The rise of traveler-generated online reviews has forced hotel managers to contend with anonymous posts from angry or disappointed customers.

For people in the business of promoting Las Vegas hotels, it has also opened the door for sneak counterattacks in the form of bogus positive reviews created to boost their clients’ image among the traveling public.

via Customer may not have written that online hotel review – Tuesday, June 22, 2010 | 2:01 a.m. – Las Vegas Sun.

The potential for industrial espionage is just about unlimited with online reviews. With a lot of money at stake, I’m not surprised that some people would try this.

Looking at a few out-of-market hotels recently, I saw that one hotel owner responded to a negative review by claiming it was put there by rivals trying to ruin him/her. While that may have been true, it came across as paranoid.

When I look at online casino reviews, I assume that you’re always going to have a small percentage of cranks who aren’t happy with anything. Looking at all the reviews, though, you see trends emerge: if most people say that hotel is noisy, or has bad service, or has the best blueberry muffins in the state, it’s a fair bet that this is a genuine response.

As far as TripAdvisor goes, it judges just how happy guests were with their stay, rather than the amenities or value a property provides. For the top 20 Las Vegas hotels (as of right now), there are just 7 five-star hotels–the rest are 3, 4, and even lower.

That being said, unless there’s a widespread campaign to sabotage Aria, you’ve got to consider that they’re tracking far below the other resorts in their class on TripAdvisor–ranked at #66 in the market, they are below the Four Queens and Planet Hollywood. While some of this may be because guests at the Four Queens have lower expectations, the fact that other five-star properties are ranked sixty places ahead of Aria should be a red flag that there are, at the very least, customer service issues at the resort.

I’d agree with Professor Erdem that casinos should really be using the negative reviews to engage their guests. At the very least this will help to weed out the bogus reviews, and at best it will help them resolve some issues.

The sluggish economy and fierce competition from Pennsylvania’s slot parlors for out-of-state customers have forced Atlantic City casinos to fine-tune their marketing strategies to focus more on the local area. In doing so, they have discovered there is a lucrative market right in their back yard. The four women, all from Atlantic or Cape May counties, like catching up on their gossip, but they are also drawn to the casino by food and drink specials aimed at local customers on what is typically a slow weeknight.

“You can have the same thing here Monday night at a special low price as you could on a Saturday night for a higher price. That makes it great for the locals,” said Essick, 46, who lives in Upper Township, Cape May County, and works as a saleswoman for a radio station.

“We have some affluent customers locally. Obviously, all customers have value to us,” said Dave Coskey, vice president of marketing at Borgata.

via Atlantic City casinos look closer to home for new customers – pressofAtlanticCity.com.

It’s a definite sign of the times, but if Atlantic City casinos are going to rely on the 300,000 adults that live locally for a significant chunk of their customer base, it’s hard to see how the industry can sustain itself at its current level. Marketing more to locals to fill otherwise-slow periods is a smart idea, though. Unfortunately, those slow periods are getting longer and longer.

Finding a reason other than gambling for people to visit Atlantic City is imperative.

The new casinos would have to pay a tax rate of more than 14 percent to compensate for the lesser amount they would have to spend, compared to existing, larger casinos, which pay just over 9 percent.

The bill has incentives to entice casino owners to add hotel rooms. Those who build 200-room hotels would be permitted 20,000 square-feet of casino space. If they expand to 500 rooms within five years, they would get 30,000 square feet of gambling, and would get back the extra 5 percent in taxes they paid to enter the market.

Conversely, if the owners of a 200-room hotel kept it that size after five years, the money they paid would be used for other casinos' expansion or infrastructure projects in Atlantic City.

Owners could opt for slot machines alone — which account for two-thirds of Atlantic City's casino revenue — or offer table games as well, which cost more to staff.

via Atlantic City eyes adding 4 small casinos – BusinessWeek.

This isn’t easing the regulatory burden: it’s adding another layer to it. Capping the number of “mini-casinos” at 4 seems like an unnecessary intrusion into the market. There’s no statutory cap on casinos now, and the market’s done a good job of limiting itself.

I don’t know exactly how you can justify using taxes paid by these new casinos to fund “other casinos’ expansion.” That seems like it’s subsidizing poor operators. Why should the Chelsea (for example), have to pay taxes that the Hilton uses to expand? Is that where this is going, or did I read it wrong?

