SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE PASSES KYL BILL

The Senate Banking Committee took about 5 minutes to pass the Kyl bill--it's great that these things are open to debate, isn't it? Here's part of the story from dc.internet.com:

The Senate Banking Committee Thursday approved legislation to ban credit card and other types of electronic payments to offshore casinos. Passed on a vote voice with no debate, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act (S. 627) carries criminal penalties of up to five years in prison for violators.

A similar version of the bill has already been passed by the House of Representatives. The legislation is strongly supported by the White House, family groups, sports leagues and law enforcement agencies.

In the 107th Congress, a similar bill passed the House but failed in the Senate.

Sponsored by Sen. John Kyl (R.Ariz.) and co-sponsored by Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) and Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.), the legislation was prompted by concerns of organized crime involvement in online casinos and the alleged addictive nature of Web gambling.

The bill creates a new crime of accepting financial instruments, such as credit cards or electronic fund transfers, for debts incurred in Internet gambling. Also, because the operators of Internet gambling sites are off-shore and beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement tactics, the legislation enables state and federal attorneys general to request that injunctions be issued to any party, such as financial institutions and Internet service providers, to assist in the prevention or restraint of the new crime.

The bill allows federal bank regulators to create rules requiring financial institutions to use designated methods to block or filter illegal Internet gambling transactions.

Although the Internet is flooded with ads promoting offshore casinos, it is, according to most law enforcement officials, illegal for Americans to bet through the sites. The Justice Department contends existing laws already make all Internet gambling illegal for Americans.

This bill is fascinating for me to follow because I'm currently writing a book about the Wire Act, and whatever happens here will change the final chapter--or make me add a chapter.

Read the full story here.
posted by Dave at 1:16 PM

MOHEGAN SUN DROPPING POKER

Casinos are like any business. They exist for the purpose of making the maximum profit for their owners or shareholders. So it's fair to expect them to consistently try to make their business more profitable. If that means putting in games that customers prefer, there's nothing wrong with that. There's a reason why you can walk the whole length of the Strip and not find a single faro layout--people liked playing craps and blackjack better.

But there's also such a thing as being short-sighted. If everyone applauds the loudest for the elephant act, that doesn't mean you fire the clowns, acrobats, and tigers and made the circus one big elephant show. Some people don't like elelphants (I guess), and others want a little variety. The analogy to the circus is apt in this casino because casino entertainment, like "sports entertainment," is a direct descendent of the American carnival, but that's an aside (I've got an article in the Popular Culture Review about that coming out soon, so there's the plug). Variety is the spice of life, and is a very important part of a casino.

So Mohegan Sun is closing their poker room to make room for more slots. Yes, it's true that poker isn't veyr profitable for the casino, but it brings a special kind of excitement to the place that slots don't. Even if people don't play, I think they like knowing that, somewhere in the building, there are real gamblers betting against EACH OTHER. Closing the poker room to make room for slots is just the perfect metaphor for the depersonalization of gaming that's accelerating. The casino floor is evolving into a kind of Matrix world where patrons are connected to their own video slot. Obviously, slots are very profitable, and I'd never suggest that casinos should take them out, but casinos need to be more than just slot rooms. Who is going to make a trip out to Vegas to sit in an air-conditioned slot parlor? Probably no one. Instead, the Strip has been all about selling the total Vegas experience. That's why the casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip has been so successful.

Casinos can't be completely about the bottom line because they ask the patron to willingly suspend her disbelief that she has no chance of coming out ahead. It's something that's easier to do if there is the appearance of variety, and having a poker room, where the odds or more or less in the player's ability, gives that appearance.

Anyway, read a story here from the Norwich Bulletin. Hey, the reporter quoted me AND referenced the book, so I've got to give them the plug.

One final point that I made in the interview but didn't make the story--most great poker players are notorious for also trying their luck at BJ or craps, usually with disastrous results. It adds a layer of tragedy to the biography of a poker genius, but it's great news for a casino. So even if the casino only makes a $2/hr profit on the player in the poker room, on the way out they stand to make a lot more. But that requires thinking long-term, something that is usually hard to do when you are asked to maximize (as opposed to optimize) profits in the short term.

CONN PROBLEM GAMBLERS

A new study shows that Connecticut problem gamblers lose a lot of money. An excerpt from the LV Sun:

Problem gamblers who called a state hotline for help in 2002 said they lost on average $23,000 over the previous year, and two out of three said they earned less than $45,000 a year, a new survey shows.

