The RGJ quoted me extensively in a piece on, what else, casino carpets last week. Here’s a sample:

Casino carpeting is a hobby for Schwartz. He has posted shots of casino carpets throughout the nation on his Web site www.dieiscast.com. They’re wild and bright and follow a Nevada tradition that at least dates back to places such as Reno’s Riverside Hotel Casino in the 1930s.

And the Peppermill? That carpet might be at the core of the concept that bad carpet is good for gaming.

“It is the essence of the whole thing,” Schwartz said of the Peppermill’s carpeting. “You don’t get rainbows and planets at most places.”

Peppermill officials defend their spaced-out carpet, although they say it contains a subtle reminder that the Peppermill may be the place where visitors win.

“People always don’t notice the rainbows in the carpet but they have a perception of good luck,” said Bill Hughes, marketing director. “Rainbows give us a sense of good feeling.”

And the black, purple and aqua background?

“There is a practicality side to it, too,” Hughes said. “You don’t want a real plain carpet because people drop cigarettes on it and spill drinks on it.”

Casino carpeting: Whats bad for the eyes is good for business | www.rgj.com | Reno Gazette-Journal

The Peppermill really has the quintessential casino carpet.

And I have become the quintessential scholar of casino carpeting, merely by the virtue of having enough of a sense of humor about the whole thing to suggest that I am a scholar of casino carpeting. There really is no such thing; my “essay” on the subject isn’t really a serious academic essay so much as a modest proposal for future study into the field.

I’m starting to think that people might think that I’m really serious about the whole thing.

In that spirit, I’ve updated the Atlantic City gallery and moved several old AC carpets to the Hall of Fame.

Check out the new look for the Taj–as much as I like what they’ve done with the rest of the place, that new carpet is really bad. It’s actually a step back from the old pink and purple stuff, which I didn’t think was possible. Harrah’s on the other hand has put a real winner in–I liked it so much that I included an extra “bonus” shot at the bottom of the page. This is clearly the best carpet in town, and joins the carpet at Red Rock on the “I wouldn’t mind having this in (a very small area of) my house” list.

I don’t think I’ve said this before, but Bally’s might have the worst carpet I’ve seen in a while. I know someone said in the RGJ article that the Peppermill carpet looks like vomit, but the Bally’s floor literally looks like someone had too much pepperoni pizza and grape slushee and suffered what competitive eaters call a “reversal of fortune.”

If you are in Reno on Monday, October 1 at 4 pm, I really urge you to stop by Schulich Lecture Hall on UNR’s campus for what promises to be a great talk by Aaron Santesso, a UNR English professor. The lecture is presented by the Core Humanities Program and is called

“Dickens in the Casino: Surveillance, Empiricism, and the Novel.” Here’s a description:
Casino surveillance and the Victorian novel seem like odd bedfellows — and yet one might say that every surveillance agent is a Dickens fan at heart. This lecture will look at modern casino surveillance as a system which attempts to make the individual instantly knowable, and will trace the history of parallel attempted systems in eighteenth and nineteenth-century literature, philosophy and science.

Lecture flyer (pdf)

I’ve talked with Professor Santesso about his ideas, and I think the lecture is going to be brilliant. He’s asking and answering questions that aren’t immediately obvious, but make perfect sense. If you’re in Reno on Monday, you should see this.

When I signed on to teach in Reno one day a week, I didn’t know what I was getting into. This morning, I got an email alert that I’d like to share:

University Police would like to inform you that two bear sightings on campus have been reported during the early morning hours of September 12, 2007. The last report was that a bear was seen near the Texaco gasoline station on Virginia at approximately 6:40 AM.

If you see one of these animals, please DO NOT APPROACH THE BEARS. CALL 911. Other safety tips include:

- Don’t try to get a “closer look”;

- Do not corner one of these bears;

- If there are 2 or more of you, stand close together to appear more imposing;

- Make loud noises, such as shouting;

- Try to avoid eye contact, as some bears find this threatening behavior;

- Don’t turn your back or run.

Remember – if you see one of these animals, please DO NOT APPROACH THEM. CALL 911.