As far as the cap on casino size at 20,000 square feet, that’s tiny. The average casino size in 2008 was 121,388 square feet, with seven casinos well over 100,000 square feet. The statistical average number of hotel rooms is 1,325. But it works out almost perfectly, at least mathematically: a 20,000 square foot casinos is 16.5% the size of the industry average, and 200 rooms is 15% of the industry average. So at least it’s scaled correctly.

Just how much money would a 20,000 square-foot casino make in Atlantic City? I’m going to do some really rough calculations. First, I’ll assume that with 15% of the floor space, the casino will have 16.5% of the gaming equipment. It would have about 24 table games and 512 slot machines.

Using 2008 revenue numbers as a guide* gives us a total approximate table win of $21.1 million, and a total slot win of about $46.9 million. That’s about $68 million in win a year, if the win is truly scalable.

With four total, that’s $272 million in total revenue; taxed at at 14%, that’s an extra $38 million in tax revenue for the state.

Keep in mind that if I’d have had 2009 numbers to work with, the win totals would be about 14% lower, so the total win per mini-casino drops to about $59 million. Considering the amount of money and effort that will be invested in starting up the casino and regulatory compliance, as well as staffing and promotional costs, there doesn’t seem to be much room for a good return on investment. If you’ve got 16.5% of the floor space, you’ll have a far smaller selection of games, which means that you’re going to have to work harder to attract customers.

Talk about “Monte Carlo-type” casinos is about 30 years out of date. Sure, some of the big Nevada casinos are doing well at baccarat, but is a $25,000/hand player really going pass up Wynn or Aria (or, for that matter, Borgata) to play at the Chelsea? If you can’t get that level of player, you’ve got to make your profit on volume, and that’s going to be very hard to do in this case.

It’s great that people are thinking about ways to attract investment, but I don’t think this is going to lead to the rebirth of the city. Bottom line, you need to look at what works for other destinations, and see how it can be adapted or improved. Lowering regulatory costs would be another great incentive, and this doesn’t seem to do that.

______________________________
*I did these calculations by using the historic win statistics to find average win per casino, then multiplied it by 16.5%. A crude method, but an effective one with the info that’s available.
Average numbers of table games (2008): 148
Average number of slots (2008): 3,102
Average table win:$128.4 million
Average slot win:$284.7 million

Casino revenue sank to its lowest level in 12 years in July, another ominous sign that there will be no summer turnaround for the troubled gaming industry.

In what is ordinarily the biggest money-making month on the casino calendar, revenue generated by slot machines and table games fell 12.7 percent compared with July 2008, according to figures released Monday by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

Altogether, the 11 casinos took in $383 million in winnings, the worst July since 1997. An even more dramatic comparison is this July versus July 2005, when casinos posted an all-time record of $504.8 million in revenue. The 2005 figure is 24 percent higher than this July.

Only Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort saved the industry from the ignominy of having every gaming hall in town suffer a decline. Boosted by a 45 percent jump in table game revenue, the Taj Mahal was up 8.7 percent overall for July.

Atlantic City has stumbled through 11 straight months of declining revenue and is heading for its third straight down year – a stunning slide considering that the first 28 years of casino gambling were consecutively higher.

Atlantic City casino revenue takes 12-year tumble, July figures show

Not good at all, and I don’t see any signs of this getting better any time soon. The institutional response seems to be “Batten down the hatches, ride out the storm.” That would be a great approach if things weren’t changing, but it’s obvious that the gaming landscape of the Northeast has changed considerably in the past two years, and will consider to do so. Further down in the article, there’s a statement that the hotel rooms are full, but day-trippers are staying away. Given that slot parlors have opened across Pennsylvania, one of the city’s primary day-tripper markets, that should be surprising. So maybe it’s time to build more hotel rooms?

Things just look bad. It doesn’t help that the UAW has put up billboards reading “EVERYONE LOSES” in giant type, with smaller type saying “At Bally’s and Caesars,” with a tiny, nearly invisible header that says “When workers are treated unfairly.” Seriously, I didn’t see that header until maybe the tenth time I saw one of those billboards. And they’re everywhere, from US 95 just north of the Philly airport to up and down the Expressway. If that’s not enough, they even had it on a banner plane, flying over the ocean for all of the beach-goers to enjoy. I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that, from a distance and at high speeds, you can only catch “EVERYONE LOSES” before you’ve driven past.