The data from the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling's telephone help line provides a different picture than ads featuring well-dressed casino gamblers or happy lottery players.

"It's people who can't afford to lose," Marvin Steinberg, executive director of problem gambling council, told The Hartford Courant. "It's a concern that poor people are losing far more of their income than wealthy people."

Those who called the council's help line reported an average lifetime loss of nearly $116,000.

So two-thirds of problem gamblers spend more than half of their annual income on gambling? That's a sobering thought.

Read the full story here.

ONE FOR CCTV!

There's an interesting story from the Philadelphia Inquirer on the use of surveillance to catch the perps of a series of casino robberies:
State police yesterday announced the arrest of a 41-year-old man in connection with an armed robbery of the coin-redemption booth Friday at Bally's Atlantic City, one of four similar casino heists this summer.

Police also issued warrants for three other men, including a man police think was involved in at least two of the robberies. Police suspect all four robberies may be linked.

"They are individuals looking for a quick snatch - a quick note, grab the money, and run out the door," said Thomas Auriemma, director of the Division of Gaming Enforcement. "Not high-tech, not sophisticated. Just old-fashioned criminal behavior."

But high-tech casino surveillance systems captured the robberies on tape. That and fingerprint evidence led to the identifications of the suspects, he said.

Thomas Boyd, 41, a culinary student from Hammonton, N.J., was arrested Monday and charged with robbery and conspiracy, police said. They said Boyd took $5,975 at gunpoint from the coin-redemption window at Bally's. Boyd did not make $250,000 bail and was being held at Atlantic County Jail.

The three other arrest warrants were issued for:

Vincent Nelson, 30, of Pleasantville, N.J., wanted in connection with a July 14 robbery at the Sands Hotel Casino in which a note reading BANG! was displayed and $10,000 was taken.

Earl Dennis, 29, of Atlantic City, wanted in connection with both the Bally's robbery and another robbery Sunday at Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, in which $17,495 in cash was taken at gunpoint from the coin-redemption window.

Eugene E. Wilder, 31, of Atlantic City, also wanted in connection with the Bally's robbery.

An additional suspect was caught on tape at Bally's but has not been identified.

The money has not been recovered.

A note saying "BANG!"??? That's one for the record books.

Read the full story here.


AC MARKET: BORGATA STRONG, BUT NOT TOO STRONG

Borgata is doing well out of the gate, but isn't messing up the program for other casinos. From the Inkie:

Borgata officials released revenue results from their first month yesterday that they said already put their $1.1 billion casino hotel near the top of the Atlantic City market.

Despite vigorous marketing of the property to a younger crowd, the majority of Borgata's customers have so far come from a familiar Atlantic City demographic: the over-50 crowd that lives within 100 miles, company officials said.

Ellis Landau, chief financial officer of Boyd Gaming Co., said Borgata slot machines had averaged a win of $306 per slot machine per day in the first 26 days, compared with a citywide average of $262 per slot machine per day in July 2002.

As for table games, Borgata reported that gamblers left behind $4,257 per table per day, compared with a market-wide average of $3,122 per table per day in July 2002. "That places us at or near the top of the market," Landau said in a conference call with industry analysts and others to discuss second-quarter earnings.

Around town, the other casinos have reported that the impact from Borgata's opening was not as significant as some had feared.

"No one's squawking real loud," Dave Jonas, senior vice president at Harrah's, said. "The town is staying fairly whole right now. My guess is, Borgata is growing the market pretty significantly. The test will be in the fall and winter as the market shrinks due to seasonality."

Read the full story from the Philadelphia Inquirer.


SUBURBAN XANADU UPDATE

amazon.com sales rank: 928.665; 2 reviews. What happened there?

barnesandnoble.com sales rank: 117,454; 2 reviews

Rank on the Love and Casino War list of best-selling Vegas books: I'm not on there today, which makes sense given the Amazon ranking has fallen off the table.

Do me a favor and buy a copy from Amazon to vault the book back into contention. Thanks.


posted by Dave at 10:21 AM

SLOW NEWS DAY

Not too much going on--aftershocks of the Pentagon pulling the plug on "betting on terrorism," but not that much more on the national level. Read the story from the NY Daily News if you don't want to scroll down for the AP version.