Growing up in Atlantic City and spending most of the rest of my life in LA and Las Vegas, I’ve never had to deal with bears much. This email told me what not to do, but not what to do. Strategically retreat? I dunno. I’m heading out for lunch now, and hopefully won’t run across any angry wildlife. This sounds like something out of the Borat movie, but I imagine that it’s no laughing matter.

Still, there’s something kind of cool about a bear alert in the middle of a mid-sized American city. I wonder how often this happens.

Today’s my first day of class at the University of Nevada Reno, so I’ve spent most of the day poking around campus and getting my NetID so I can log onto a computer, check my email, and see what’s happening in the world. Ergo, I will not post on any external news stories.

I never thought I’d use “ergo” in a post, but as steeped in academia as I am today it seems to feel right.

It’s nice being in a city that’s about 30 degrees cooler than Las Vegas, though I’m sure spending hours in the airport each week is going to take it’s toll. I finished most of Douglass North’s Structure and Change in Economic History on the way up (OK, I had a head start) and I’m looking to do quite a bit of reading while waiting for flights. The upshot for you? More book reviews, hopefully.

If anyone has any suggestions for a decent lunch spot on or around UNR’s campus, please email me. I had a spinach and cheese stromboli at the Overview in the student union today, and I’m not looking forward to 15 more weeks of that.

I’m going to be teaching in Reno next semester, and from judging from this article I should feel right at home. From the RGJ:

The gaming industry is soaring worldwide but not in Reno, a leading gaming analyst told a group of young Reno business leaders Wednesday.

“This is an $85 billion industry (annually in the U.S.), but as of 1982, it was a $10 billion industry,” said Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada. “So, that is quite an expansion over that period of time.

“That’s the good news,” Eadington told a class of the Leadership Reno/Sparks. “The bad news is that Reno is not really part of this.”

Reno left out

The growth in Las Vegas tourism and the proliferation of tribal gaming in Northern and Southern California has hurt the Reno market, Eadington said. Gaming has also grown in areas such as Oregon, Washington and western Canada, further cutting into Washoe County gaming, Eadington said.

…

The impact of the Pacific Northwest and Las Vegas is also important, said Reno gaming analysis Ken Adams, when asked to comment on Eadington’s speech.

“Go back to 1989 and look at Northern Nevada’s feature markets — California, Oregon, Washington and Canada,” Adams said. “I’m guessing, but there is probably about $20 billion worth of gross revenue coming out of those places now.
….

“In 1989, the direction of the gaming industry in Reno and Sparks versus Las Vegas has diverged in a fairly dramatic fashion,” Eadington said. “The year 1989 is a critical period in Las Vegas history. That was the year the Mirage and the Excalibur opened, the first of the modern mega casinos.

“It is also the year Harrah’s chose to move out of Reno because Reno was too pedestrian, too parochial, too wrapped up, I think, in dysfunctional issues. They decided to move to Memphis and later to Las Vegas to be in the center of the action.”

RGJ.com: Analyst warns of gaming decline in Reno

Pedestrian, parochial, wrapped in dysfunction? It sounds a lot like Atlantic City, my hometown. Growing up surrounded by a sense that the city’s best days were behind it probably didn’t prepare me for moving to Las Vegas, which is in the middle of a boom.

Speaking of class, it’s coming along well. I’m almost finished with my lectures, and I’ve already learned a great deal about some topics that I’d previously neglected. I hope the students have as much fun as I am.

First off, I’d like to apologize to all my readers for not posting yesterday. I was in Reno for spring training. If you haven’t heard about Michael Vick’s statement to the public, that won’t be funny at all, but trust me, it’s funny. At least to me.

I didn’t get a chance to visit my favorite casino when I was up there, but I’ll need to get over there soon to see the construction. From the RGJ:

The major components of the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino’s $350-$400 million expansion project, a 19-story hotel tower and adjacent convention center, should open on time in December, executives said Wednesday.

“In the convention business, that is a very busy month for us,” said Bill Hughes, director of marketing operations. “In fact, we are already booked in December in our new convention facility for special events.

“We are also taking reservations now for the tower. We are already renting the places so we have to get it done.”