I’m not saying dealer unionization is good or bad–that’s for dealers and only dealers to decide. This just seems like the UAW is just poisoning the waters down in Atlantic City. I can’t think of too many things that are more demoralizing to potential visitors than a big sign saying EVERYONE LOSES. I guess this is the approach that’s brought prosperity and success to the American auto industry, so it should work wonders for Atlantic City casinos.

About the only bright spot for the city is the opening of Revel, which should bring in multi-day visitors who aren’t going to settle for a few hours at a Pennsylvania slot parlor instead. If it’s successful, it’s possible that other operators will finally embrace the “resort model” and join Borgata and Harrah’s. The key, I think, will be doing this in a way that’s not too upscale for the market. There are plenty of people who want to have a few days vacation and don’t mind gambling a bit, but don’t want to pay $200/night for a room or $100 for dinner. Atlantic City could position itself as a mid- to high-market destination resort, with some amenities for high rollers but the bulk of its room and f&b inventory geared at a slightly less affluent demographic. For the foreseeable future, it looks like everyone’s going to be slightly less affluent, anyway.

You can subscribe in iTunes here, visit the podcast page, or just listen to the mp3 here.

I’ve had reports of troubles with iTunes that I’ve hopefully ironed out, so if you subscribe to the UNLV Gaming Podcast and there aren’t 13 episodes available, please let me know.

Also, this episode marks the debut of opening and closing music and narration. It’s still a work in progress, so I’m open to any and all thoughts on the content and audio quality. Ditto for the interview itself. They were breaking down the room as we started it, so there is some background noise for the first five minutes or so, but it quiets down after that.

And if you’re curious about what I’m working on that’s got me too busy to share my thoughts on Episode V: The Donald Strikes Back, it involves the big project references above and cold-calling several casinos where I don’t have a contact to get some distribution. Since cold-calling is about my least favorite thing to do, I give it another hour or so before I retreat back to analyzing sold hold numbers.

By the way, I don’t recall reading this anywhere, but as far as the Trump stuff goes, there is a connection between Beal Bank and gambling. Andy Beal, the guy who owns Beal Bank Nevada, is a big poker player whose exploits in a famous series of games against some of Vegas’ best players were chronicled in Michael Craig’s The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King.

At the Colorado Grande Casino in Cripple Creek, the last security cameras are being placed over the roulette table.

At Bronco Billys Casino, gamblers are laying wagers on blackjack table in the new table games pit.

At the Wildwood Casino, general manager Kevin Werner is planning a pajama party to welcome the changes taking effect at the stroke of midnight Thursday morning.

Thats when the first dice will tumble on the craps tables, the roulette wheel will spin, and bettors will lay down Cripple Creeks first $100 wager. Like the stakes, anticipation is high and a lot is riding on the states Amendment 50 bet.

The changes Colorado voters approved by a wide margin in November could make Colorados three gambling towns destination attractions, high altitude Vegases drawing in the high rollers. At the very least, casino owners and workers are counting on the new games and limits to reverse the slide that started last year.

“Its history,” said Eric Rose, general manager of the Colorado Grande. “Its the biggest thing to happen to Colorado gaming in 17 years.”

via State to launch new games, new limits on Thursday – Colorado Springs Gazette, CO.

I just hope that they keep the popcorn. Colorado casinos are the only ones I’ve ever been in that have complimentary popcorn. It’s the saltiest popcorn I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s still popcorn, which means that it’s good.

On a more analytical note, it remains to be seen if the newly-liberalized gaming rules bolster revenues. This is still a regional market, at best, which isn’t so bad these days, since regional markets are facing the recession better than destination ones. Also, the industry is still pretty small, with gambling only in 3 towns. This may be more of a case of Colorado becoming another Indiana, not another Nevada, or even Mississippi.

Prominent poker players have teamed with big Las Vegas casinos to push for a law legalizing — and heavily regulating — online gambling.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff likes the idea, as long as it doesnt lead to tribal casinos or other forms of gambling in Utah.

"It is going to happen anyway, lets put some regulation in place," he said.

Shurtleff heard a pitch from the Poker Players Alliance during the spring meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C.

