,000 runners to the course, with its starting line on the Strip.
The 2009 race will be renamed the Rock ’n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon, joining a lineup of nine marathons the Competitor Group will hold next year across the country.
In those races, the company features unique courses — near the Alamo in San Antonio, through Music Row in Nashville and along the ocean in Virginia Beach — coupled with rock bands lining the roads and big concerts at the end.
Peter Englehart, chief executive officer of the Competitor Group, acknowledged the formula will need some tinkering in the next year for it to work in Las Vegas.
“We usually do a big headliner rock concert,” Englehart said. “But in Las Vegas there’s concerts every night.”
Not to mention the Cirque shows, the comedians, the magicians and the ever-present allure of the casinos.
Competitor Group’s record gives the Las Vegas running community good reason for hope.
It’ll be great to have some new leadership at the event. I’m going to be running in the race this year, and with all of the uncertainty about the event it seems almost anti-climactic. I’m sure it’ll be fun, but it sounds like it will be a bare-bones race this year.
I’ve got no doubts that a marathon can work in Las Vegas, but running a marathon has got to be the most anti-Vegas thing in the world. It’s not about decadence or instant gratification–quite the opposite, in fact.
In more good news, the rodeo is in town! Which means the scent of animal dung swirling around campus. Of course it also means lots of thrilling roping and riding and millions of dollars in consumer spending, but I’m just giving you my perspective.
Some folks down in Cape May, NJ (home of the Winter Getaway) thought it would be a good idea to relocate a colony of feral cats. Now, they are beset by skunks. From the AC Press:
McGlade has run the oceanfront eatery next to Cape May Convention Hall for 28 years, and never before had a major skunk problem. There have been a few over the years, she said, and every once in a while a whiff or two of their presence is noticed, but recently they have become more numerous and very brazen.
“One was heading into the restaurant when a waitress gently guided it out the door. We believe they live under Convention Hall. There’s definitely more than one family there,” McGlade said.
One theory is that the relocation of a feral cat colony under Convention Hall created a vacany for the skunks. The state and federal governments pushed the city to move the cats off the beachfront because of concerns they could kill endangered beach-nesting birds, including the piping plover.
Animal Control Officer John Queenan said he has gotten very few calls about skunks on the beachfront in his 23 years of working in the city but that suddenly he is being inundated with such calls. Queenan said he relocated the feral cats to the Cape May Harbor area in February, and he began receiving skunk complaints this summer.
“Nature takes its own course. One species in eradicated and another comes in,” Queenan said.
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?
Reading this article by Virginia Postrel, I started thinking about how “inconspicuous consumption” might translate on the Las Vegas Strip. Then I got back to work. But then I figured I should share some thoughts with the rest of you. Here’s just the most relevant part of the article, which you should read in its entirety at The Atlantic:
Virtuous or vulgar, what all these items have in common is that they’re invisible to strangers. Only your friends and family see them. Any status they confer applies only within the small group you invite to your home. And the snob appeal Brooks pokes fun at corresponds to the size of the audience. Many friends may see your Jacuzzi or media room, but unless you’re on HGTV, only intimates will tour your master bathroom. A slate shower stall may make you feel rich, but it won’t tell the world that you are. As peer groups get richer, the balance between private pleasure and publicly visible consumption shifts.
Russ Alan Prince and Lewis Schiff describe a similar pattern in their book, The Middle-Class Millionaire, which analyzes the spending habits of the 8.4million American households whose wealth is self-made and whose net worth, including their home equity, is between $1 million and $10 million. Aside from a penchant for fancy cars, these millionaires devote their luxury dollars mostly to goods and services outsiders can’t see: concierge health care, home renovations, all sorts of personal coaches, and expensive family vacations. They focus less on impressing strangers and more on family- and self-improvement. Even when they invest in traditional luxuries like second homes, jets, or yachts, they prefer fractional ownership. “They’re looking for ownership to be converted into a relationship rather than an asset they have to take care of,” says Schiff. Their primary luxuries are time and attention.
The shift away from conspicuous consumption—from goods to services and experiences—can also make luxury more exclusive. Anyone with $6,000 can buy a limited-edition Bottega Veneta bag, an elaborately beaded Roberto Cavalli minidress, or a Cartier watch. Or, for the same sum, you can register for the TED conference. That $6,000 ticket entitles you to spend four days in California hearing short talks by brainy innovators, famous (Frank Gehry, Amy Tan, Brian Greene) and not-so-known. You get to mingle with smart, curious people, all of whom have $6,000 to spare. But to go to TED, you need more than cash. The conference directors have to deem you interesting enough to merit one of the 1,450 spots. It’s the intellectual equivalent of a velvet rope.
