Opinion
Excalibur Layoffs Could Reveal Deeper Truth About Changes in Tourism
October 17th, 2012
Recent news that the Excalibur has trimmed its bell desk and valet workforce is food for thought. On first read, it’s another sign that the economic recovery hasn’t taken root on the Strip, and that it’s not time to unfasten our seatbelts just yet. Read more »
August Numbers Reveal Gaming Industry Mired in Slowdown
October 11th, 2012
The Nevada gaming industry’s summer 2012 was a bit of a bummer. From June through August, overall gaming win increased by less than 2.5 percent over the year before -- not exactly the recovery summer most analysts were hoping for. Read more »
The Latest Thought
Riding With the Entitled
In which our resident bus rider argues that drivers are big-time beneficiaries of a government handout
October 11th, 2012
So let’s not forget that public transit isn’t about “us” and “them,” and it never has been. For all the recent talk of “creating community” in Las Vegas, the truth is that we’ve always had it. We all work in the same hospitality-driven culture; we all avoid doing things on the Strip except when we don’t; and we all travel the same roads to get where we’re going. Only now, we’re taking different ways of getting there—and for our own good, we all have to acknowledge that one way could be as good as another. Read more »
Ohio Gambling Numbers Could Foretell Future of Vegas Resorts
October 9th, 2012
Ohio is an interesting test case for the continued expansion of gambling in the United States. Read more »
Peeve of the Week
Leash-less Dogs
October 4th, 2012
Which sets you back more: a dog leash or someone else's hospital bill on your credit card? Consider that when you meet me this evening on my nightly stroll around my Las Vegas neighborhood. You can't miss me: I'll be the one clutching my chest, grateful I've already purchased my cemetery plot. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
The Experience of Fremont
October 4th, 2012
Safety, comfort and a can’t-miss attraction: the Fremont Street Experience “solved” what everyone in Las Vegas thought were the biggest problems facing downtown. But it couldn’t address the bigger problems of broader local and regional competition facing downtown in the 1990s, just like it can’t do much about the deflated gaming economy today. Read more »
The Latest Thought
Signs of the (Disappearing) Times
Vegas Vernacular captures the past as we build the future
October 4th, 2012
Las Vegas being Las Vegas, though, a share of self-awareness has always come from outsiders. Las Vegans were proud of the hotels of the Strip in the 1960s, but it took three Philadelphia-based architects—Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour—to produce the seminal book Learning From Las Vegas and make the case that the architecture of the Strip was the antidote to boring, functional modernist style that was then in fashion. Read more »
The Latest Thought
What Would Murray Do?
As the campaign settles into a race for the ideological middle, a look at how Las Vegas’ late, great libertarian radical might have addressed the country’s ills
September 20th, 2012
Murray Rothbard loved the intersection where politics and economics collide. The legendary libertarian intellectual, who taught economics at UNLV from 1986 until his death in 1995, was a devoted anarchist. But like many an anarchist, he was fascinated with government, and if he were here today he would be blogging endlessly about the current presidential race and America’s economic funk. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Poker’s Perilous Perch
September 20th, 2012
Nevada poker is in an odd place. On one hand, poker room revenues have declined by 21 percent since 2007, and several casinos have downsized or closed their poker rooms, including the Tropicana on Sept. 11 . On the other hand, some are counting on online poker to revitalize Nevada’s gaming industry. As summer slides into fall and we get ready for online poker to go live next month, where is poker in the Silver State heading? Read more »
The Latest Thought
Tony Hsieh’s Really Big Shoe
Dreams of the legendary 23rd Floor of the Ogden
September 13th, 2012
I would write up my visit to the 23rd Floor, but I would leave out every detail that might make you want to go up there and take away my Fernet-powered boat and smoking-hot actress wife and simply tell you that Tony Hsieh has a great vision and we must support it at all costs. Read more »