Someone leaked a story about Jack Binion looking to offload one or all of the Horseshoe properties.

Boyd released their numbers, saying they did very well, thank you, at the Borgata.

I DIDN"T KNOW YOU WERE LITERATE!

That's a joke, because people say it to me when I tell them I've written a book. I think they mean "literary." Or maybe they really do think I have yet to master the knack of comprehending written English.

Anyway, Las Vegas ranked surprisingly high on a list of the US's most "literate cites" at 13 out of 64, tied with Boston. That is, until someone found out that the figures were based on the 1990 census results, which of course had a dramtically lower population.

This gave a reporter from the LV Sun the chance to call adult bookstore owners as well as members of UNLV's faculty. In general, it occasioned much sport. I must quote this one bit:

When he heard about the rankings, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, English Department Chairman John Irsfeld said the news of the ranking was "a suspiciously happy discovery ... like one of those things they send to old ladies telling them they've won $10 million."

How right he was.

The celebration lasted only as long as a bikini top at the Library strip club. The study has a major flaw -- it's based on 1990 Census population numbers.

And this:

Perhaps fortunately for the city's rise to intellectual heights, the category of bookstores per capita included adult and gambling bookstores. Las Vegas ranked eighth in the nation in bookstores per capita, with about 100 retail stores, Miller said.

About one in five of those bookstores are in the business of selling adult or gambling titles -- prompting Dave Hickey, nationally renowned art critic and a University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor, to remark, "we all have our specialty."


Read the story here.

SUBURBAN XANADU UPDATE

amazon.com sales rank: 86,311; 2 reviews.

barnesandnoble.com sales rank: 117,295; 2 reviews

Rank on the Love and Casino War list of best-selling Vegas books: 41, still.

Have a good one.
posted by Dave at 4:00 PM

BET ON TERRORISM?

This is a huge story, one so big that the mainstream media--including the Jim Rome Show--have picked it up and run with it. Here's the story, direct from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon on Tuesday abandoned a plan to establish a futures market that would have allowed traders to profit by correctly predicting assassinations and terrorist strikes in the Middle East.

Facing outraged Democratic senators, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said he learned of the program in the newspaper while heading to a Senate Foreign Relations hearing on Iraq.

"I share your shock at this kind of program," he said. "We'll find out about it, but it is being terminated."

Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said in an interview that he received assurance from the head of the Pentagon agency overseeing the program that it would "stop all engines on this matter today."

Warner spoke by telephone with Tony Tether, head of the Pentagon's Defense Research Projects Agency, after consulting with Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. The three agreed "that this should be immediately disestablished," Warner said.

Warner said that DARPA "didn't think through the full ramifications of the program."

The little-publicized Pentagon plan envisioned a potential futures trading market in which speculators would wager with one another on the Internet on the likelihood of various economic or political events in the Middle East, including terrorist attacks or assassinations. A Web site promoting the plan already is available and registration of traders was to begin Friday.

When the plan was disclosed Monday by Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the Pentagon defended it as a way to gain intelligence about potential terrorists' plans.

Wyden called it "a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism." Dorgan described it as "unbelievably stupid."

Criticism mounted Tuesday. On the Senate floor, Democratic Leader Thomas Daschle of South Dakota denounced the program as "an incentive actually to commit acts of terrorism."

"This is just wrong," declared Daschle, D-S.D. At an Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called it "a futures market in death."

Republicans joined in the criticism. At a news conference, Warner, Stevens and Roberts said they had not been told details of the program and would never have supported it. "This defies common sense. It's absurd," Roberts said. Warner called it "a rather egregious error of judgment."

At the Foreign Relations hearing, Wolfowitz defended DARPA, saying "it is brilliantly imaginative in places where we want them to be imaginative. It sounds like maybe they got too imaginative," he said, smiling.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told Wolfowitz "I don't think we can laugh off that program,"

"There is something very sick about it," she said. "And if it's going to end, I think you ought to end the careers of whoever it was thought that up. Because terrorists knowing they were planning an attack could have bet on the attack and collected a lot of money. It's a sick idea."

DARPA has been criticized by Congress for its Terrorism Information Awareness program, a computerized surveillance program that has raised privacy concerns. Wyden said the Policy Analysis Market is under the supervision of retired Adm. John Poindexter, the head of the Terrorism Information Awareness program and, in the 1980s, national security adviser to President Reagan.