As for goods, forget showing off. “If you want to live like a billionaire, buy a $12,000 bed,” says a financial-planner friend of mine. You can’t park a mattress in your driveway, but it will last for decades and you can enjoy it every night.
Heading back to the Strip, if you are insecure about your wealth, you waste $15K by spraying expensive champagne around a nightclub. If you’re not, you spend $15K for a luxury suite with butler service.
If I have the time to do the serious research, I’d like to really write something about conspicuous vs. inconspicuous consumption on the Strip, because in recent years there has been a real shift towards the latter. In the 1990s, the best parts of the hotels were open to public view: the Mirage’s volcano, Bellagio’s lake, and, even older, the Frontier’s neon sign. Wynn LV was the first to save the best part for the paying guests: only they can really appreciate the Lake of Dreams.
And the real attraction for Wynn or Bellagio–or anything that’s planned–isn’t so much what’s happening in public, where people can see you, but the rooms, which are private.
Is this a sign of the maturing Strip market? A signal of a larger American cultural shift? I don’t know yet, but with luck I’ll have the time to look into it…must investigate further.
When I worked casino security, I used to enjoy seeing all sorts of strange items turn up in the lost and found. But I never got anyone arrested, like these folks did. From foxnews:
A man has been charged in Kitsap County for possession of a controlled substance after he made the mistake of attempting to retrieve a bag containing methamphetamine from the Suquamish Casino’s lost-and-found.
The casino’s security officer alerted the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office when the bag was found to contain three knives, a bag of white crystals identified as meth, some jewelry, a small digital scale and some blood pressure medication.
The 33-year-old Seattle man’s identification was also in the bag, which was turned in by a customer.
As a deputy was speaking with the security officer this week, the man came up and told him he was looking for his missing black bag. The man confirmed the bag was his and a deputy placed him under arrest.
The man was also charged with possession of prescription drugs without a prescription and possession of a dangerous weapon.
These days, I consider myself lucky if I have time to sleep. So I was a bit taken aback to learn, through some completely serendipitous web browsing, that some people, calling themselves lotologists, have invented a new hobby. From Word Spy:
lotologist (law.TAWL.uh.jist) n. A person who collects new and used lottery tickets.
This is apparently not a hoax: there is a website, lotologist.com, that looks legit. There’s even an annual Lotovention that is being held at the East Liverpool Motor Court in East Liverpool, Ohio this year.
This is more evidence that if something exists, no matter how ephemeral, people will collect it.
I can think of better ways to spend your time and money, but if it keeps you out of trouble, more power to ya.
This, of course, from a guy who’s posted a gallery of carpets from casinos around the country.
Pollsters have known for a long time that you can often elicit a different answer based on how you phrase a question. For instance, most voters would say yes to a questions about whether they support government doing more to help educate children about gambling, but would answer no if asked whether taxes should be raised to fund a plan to put a copy of a well-known gambling history book in every classroom in the state.
In the referendum process, getting the right name can be a make-or-break proposition. A successful Minnesota anti-smoking measure proves this. From the Bemidiji Pioneer:
On Oct. 1, Minnesota went smoke-free. Just three months later, the Freedom to Breathe Act was blamed for the decline in charitable gambling. The folks who made these charges during a legislative hearing neglected to mention that charitable gambling – mainly pull-tab sales in bars – has been on the decline for years. Membership in fraternal organizations has declined, and there are ever more ways for the gambler to be separated from his or her money: tribal casinos, Internet gaming and super lotteries like the Powerball.
I mean, who would possibly say that they oppose the freedom to breathe?
It’s certainly harder to oppose that than it is to permit the government to constrain individual rights by legislating proper behavior.
But could you imagine the headlines if this thing hadn’t passed?
“Minnesota to Breathers: Drop Dead”
“MN says no to O2″
“Voters strike right to breathe”
Whoever came up with that name should have a job for life.
…or the Nevada budget situation is far more dire than we’ve been led to believe. From KLAS:
Buckley said one of those areas needs to be prisons. The finance committee went ahead with plans to close the Jean prison, saving the state $11 dollars. It had been closed and reopened twice before.
You know your career’s heading downhill when you used to playing parliaments and congresses, but now you’re being booked into bingo halls and casinos. And not even Strip casinos:
At first I thought this was some kind of mistake, or my sleep-deprived brain was playing tricks on me. But no, the former boss of the Soviet Union–remember how well that turned out–is speaking at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Hotel & Casino later this month. You can buy tickets here.