Shurtleff on legalized gambling: Deal me in – Salt Lake Tribune.

The article is unclear about whether this means online gaming would be OK in Utah, or whether Utah would agree to online gaming as a state option, much as terrestrial gambling is now. If its the former, that’s quite a change from past policies.

Congress has moved to prevent money from the proposed $825 billion stimulus package from being used for zoos, aquariums, golf courses, swimming pools and casinos, an effort to ensure the bill funds only what it calls the "highest quality" infrastructure projects.

Restrictions added to the stimulus proposal would keep the money from zoo projects, among other things.

Restrictions added to the stimulus proposal would keep the money from zoo projects, among other things.

"The purpose of this bill is to direct funding at projects that are primarily and clearly aimed at benefiting the economic conditions of communities and the public at large," the bill states. "The federal government and all other levels of government are directed to look with a skeptical eye at projects that don't meet that test."

Congress looks to keep stimulus cash from zoos, golf courses – CNN.com.

Let’s play a game. It’s called “what do these things have in common?”

Here’s how it goes: I list a bunch of things, then you tell me what they have in common.

Let’s try: zoos, aquariums, golf courses, swimming pools and casinos–what do they have in common?

One bright spot in this deep recession is that gamblers might be saying "Enough" to the lure of easy money and calling it quits. States, too, should call it quits on lotteries and not peddle this vice.

Lottery’s lure lost | csmonitor.com.

I’d like to meet the state legislator who proposes eliminating the lottery and either cutting school budgets even further or raising taxes to offset the difference. It may very well be that, long term, funding would be better secured without a lottery, but I don’t think there’s a politician left who thinks past the next election.

See, for example: David Patterson’s formula for New York’s continued prosperity: more gambling in bars, restaurants, and racetracks!

Asked to choose between the casinos and the health of the people who work in them, Atlantic City has sided with the casinos. The City Council voted in October to allow smoking in the city’s gambling parlors for at least another year — a complete cave-in to the industry and a cruel insult to hundreds of dealers, waiters and other casino workers who will continue to be exposed to the demonstrable risks of secondhand smoke.

Editorial – Gambling With Lives – NYTimes.com.

No, it’s not the fact that the Times editors are lambasting City Council for lacking “political courage.” At this stage of the game, that’s like an impassioned treatise claiming that rain is wet. It’s the “gambling parlor” thing. I know that they’ve got to work in a synonym or two for “casino,” but you can’t call something that’s 80,000 square feet and has 4,000 slot machines a “parlor,” can you? A quick web search turns up two definitions:

# reception room in an inn or club where visitors can be received
# living room: a room in a private house or establishment where people can sit and talk and relax

I guess it’s technically a “parlor” in the first sense of the word, but I think of a “parlor” as more intimate and more refined than most giant casinos.

My personal style suggestion is the more proletarian and raw-boned “gambling hall,” which I think is closer to the mark. “Gambling palace” also works, if you want to be more grandiose. “Gambling den” is fine with me, too, even though most of them took out their wood paneling a long time ago.

newsletter

My favorite is the desperate plea not to “FEED THE PIDEGONS!”

I’ve teased out the hierarchy of importance:
1. Somewhat important: “in quotes”
2. More important: “In Quotes, Capitalized”
3. Extremely important: “IN QUOTES, ALL CAPS”

Now, I’m afraid that I’ve been “infected” by the “quotes bug” and I’ll keep on “doing” this “ALL DAY.”

Try it, it’s “fun.”

But all I can think about is this Chris Farley bit.

That reminds of the Plaza trial. David McKee mentioned the Tamares attorney ‘channeling the feelings of the downtown Plaza, keening that, “I can’t be known as the old Plaza, I can’t be the cheap Plaza, I can’t be the bad Plaza.”‘

That’s pretty funny, but it would have been better if they’d have just played that clip.

Which raises the question: if you were to anthropomorphize the major casinos of Las Vegas, who would play who? Go ahead, play the game: pick prominent actors/personalities who could represent the casinos. I haven’t a clue myself, but I’d love to hear what other people think.

I’m going to have to break out some Trek abbreviation in the course of this piece, so here is some explanation: the 1960s show is “TOS” and the 1980s/1990s one is “TNG.”

