Sandoval’s message to gaming in the Las Vegas Business Press

My latest column in the Las Vegas Business Press is now available. In it, I consider Governor Sandoval’s recent call for modernization in Nevada’s gaming regulations:

In his State of the State address, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval briefly noted the necessity of updating the state’s gaming regulations to reflect the new realities of 21st century gambling. It’s a good message to share and it highlights the work the industry and its regulators have done to keep moving forward.

Sandoval highlighted the need for “a flexible environment for the technological resources that are the underpinning of modern gaming devices,” suggesting that the recent forays into mobile gambling — courtesy of dedicated devices developed by Cantor Gaming and applications that run on smart phones, one of which recently gained board approval — will continue. With commerce and information-sharing migrating from brick-and-mortar to Internet to mobile, it makes sense that more people are going to want to gamble using these technologies.

via Las Vegas Business Press :: David G. Schwartz : As gambling shifts, state must be ready to adjust.

The importance of modernization was really driven home last Friday, when I went to the opening of Cantor Gaming’s new sportsbook at the Tropicana. Cantor is moving aggressively into mobile sports gaming. In addition to their dedicated devices, which you can already get at the M, Venetian/Palazzo, Hard Rock, Tropicana, and Cosmopolitan, Cantor is developing apps that run on smart phones and tablets.

Why it pays to under-promise and over-deliver

…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?

Gaming Talk Next Week

We’re having another event in our Gaming Research Colloquium Series at UNLV. Next Tuesday at 12:15 Christina Turdean, a grad student from the University of Delaware, is speaking about her research.

The talk is called “Betting on Computers: Digital Technologies and the Rise of the Gaming Industry in the US, 1960-2000.”

If you’re on the UNLV campus, I strongly suggest you come. Cristina is doing some solid research and I think she’ll have some good insights about the natural of technological change in the casino business. If you’re not on campus and this is interesting, try to get down here.

You can learn more on the website:Center for Gaming Research: Gaming Research Colloquium Series.