I can guarantee that when he first proposed glasnost and perestroika, Gorby never thought it would end up like this.
So who do you think opens for him? Yakov Smirnoff, maybe?
Some of the students who failed a new math test shouldn’t have been in the class in the first place, longtime educator Bill Hanlon told the Clark County School Board on Thursday.
Up until a few years ago, the only students who took algebra in high school were the ones planning to go to college, said Hanlon, who is director of the Regional Professional Development Center, set up by the Nevada Legislature to train teachers. Now, the School District requires all students to pass algebra, regardless of their individual circumstances.
That’s unrealistic for “special needs” students, said Hanlon, who helped write the test to measure students’ mastery of the semester’s material.
And then, Hanlon said, there are the students who simply don’t value education, “the offspring of parents that probably go to the ‘Jerry Springer Show.’ ”
Algebra is actually very important to learn, and is hardly advanced theoretical mathematics. There’s absolutely no way that you should have a high school diploma and not be able to do some basic algebra. I use it all the time in working on gaming stats. For example, the Nevada Gaming Control Board gives data on the total gaming revenue (customer losses) and casino winning percentage. Thanks to simple algebra, I can use the two numbers to find the theoretical handle, or total amount wagered. And I’m not a “math person” by any stretch of the imagination. I never made it up to pre-calc, and I haven’t taken a math class since high school. So I’m just saying it’s got some practical use, and you’d be better off knowing it.
Of course, if you just want graduates who (barely) know enough to count down their cash drawers and do inventory, then I guess there’s no crying need for algebra. I understand that there’s not a lot of respect for education in Southern Nevada. But if the leaders in the educational system aren’t going to value learning, who do they think will?
And if you’re an elementary or high school student and think you don’t need to get a good education to get a good job, maybe you have a point: you could probably get a job waiting tables or parking cars without knowing algebra or having read for pleasure. But I can guarantee you the CEO knows how to solve for x.
Looking for something completely different, I found this gem, courtesy of MSNBC:
Near-misses often turn into hits, especially in a place where trouble is likely to find you. For example, you shouldn’t be surprised when you travel to a third-world country with an atrocious air safety record, and your plane overshoots the runway, bursting into flames.
I can’t speak from experience, but I honestly feel that “surprise” probably won’t be predominant emotion you experience as your aircraft is engulfed in flames.
It would have been funny, though, if someone from Lost had said, as they scrambled out of the wreckage of Oceanic 815, “Boy, I sure didn’t see THAT coming!”
If you don’t bother to click through to read the rest of the article, know this: there is a Vegas connection. If you want to be safe(r), stay on a lower floor.
Wow. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has gone mirror universe on us, running a piece by a “behavioral health consultant” whose premise is that sadism is good. I’m not exaggerating:
But I find useful the broader colloquial understanding of the word; namely, the human capacity to experience a deep and pleasant feeling of satisfaction, humor, entertainment and revelry in someone else’s pain, humiliation, discomfort or otherwise diminishment. I like this broader definition mostly because then everyone has to struggle with it. Not just me. Ha-ha.
….
I’m telling you, sadism is an entertainment gold mine.
Sadism in small doses, when combined with good faith, can make positive contributions to the human experience. Some thread of sadism can be found in teasing, interpersonal parody and satire. (Healthy families and healthy marriages do a lot of teasing, parody and satire!) Sadism is an ingredient in tickling and practical jokes, the stuff of life where I grew up. Lovers use the metaphor “sweet torture.” Surprise! A splash of sadism is present in moments of healthy sexual courtship, as couples take turns in “the driver’s seat” of dominance and control.
Before I unpack this piece of…writing, how about an update on the mirror universe?
In the Star Trek mythos, the mirror universe was first expressed in the 1967 Original Series episode Mirror, Mirror. Because of a transported malfunction, Kirk & company end up in a parallel universe where there is no Federation of planets, only a Galactic Empire run on fear and greed–and Spock’s got a beard.
Later series returned to the mirror universe, particularly Enterprise, in a two-parter called “In a Mirror Darkly,” which is, for my money, one of the best episodes of that series. If you don’t want to click over to see what that’s about, let me describe the opening credits: the usual Enterprise credits have scenes of peaceful exploration running under an inspirational pop song soundtrack. You can see it here.
By contrast, the two mirror episodes have scenes of war and devastation with a stirring martial track:
In the Enterprise mirror universe, the usually kindly and jovialDr. Phlox can barely suppress his glee as he torments a captured prisoner, and everyone is simultaneously scheming and fearful. It’s a world without a shred of empathy, compassion, or dignity.