Warner said Poindexter and Tether had personally reviewed the program. Warner, Roberts and Stevens declined to say whether the two men should be fired. Tether was to meet with lawmakers later Tuesday.

The program is called the Policy Analysis Market. DARPA said it was part of a research effort "to investigate the broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks."

Traders would have bought and sold futures contracts - just like energy traders do now in betting on the future price of oil. But the contracts in this case would have been based on what might happen in the Middle East in terms of economics, civil and military affairs or specific events, such as terrorist attacks.

Holders of a futures contract that came true would have collected the proceeds of traders who put money into the market but predicted wrong.

A graphic on the market's Web page Monday showed hypothetical futures contracts in which investors could trade on the likelihood that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would be assassinated or Jordanian King Abdullah II would be overthrown. Although the Web site described the Policy Analysis Market as Middle East market, the graphic also included the possibility of a North Korea missile attack. The graphic was later removed from the Web site.

In a statement Monday, DARPA said markets could reveal "dispersed and even hidden information. Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at predicting such things as elections results; they are often better than expert opinions."

According to its Web site, the Policy Analysis Market would be a joint program of DARPA and two private companies, Net Exchange, a market technologies company, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, the business information arm of the publisher of The Economist magazine.

Trading was to begin Oct. 1. The market would have been open to at least 10,000 investors by Jan. 1.

The Web site says government agencies will not be allowed to participate and will not have access to the identities or funds of traders.

The Policy Analysis Market is part of a DARPA project called FutureMAP, or "Futures Markets Applied to Prediction." FutureMAP is run by Poindexter's division of DARPA, the Information Awareness Office, and the products of FutureMAP were to be given to the Terrorism Information Awareness project, another one of Poindexter's programs, for evaluation.

Usually I wouldn't cut and paste an entire story, but this is a very big one, and I don't think that it will be accessible at that site very long.

I explored the website in question, http://www.policyanalysismarket.org, and found it interesting in a sinister sort of way. It seems like a technocratic way of divination--trying to predict the future by betting on it. When the story about people betting on when the war with Iraq would begin first broke in February, I got calls from more than a few reporters who wanted to know about this kind of thing. I told them that betting on political events was nothing new--there was probably more action on Harrison v Cleveland in 1888 than the Superbowl today, per capita.

I also said that, like betting on the Oscars or Survivor, it could be skewed, because someone with inside information would have an advantage. I guess that's what this operation was counting on. In a way, it is like using the Nevada books to see if a game is fixed--a big shift in the action usually indicates that something strange is going on.

The Congressional indigation strikes me as a bit of political posturing by Democrats in an attempt to sieze the moral high ground. The question is, even if this was "a futures market in death," and it gave us a chance to somehow prevent a terrorist attack, is it worth it? That is an ethical question that could probably keep a medium-sized philosophy department occupied for a few weeks.

I fully expect to see a movie about this sometime soon. If anyone wants to collaborate on a script or needs a consultant with a deep knowledge of casino gaming, email me.

BORGATA BREAKING THE RULES (UNWRITTEN, OF COURSE)

AC casinos usually release preliminary revenue numbers on the second business day of each month, giving the public--and each other--a taste of what to expect when the official numbers come out on the 10th. They've been doing it for nearly 20 years, and no one's had a problem.

[Borgata] won't release theirs, and here's why, from the AC Press:

"Here's why we came to that decision," Borgata CEO Robert Boughner said Monday.

"Those numbers are unaudited and often there are discrepancies. Some people do not deduct amounts for wide-area progressives (jackpot slots), which tends to overstate the revenues," he said.

"Second, it boils down to selective disclosure. It is our view there's a potential Reg FD violation," he said.

Boughner was referring to Regulation Fair Disclosure, a 2000 Securities and Exchange Commission rule that bars companies from releasing information to chosen parties.

"And lastly, that (revenue disclosure) is best left to the Casino Control Commission," Boughner continued.

The casino commission has never had a problem with casinos disclosing preliminary revenues, spokesman Daniel Heneghan said.

Lame. Here's what Park Place boss Wallace Barr had to say in return:

"It is disappointing that he (Boughner) doesn't want to cooperate with the traditional exchange that has been made for the last 20 years in this industry," said Wallace Barr, chief executive of Park Place Entertainment, which owns three casinos here.