Also, I want to make it clear that I’m not making any grand statements about the evolution of casinos on the Strip as objectively considered based on criteria like hotel size and numbers of casinos. I think that the changes we’re seeing today pale in comparison to the birth of the casino resort in the 1940s/early 1950s, the Great Leap Forward in size that followed the International (1969), the growth of the middle market in the 1980s, and the whole Mirage Revolution of the 1990s. I’m talking about perceptions among current visitors to the new casinos coming online–and the renovation of existing ones. If you consider the average tourist probably has a personal memory of the Strip going back to the mid-1990s, I think you can make a case that he or she is seeing something very different now.

Now that I’ve pointed out the flaws inherent in my analysis and bored some of you off this post, let’s have some fun and start analogizing!

TOS was a true product of the 1960s. It’s got a garish color palette, partially because TV execs wanted to make the most of that new innovation, color television. This leads to some interesting design choices: Starflleet officers wear bright, primary colors that look great on TV but probably aren’t what a group of military space explorers would actually wear. The acting was completely over the top. The special effects ranged from cheesy to laughable. Everything about the show was larger than life. But it was a great show that meant something to millions of fans.

How about the Strip circa 2000? It’s garish, brash, and basically larger than life. There’s a lot of kitsch out there, and it’s hard to take much of the place seriously. Still, it’s a lot of fun, and people love it.

Then, you’ve got TNG. The ship is bigger, and family friendly, with much, much more impressive technology. The colors are muted. Instead of boldly charging into space and seducing or being seduced by green chicks, the crew does an awful lot of diplomatic back-and-forth. There’s still lots of cool stuff, but it feels less like a wild adventure.

What about the Strip as it’s currently being reimagined? I think we can date the change precisely: July 10, 2003, when the fun skull and bones sign came down at Treasure Island. In its place we got a snazzier, more sophisticated electronic marquee.

Since then, there’s been a real move away from loud colors and cheesy entertainment on the Strip. Even the casinos that opened in the 1990s have replaced their loud carpet with earth tones. In general, casino interiors are looking much less fanciful and more subdued…almost smaller than life.

That’s just the interior. How about the outside? The casinos that went up in the 1990s looked outrageous: a pastiche of the New York skyline, a giant glass pyramid, a huge medieval castle. Since Wynn, sheer glass towers have dominated. Looking at the new crop, you’ve got City Center’s six-pack, all of which are sheathed in glass; the Fontainebleau, Encore, and the Planet Hollywood timeshare. With the exception of Palazzo and the forthcoming St. Regis, you’ve got a lot of “futuristic” glass buildings going up. And I forgot Trump’s gold glass tower. It’s impressive, but, with the exception of Wynn/Encore, not exactly fanciful.

What does this mean? On on hand, it’s a sign of maturity: Vegas has arrived, and we don’t need exploding volcanoes to get people’s attention. On the other hand, it’s not as exuberant as it once was.

I don’t know what all this means. No, wait. Let me rephrase that: I don’t…KNOW what all this MEANS. OK, I’m done channeling Shatner. Is there a big lesson here? Probably not? Am I trying to be the millionth person to say that Las Vegas used to be more fun? No, that’s not my point. I’m just trying to use an analogy that demonstrate the qualitative shift in Vegas in the past few years.

By most objective measures, TNG was a better show than TOS. It ran more than twice as long. It had a much bigger budget, and a far more consistent set of world-building guidelines. Episodes seem to move much faster–most TNG stories have an A plot, which usually unfolds on the planet’s surface, and a B plot, which more often than not involves Data back on the ship trying to understand what it means to be human, while TOS stories just plug away at a single plot for an hour. The recurring villains were way cooler–Q vs. Harry Mudd. Both shows had bad ideas–Spock’s Brain and the Ferengi stick out–and I don’t want to get into which one had more misfires. But the point is that on paper TNG is clearly the superior show. (Even though, the Clarinet of Spock notwithstanding, TNG could never do humor the way TOS could.)

But there are a lot of people who couldn’t stand TNG when it debuted, and while popular it never achieved the iconic status of TOS. “Beam me up, Scotty” is a phrase that virtually everyone knows. I’m not sure how many people could tell you who Geordi Laforge is, but it’s definitely far, far fewer. Twenty years from now, I doubt Hot Topic will be selling t-shirts with Captain Picard’s picture on them.