Peppermill executives will celebrate the progress at 10 a.m. Friday with a topping-off ceremony, marking placement of the last piece of steel in the Tuscany Tower.

“What they do at a topping- off party is put a tree at the top of the building, so that is what we’ll be doing, said Kim Stoll, the Peppermill’s corporate director of advertising and publicity. “And then, we will take that tree at a later date and plant it on the property.

“So, it is a celebration for all of the people who have worked on the project, as a traditional milestone.”

RGJ.com: Peppermill celebrates new hotel tower

As long as they are adding to, and not changing, the look of the property, I’m fine with it. This is one of the few casinos that really feels fun inside to me. We’ve got a little taste of it down here in the Peppermill coffee shop, but there’s nothing like immersing yourself in thousands of square feet of dimmed lights, mirrors, and neon.

Casino advertising has come a long way, or maybe people are less susceptible to reverse psychology. This matchbook was once used to promote Harolds Club, a leading Reno casino:

This image comes from the Nevada Casino Matchvcovers site. I’m amazed at the proliferation of casino collectibles out there.

So, in the space of a matchbook, the marketer managed to squeeze in:
A cowboy
An Indian
Their respective domiciles/transport
The Monopoly guy, frighteningly emaciated, clad only in a barrel (with no visible means of support), a necktie, and sole-less shoes. And, of course, the obligatory top hat.

Talk about an overactive imagination. If someone sat me down and said, “Quick, sketch out a promotional matchbook for a Reno casino,” I’d come up with dice, cards, slot machines, and maybe a stylized view of the casino building. Whoever dreamed this up was a pure genius.

What was the sales pitch, anyway? “Millionaires reduced to poverty: see it in Harolds Club.”

If, like me, you enjoy the Reno Peppermill, you are in luck: there’s going to be more of it soon.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you work as a female bartender for Harrah’s Reno, that is. The supposedly ultra-liberal US 9th Court of Appeals recently decided that Harrah’s had the right to fire a bartender who refused to wear makeup.
Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago, I got a tad defensive about Iowa’s first lady, Christine Vilsack, who said, “The only way I can speak like residents of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania is to let my jaw drop an inch and talk with my lips in an `O’ like a fish.” [Read more here] But now, it seems that South Jerseyans are not the only ones accused of wandering the streets with our mouths agape, in perpetual wonder at the mysteries of the universe, like cheese whiz.

No, according to one reporter, Reno casino executives and tourism officials are also a bunch of drooling half-wits. At least that’s what “slack-jawed” means to me. From the RGJ:

Harrah’s Reno will have a return engagement of the Northern Nevada Gaming Summit, which stirred emotions in February when a California analyst delivered a stunning rebuke to the region’s gaming environment.

The second summit, entitled “Northern Nevada: Fighting Back,” will be Feb. 22-23. Raving Consulting Co. of Reno and Ascend Media Gaming Group of Las Vegas are sponsoring the event.

International gaming analyst Michael Meczka told a slack-jawed crowd at the first event that Northern Nevada’s reputation was increasingly one of “a great place to live, but who wants to visit there?” and said the region’s new emphasis on outdoor recreation was hardly unique.

Meczka illustrated that the number of casino-resort hotel rooms in the area was grossly over-supplied, and that the revenues of just three tribal casinos in three Northern California counties equaled the total gaming revenues for all of Washoe County.

Gambling summit to return to Reno in February

More than anything right now, I want to be at that summit. As an experienced conference speaker and panelist, I think I have something to contribute.

At heart, all the anxiety is over whether Reno is a national, regional, or locals destination. When only Nevada had casino gaming, Tonopah or Mesquite could qualify as a “international” gaming destination. Now, with casinos most everywhere, there is obviously more competition. Meczka seems to be rather vicious in his insistance that Reno is “locals only.”

Perhaps the truth is somewhere between the lofty dreams of the convention and visitors authority and Meczka’s pessimism.

This article struck me as interesting because I rarely see a group of people descibed as “slack-jawed” except in a purely pejorative sense. I thought that being a “yokel” was a necessary pre-condition of being slack-jawed. You never hear someone called a “slack-jawed genius,” but you always hear about slack-jawed yokels, and their cousins, drooling vapid half-wits.