"We've never had a problem with a regulatory agency of any type. It's been done on a gentleman's agreement with the understanding that the numbers are preliminary and subject to final audit," he said.

The Donald put a brave spin on it:

"It will be an incomplete report without a major component, but people will learn to live without," Trump said.

That's it in a nutshell. The Borgata opened with the biggest splash in Atlantic City in years, and just flushed away some of that goodwill, for no reason that anyone is saying. It reminds you that this is just a big game.

"YOU"RE GOING TO LET ME INTO THE CASINO"

The Fandango casino is opening in Carson City, NV. It's going to be pretty small, with only 175 slots and 5 tables, but it made me think of the fandago trailer that they show before movies, where the obnoxious guy is trying to buck his karma and get into a movie..."you're going to let me into the picture." If it took that much to set up, it's probably not funny.

The real story is at the LV Sun.


Other gaming industry news, Ameristar and Monarch made money, Mikhon and Aladdin lost money. Big surprise on that last one. But it did give us this picture, which makes the casino look absolutely deserted. That's going to help business.

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING MIDAS

Finally, there's a great story from the WSJ's Christina Binkley about Fabrizio Boccardi, an Italian developer who desperately wants to become a casino icon. I would cut and paste pieces and comment, but it's just so great in it's complete version that you have to go here to read it.

Yet another guy who want's to remake Vegas in his own image, with nothing to show for it but some expensive dinners at Piero's where he didn't convince people to invest. Granted, the guy has some real determination, and he might even have some passion for the industry. But his ideas seem a bit strange. The King Midas World casino makes me think of brake pads or, for some reason, a mattress store. And the Seven Sins, while a cool concept for a nightclub where half the clientele is tweaked out anyway, just doesn't seem to be a winner for a modern casino resort in an era when a big part of the business is the convention trade. I can just see their director of group sales trying book convention groups into there: "Well, you can go down the street to the Tropicana, and get predictable, if not spectacular, amenities and reasonable rates, or you can stay here and celebrate spiritual weakness. How you'd get anyone with a shred of self-respect to eat in a restaurant called "Gluttony" is beyond me, though I would like to see the "Lust" room, just for informational purposes.

Or maybe I'm wrong, and this is what people want. In that case, I have an idea that I've been kicking around, and I'm going to go public with here.

The Garden of Earthly Delights...a casino based on the Hieronymous Bosch triptych which depicts the earthly garden with Eden on the left and Hell on the right. Maybe the rooms could be done in an Edenic decor, the restaurants, retail, entertainment, and convention space as earthly, and the casino itself as Hell. If someone can serious pitch "Seven Sins" over lunch at Picasso, I should be able to get a cheesesteak or plate lunch out of this.

So in summary, this article is a window not only into the world of Boccardi, but Vegas itself. Still, there's a good reason why he's on the outside looking in and Wynn Las Vegas is about 21 stories along--things like having a real vision, as opposed to ideas, still count. When you listen to Wynn talk about his resort to be, it just isn't about how many slots it will have, or what count sheets the beds will have--it's about the Human Experience, in capital letters. That's why he can get the biggest bank loan in American history, and so many others have so little to show for their ideas, as creative as they may be.

That's enough about that. On to the REAL news (for me)...

SUBURBAN XANADU UPDATE


amazon.com sales rank: 85,115; 2 reviews.
barnesandnoble.com sales rank: 117,500; 2 reviews
Rank on the Love and Casino War list of best-selling Vegas books: 41! I am now nearly a top-40 bestselling author! I know I just wanted top 50 yesterday, but I really want to break that plateau, so if I run into music industry people I can be like, "yeah, I had a top 40 hit once."

Thank you all.


posted by Dave at 3:01 PM

SITE NEWS: WSOP UPGRADE CONTINUES

I have posted preliminary summaries through 1976, and added the list of champions to the annual index page. Student assistant Alycia is working hard on getting the other summaries together.

The little feedback I've had on the new-look weblog has been positive, so it stays.

SATRE, JONES INDUCTED IN AC

This weekend in Atlantic City (at the new Borgata), Phil Satre and Tom Jones were inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. Satre, of course, has molded Harrah's into one of the world's leading casino companies. Tom Jones has performed in many casinos. It just doesn't seem to have the same value. Would Kirk Kerkorian win a Grammy because he let Tom Jones play at the MGM Grand? It's like playing a game of "what doesn't belong?," I think. Even Jones seemed a bit mystified:
(from the AC Press)
"I will continue to sing in casinos as long as I possibly can," said Jones, 63. "Casinos are not only good for counties and states, because they produce lots of revenues, but they are also great for entertainers such as myself."

