Green Felt Journal
Casino Crime Growing Up
October 22nd, 2012
De Rong Shang’s sentencing today to six years in prison for masterminding a credit fraud that took Station Casinos for more than $1 million says a lot about “real” vs. “reel” casino crime. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Music to Your Ears
October 18th, 2012
Here’s the funny thing about music in public places: If it’s working the way it should, you don’t even notice it on a conscious level. There’s just an extra spring in your step or, if you’re in a casino, pep in your poke as you hit the “bet again” button on your favorite slot machine. It’s the backbeat to your night out, or day at the spa, pushing you along without getting in your face. And that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be. Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Green Felt Journal
South Point Puts It On (the) Line
September 6th, 2012
On Aug. 23, the Nevada Gaming Commission approved the South Point’s application to run a legal online poker room—the first Nevada casino to be granted such a license. We are on the cusp of writing history. So what’s really going on with the operation, which will probably start accepting real money bets on poker before Halloween? Read more »
Green Felt Journal
The End of Empire-Building?
August 23rd, 2012
The American gaming scene is changing. Call it maturation, or an adaptation to the post-recession, long-recovery economy, but the industry is shifting. For the past generation, expansion has been the rule, not the exception. That’s not the case anymore, and Las Vegas will have to adjust to a new paradigm. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
A Boardwalk Homecoming
August 9th, 2012
The Atlantic City I left was on the other side of history: a city left for dead, one that maybe, someday, might come back. Like Las Vegas, it blew up its past; some of my earliest memories were the implosions of the grand Boardwalk hotels. But this wasn’t replacing the Dunes with Bellagio. Old Atlantic City—the Traymore, the Marlborough-Blenheim, Million Dollar Pier—hadn’t been improved upon; gold had been replaced with concrete and red neon, when anything was built at all. Unlike Las Vegas, you never could shake the sense that you were one or two generations from the golden age Read more »