Does it come down to technical excellence versus passion? Execution versus imagination?

There are some lessons for casino designers here. Never underestimate the power of fun and creativity. Fans can tolerate cheap sets, ludicrous aliens, and hammy acting if they think there’s a point to it, if its all in good fun. They may be less forgiving of perfection.

P.S.–2 days later, I had another thought. In TOS, the captain usually led the away team, so he was often the first one a planet’s inhabitants got to meet. In TNG, the captain rarely goes on away missions. That’s smart, because I doubt that a real starship would send all of its senior officers into harm’s way routinely, but it means the captain gets less screen time.

Back in “the old days,” casino owners commonly walked the casino floor. Today, Steve Wynn might be the only one who regularly does.

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.

Casinos, certainly, have taken their place as legitimate businesses, and a former Harvard business professor runs the world’s biggest gaming company. So it’s not a question of whether people take casinos seriously — they are so potentially lucrative that everyone, particularly state-level politicians, pay attention.

No, it’s a deeper question, an existential query about the role of Las Vegas in the world.

Are we really living in what Hal Rothman called the first city of the 21st century? Are we the shock troops of the continuing transition to a service economy? Is Las Vegas a city that points the way to the future?

Or is it just a place where people come to drink footballs full of beer and yard-long margaritas and play nickel slots? Is Las Vegas really hip, or is it a city that real hipsters condescend to visit with a knowing smirk at the cheesiness factor?

Can a land that was once the king of fake be taken seriously?

Does it matter if most of Las Vegas is just an imitation of someplace else? I think it does, because eventually the appeal of the fake wears off. So the recent move to build properties that are just themselves–not fake somewhere else–is a good one.

This doesn’t mean that Fontainebleau and the LV Plaza (should it happen) should be lumped in with the fakes of the past. They are just Vegas outlets of budding (international) hospitality brands. No one would say that the Las Vegas Hilton is an enlarged copy of the Beverly Hilton–it’s been one of the most “authentic” Las Vegas casinos for almost 40 years. I see the Font and LVP as in that same mold.

I don’t have an inside line on the creative process that led to the choice, but from what I’ve read it seems that it was a name that no one hated and that didn’t have any copyright issues. There’s been a lot of discussion about the name on the web, and the consensus is that it’s less than inspiring.

As I said somewhere, I think that would be a great name for a condo or loft project overlooking a symphony hall or opera house, but doesn’t seem the best possible name for the casino in question. It’s not that it’s a bad name, or an absolute wrong choice. I just think that they could have taken it in a different direction.

So bear with me while I play keyboard warrior and presume to advise a group of people who have made more money designing and operating casinos than I could probably count. After all, there’s still time to change the name, if it’s not written in stone (or steel and glass) yet. Steve Wynn changed Le Reve to Wynn late in the game, and Bellagio developed from Beau Rivage, so anything’s possible.

First, I’ll list some names that we should be thankful weren’t chosen. This will prove to even the perennial second-guessers that Aria isn’t such a bad choice.

Luckily it isn’t…
>>> Shangri La: if this isn’t the single most over-used generic casino name in the world, I don’t know what is. Great for a small lounge with a tiki vibe and cheap Corona. Awful for a multi-billion dollar casino resort.

>>> Kirk’s Hideaway: I’ve always wished that other casino owners would take the Trump/Wynn tack and start naming their joints after themselves. Using this logic, Columbia Sussex would have rebranded the Tropicanas “Bill’s Bargain Joint” or something like that. They could name the new tower at Caesars Palace Gary’s Tower. Hey, Trump’s doing it at the Taj, so why not? “Kirk’s Hideaway” would be a bad name for the City Center casino, though, because it sounds like the kind of place where you can buy bait and tackle at the front desk, not a major resort.

>>> Coda: I’ve heard some people complain that Aria is derivative of Encore, but Coda is a complete ripoff.

>>> Boardwalk: Anymore remember the Boardwalk? The creepy clown? I didn’t think so. And I really doubt that this place is going to bring back that 24-hour buffet. But it would be funny if they went the Aladdin route and, after all the time and money spent building a new casino, named it after the old one.

>>> Glasshouse: Too many people in Las Vegas like to throw stones.

>>> Nomonca: It’s original, but I don’t think that you want to remind customers that the hotel is slightly north of the Monte Carlo. And it’s not a particularly euphonious name, either, though it does have three syllables.