From all accounts, everyone had a blast, and no one complained about the new, higher parking fees that the state is mandating.

On that subject....

CASINO PARKING

On the Las Vegas Strip, parking your car is free--something as near a fundamental human right as exists in this city. If you are parking at the casino, you're going to be a patron there on some level, so it stands to reason that you should be allowed to park for free.

Originally, parking in AC casinos was free, but several years ago the state mandated a $2 charge "for the beautification of Atlantic City." This gave comics some nice punchline fodder, but I haven't seen too much beautification.

Now, with the latest tax increases, casinos have been directed to charge $3 for parking. Some charge $4, $5, or whatever the market will bear. Here's a quote from the AC Press:

Stand in the valet parking area while people wait for their cars, and it soon becomes clear the increase in the state-imposed casino parking fee doesn't sit well with gamblers.

They're all too happy to say how they don't like knowing the price to park until after they've bought the service, how they resent paying the tax increase for the casino and wonder where it will end.

But casino employees feel the pinch too. Ask any parking garage cashier and they'll tell you they get an earful.

Then there are the valets. They are paying for the fee increase, too - in the form of lower tips as customers figure they have to save money somewhere.

The tip "might have been $2 or $3" before the increase, said Darsella Anthony of Pleasantville, a valet parker at Resorts Atlantic City. "Now it's strictly a dollar," and more people are stiffing the parking attendants.

As part of Gov. James McGreevey's attempt to balance the state budget, the casino parking fee was increased from $2 to $3. But many properties charge $4 for the privilege of parking there, even for established players.

Many players kept aside $5 to take care of parking on the way out, said Anthony's co-worker, Jaime Fuentes of Atlantic City. When the parking fee was $2, three-dollar tips were common.

Read the full story here.

As with all increases of taxes on gaming (or anything, for that matter), the revenues don't just drop out of the sky: they come from people's pockets, leaving them with less money for things like a tip. Which might not mean much to politicians in Trenton, but it does mean something to the men and women who depend on those tips.

Having to pay for parking at a casino is like adding insult to injury. Most people are there to gamble, and those who aren't have money to spend on dining, retail, and entertainment. Charging people for the privilege of spending their money doesn't create an atmosphere conducive to fun.

People in a casino like to feel like they are getting something for nothing. This might be watered-down drinks in plastic cups or cramming food in an all-you-can-eat buffet. To have to pay to park ruins the illusion of something for nothing. It would be like having to pay see the exploding volcano outside the Mirage.

And that's all I have to say about that.

DO YOU COME FROM A LAND DOWN UNDER?

I just can't help myself from making Men at Work references when an Austrailian story comes along. Apparently, the Aussie gaming industry is not doing so well. Here's a story from The Age:

The outlook for the gaming industry has deteriorated significantly in the past 12 months following the introduction of smoking bans, reduced operating hours, and increased taxes, according to a survey.

Stockbroking house Deutsche Bank surveyed 118 gaming managers in 212 pubs and clubs in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, which have 86 per cent of Australia's gaming machines, to gauge the impact of regulatory changes.

The results painted a grim picture. Almost 80 per cent of managers expect revenue from gaming machines to fall more than 5 per cent as a result of smoking bans, compared with 51 per cent last year.

Only 33 per cent of managers expected to increase spending on gaming machines, compared with 42 per cent last year. This is expected to have a drastic impact on poker-machine makers such as Aristocrat.


Read the full story here.

SUBURBAN XANADU UPDATE

No big movement over the weekend. Here's the raw numbers:

amazon.com sales rank: 83, 989; 2 reviews, and they still have the wrong picture for the cover, and don't have any real content (i.e., contents or notes).
barnesandnoble.com sales rank: 117,573; 2 reviews
Rank the Love and Casino War list of best-selling Vegas books: 58, although I apparently went as high as 51 over the weekend.

I can't wait to crack the top 50, and I can become not just a "best-selling author on Las Vegas," but a "top 50 best-selling author on Las Vegas."

That's all for today.
posted by Dave at 12:09 PM