Reading this column, I had to check to make sure I hadn’t taken a wrong turn off the 95 and ended up in a mirror universe Vegas. The author’s point seems to be that it’s OK to hurt other people, as long as it’s done in moderation. In fact, he says, it’s all just good clean fun!
Just because people are sadistic doesn’t mean that we should strive to incorporate sadism into our lives. After all, people do all sorts of horrible things to each other. This doesn’t make it right. Iit’s ironic that on the same day this column ran, the RJ had a cover story about a senseless gun-wielding idiot killing a high school student in Summerlin.
I’d like to think that we live in a society where we don’t place our own immediate gratification above everything else, including the rights and dignity of others. A world where, as Lincoln put it, the “better angels of our nature” have the upper hand. But seeing a column like this by a “behavioral health consultant” makes me wonder just where we’re headed.
On the lighter side, the more I think about it, the more I think that I might, in fact, already be in the mirror universe. In the Star Trek mirror universe, everyone is greedy, bad-tempered, and promiscuous. Sounds a lot like a weekend in Vegas, doesn’t it?
There’s a proposal floating around–at the state level–to drug test candidates for public office. I say, this is long overdue. From WLTX (South Carolina):
People filing for public office would also have to submit to drug testing under a proposal pitched by a state senator.
Senate Republican Leader Harvey Peeler filed his bill a day after news broke that former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel had been indicted on a federal cocaine conspiracy charge.
The June indictment came just six months after the Republican Charleston real estate developer took office.
Ravenel pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and faces up to 20 years in prison. But his plea agreement calls for a reduced sentence because Ravenel has helped prosecutors with their investigation.
The way I see it, if people have to take drug tests to get hired in fields with far less responsibility than public office, it is hypocritical not to require elected officials to pee into cups along with the rest of us. I’d make this mandatory for all elected offices, particularly at the national level. If I had to pass a drug test to get a job giving people directions to the bathrooms and buses at the Trump Taj Mahal, it’s unfathomable that the person who has their finger on the nuclear button doesn’t.
But I wouldn’t stop there. Many jobs require applicants to take a battery of aptitude and personality tests. I say candidates should have to do this as a sort of truth in advertising. You say you’ve got the smarts to engineer a better tomorrow for America? Well, the voters have a right to see what they’re working with.
The danger, I think, is that candidates would sandbag the intelligence tests, knowing that nobody like a know-it-all and hoping that they could get elected simply on their earnest, aw-shucks enthusiasm. Still, at least we’d have something to go on instead of soundbites.
This story didn’t happen in Las Vegas, but it could have. From the LVRJ:
A 6-foot-3, 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet line, then banned him and a relative because they’re hearty eaters. A spokesman for the restaurant denies the claim.
Ricky Labit, a disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular for eight months at the Manchuria Restaurant in Houma, eating there as often as three times a week.
On his most recent visit, he said, a waitress gave him and his wife’s cousin, 44-year-old Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults.
“She says, ‘Y’all fat, and y’all eat too much,’” Labit said.
Labit and Borrelli said they felt discriminated against because of their size. “I was stunned, that somebody would say something like that. I ain’t that fat, I only weigh 277,” Borrelli said, adding that a waitress told him he looked like he a had a “baby in the belly.”
Houma accountant Thomas Campo said the men were charged an extra $10 each on Dec. 21 because they made a habit of dining exclusively on the more expensive seafood dishes, including crab legs and frog legs.
“We have a lot of big people there,” said Campo, who spoke for owner Li Shang, whose English is limited. “We don’t discriminate.”
Labit denied ever being told he would be asked to pay more than the standard adult price.
The argument grew heated, and police were called.
The police report states, “The incident was settled when the management advised that the bill was a mistake and, to appease Ricky, the meal was complimentary.”
Labit said he insisted on paying but was told not to come back. He complained that when seafood on the buffet line runs out, the restaurant only grudgingly cooks more.
I know that I’ve been posting sporadically lately–and it’s probably going to get worse this spring–but if there’s one thing that’s sure to draw my attention, it’s injustice at the buffet.
I can’t imagine anyone with even a tiny sense of shame getting so worked up about a buffet that the police have to be called. I would have liked to have read the incident report for that call.
Kudos to the waitress for “you look like you have a baby in your belly.” That’s some ace customer service right there. Obviously, the guy just had a lot of crab legs and frog legs in there.
As far as “I’m not fat–I only way 277″ goes, I put the guy’s given stats into the body mass index calculator and discovered that, with a score of 34.6, he’s officially obese.
I don’t know who’s right here, but I wouldn’t get in the way of a 277-pounder and the crab legs.
This is the online home of David G. Schwartz, who 