>>> Chiaroscuro: In theory, this would be a great name. Because natural light is such a big part of the resort, an arty word that refers back to patterns of light and darkness makes sense. But no one would be able to pronounce it, and a small minority would think it was a Brazilian steakhouse. But it would put some teeth into that “intellectual engagement” aspect of the project. Personally, until someone explains to me how Elvis factors into intellectually engaging people, I’m a skeptic.

>>> MGM Grander: We all know it’s going to be nicer than the place across the street, but there’s no reason to rub it in, is there?

So we should be glad that it wasn’t any of those. But could it have been better? Let’s see.

Imagine if it was…
>>> Harmony: It plays on “Harmon,” which is the road that runs through the project, sounds nice, and has positive connotations. You could fool around with the logo, maybe writing it “HarmonY” to make it more distinctive. On the downside, it’s a little close to the “Harmon Hotel and Residences,” but that name could be tweaked, too. Maybe “3720 South Hotel and Residences,” or whatever its street address is. Or “Skylofts,” (or a Skylofts derivative) which is a nice brand for the rooms at MGM Grand that the company could do a lot more with. But I really like the Harmon name, since it’s an organic Vegas name, so it’d be a shame to lose it.

>>> Silhouette: With that name, you know it has something to do with light and shadow. The building has an interesting silhouette, so you’ve got your logo right there. On the negative side, people might have trouble spelling it, even though it’s easy to say.

>>> Cascade: Looking at the model and the building under construction, this name would definitely fit. It’s easy to say, and write, and it sounds clean and clear. Of course, they might get sued by the Cascada folks, but if you can’t copyright a curved semi-circle I don’t see how you can copyright a word, particularly if you don’t have a building with that exact name anywhere.

>>> Facet: This one fits the look of the building, and it ties in with The Crystals, the retail area that will be adjacent to it. Since this building will be the jewel in the crown of MGM Mirage, it’s got some added symbolic value, too.

>>> Apollonian: It sounds powerful, but not stodgy. And it makes sense with the whole “natural light” thing since Apollo was the god of light. It also sets up a nice Dionysian/Apollonian dichotomy. This based on Nietzsche’s philosophical distinction between, in short, reason and emotion. Apollo represents rationality, order, and progress, while Dionysus stands for ecstasy, chaos, and nature. This really fits in with City Center’s rational planning and futuristic design. Of course, most people looking for a room on the Strip aren’t going to immediately relate to philosophical constructs, so it might go over some people’s heads. And Las Vegas is really more of a Dionysian town than an Apollonian one, so they’d be fighting against the current.

>>> Silver Sky: I know this one sounds a little like Reno RV park, but hear me out. I was inspired by the description of the piece by Maya Lin that will decorate the lobby:

Famed artist Maya Lin is creating an approximately 133-foot silver cast of the Colorado River, which will be her first work of art displayed in Las Vegas. Lin is incorporating reclaimed silver in the spirit of CityCenter’s commitment to sustainability and in light of Nevada’s standing as the “Silver State.”

You’ve got a name that reflects the building’s look and its signature work of art in one fell swoop. But it would probably need some work so it didn’t remind people of the Silverbird or Silver Nugget. How about “Silverlight” or just “Silver?” I’m just throwing it out there.

>>> Sobella: I really, really like this name. This was the first working name for the project since it was South of the Bellagio. Sure, it doesn’t mean anything, but it’s a unique name (though, I’ve just learned, a handbag maker shares it–thanks Google). Well, if it’s not unique, it’s at least distinctive. Maybe a favorable deal on a store in the Crystals would quell any copyright action. Sobella sounds artistic, and is intriguing. It’s easy to say and spell, and pleasant-sounding.

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My vote would be with Harmony, Facet, or Sobella, but since I didn’t put a dime into the $9 billion or so project, I don’t get a vote. And that’s as it should be. For all I know, all of these ideas were proposed and shot down by people who know a lot more about this than me. It’s just my two cents.

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One last note: I see that Aria will have 4,004 rooms. I’m amazed that it wasn’t changed to 4,008 rooms to assuage the numerological superstitions of visitors from the East. It’s nice to see mathematics trump irrationality in a casino, at least once. Next time, let them build something with 4,013 rooms.