Will it be a "Holiday Inn Cambodia?"

People complain about the American gaming industry "destroying its history" by imploding obselete casinos and building newer, more interesting ones. Of course, Caesars Entertainment did tear down my high school, but that's only demolishing a historically-significant building, not destroying history per se.

Still, how would most people feel about spending time in a casino near the final resting place for one of history's worst mass murderers? We'll soon find out. From the International Herald Tribune:

Construction has begun on a casino and five-star hotel to lure tourists to the mountain where the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot spent his final days in northwestern Cambodia, a provincial official has said.

The buildings are located near the spot where Pol Pot's body was unceremoniously cremated in 1998, months after he was purged.
IHT: Casino and hotel rise on site of Pol Pot's ashes

I don't think that the casino is being built to commemorate Pol Pot, but this is still a little disquieting.
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posted by Dave at 12:21 PM

Dogs not playing poker

One of my greatest triumphs and travails has been posting the print of dogs playing poker. I found a postcard of the print in the archives, so I figured I'd put it online. As a result, I get deluged by people seeking information on the copyright of the image, or wanting a high-rez scan. For example, 22 out of the past 42 people to visit this site by searching for a particular keyword were looking for some variant of "dogs playing poker" or "Coolidge dogs poker." I guess I've achieved my goal of making the Gaming Collection more accessible to the general public.

I've watched as the painting has taken a life of its own. The Sands in AC has upped the ante by recreating the classic painting, but with the dogs playing blackjack instead, a point that the journalist covering this "story" completely missed. From cnn.com:

Sands Casino Hotel workers used five live dogs to re-create artist C.M. Coolidge's famously lowbrow painting of dogs playing poker in a publicity stunt to drum up interest for a new table games pit.

"Sands Casino Hotel: Where the Big Dogs Play," read the sign in the pit, which has per-hand betting minimums of $500 on weekends. Built to lure high-stakes players, the pit features roulette wheels, a craps table and six blackjack tables.

The crowd parted to make way for dog handlers as they ushered in the animals -- dog "actors" who work in advertising, TV and movies -- on leashes.

The dogs, who remained seated through most of the hand, barked to ask for cards. It was on command from the handlers, of course.
Dogs gamble in Atlantic City

Strictly speaking, this was a recreation of Crosby DeMoss's A Friendly Game of Blackjack, not Coolidge's painting. Compare life with art:

Canine "poker" at the Sands

A Friendly Game of Blackjack at the Dunes

The AP reporter who contributed this little piece of news apparently had no idea that the dogs were, in fact, playing blackjack and not poker. The opening lines of the piece talked about the dogs hitting on 18 and 19 and busting.

I see a lot of this going on. "Let's see, we'll recreate a 'classic' painting, but have the dogs playing a different game, and no one will notice!" The sad thing is that no one at AP did notice.

I also have a regulatory question: is this a violation of New Jersey's underage gambling policies? I'm sure none of those dogs were over 21. Do age restrictions apply to non-humans as well? How about robots?

I think I can answer my own question by dredging up a memory of my time in CCTV. I remember one night a blind man was playing slots and brought his seeing-eye dog on the casino floor. The CCC inspector didn't kick up a fuss, so I guess it was legal. Everyone kept stepping on that poor dog's tail, though, perhaps indicating that, while canine gambling may make for whimsical art, it is hardly practical.
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posted by Dave at 8:45 AM

Slot expansion

Slots are on the march in both Pennsylvania and Texas. First, the story in the Keystone State, from philly.com:

GOV. RENDELL may have finally hit the jackpot after 16 months of tugging at a one-armed bandit.

Two gambling parlors in Center City and slots at Philadelphia Park in Bensalem would mean a reduction in the city wage tax and a cut in property taxes for some low-income Philadelphia seniors.

State legislative leaders and Rendell have "pretty much an agreement in principle" on a proposed bill to legalize slots, according to state Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, R-Bucks.

Tomlinson expects a slots vote on Tuesday or Wednesday, the deadline to pass the state budget and other pending legislation.

"I know there are still some strong opinions on this," he added. "I think there will be some floor debate and attempts to derail us."

Statewide, $1 billion in taxes expected to be collected from slots revenue would be used for property tax relief. Other taxes would go to local municipalities and to help pay for capital projects.

One proposal calls for slot taxes to pick up some of the $600 million cost to expand the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The bill would allow slots in 14 venues across the state, 12 full licenses and two resort licenses, according to a legislative source.

Full licenses, permitting 3,000 slot machines to start and another 2,000 in a year, would be assigned to six existing horse racing tracks, including Philadelphia Park. Two licenses would be based in Center City parlors. One license for either a parlor or racetrack would be assigned to Pittsburgh. There are two unassigned horse track licenses to be distributed, where slots could be located. One or two more non-track licenses could also be issued.

The resort licenses would allow 500 slot machines but only guests would be permitted to play.

OK for slots is close

The measure is apparently "90% there." Good news for slot makers, probably bad news for Delaware and New Jersey.

Texas is not as far along, but looks like it is heading in the same direction. From the Thoroughbred Times:

Although the fate of expanded gaming legislation in Texas is uncertain, officials at Lone Star Park want to be sure they are ready to install video lottery terminals as soon as possible if the Texas Legislature decides to approve such gambling.

Magna Entertainment Corp., which completed its purchase of the Lone Star racing license in October 2002, has devised expansion plans in preparation for the advent of slots, including a new 131,000-square-foot gaming building, shopping center, restaurant complex, hotel, and possibly a movie theater.

"We would be among the best destination tourist sites in America," Magna Group Vice President Corey Johnsen told the Dallas Morning News.

The Texas Racing Commission has studied the slots issue, and its estimates indicate that Lone Star could support 8,700 VLTs and, with a 6% tax rate on each machine for purses, offer average daily Thoroughbred purses in excess of $600,000 for a 75-day season. With an 8% rate, the daily total would balloon to $750,000.

Thoroughbred Times: Lone Star, Texas racing officials weighing potential of slots

So, if you live in Philadelphia or Dallas, you might not have to drive as long to get a crack at the new Garfield machine.

According to Mikhon, Garfield is transcendent:

The world's most lovable and recognized feline, GARFIELD™ comes to life in the new GARFIELD IT'S ALL ABOUT ME! video slot. See how the feistiest, funniest, wisecracking and laziest cat gets into a heap of trouble with Jon, Odie and Arlene.

For your amusement, I have spent a few seconds and compiled a list of cats that would destroy Garfield:

1. Topcat (along with the rest of his gang)
2. Tom
3. Morris
4. Mr. Jinx
5. Puss-in-Boots
6. Henrietta
7. Snagglepuss
8. Azrael
9. Salem

Doing research for that, I discovered that some people spend WAY too much time posting pictures of their cats to the web. I guess Mikhon knows what they're on to here.

I got a chance to view the game demo (which takes a while to load but is worth it), and this game sure looks strange. Garfield apparently goes on eating binges:

Garfield is in a frenzy! Watch him come to life in the APPETITE and the POPCORN/BURP reel strip bonus games. He goes on an eating binge of reel symbols, leaving them WILD in his wake!

I'm sure that's not all he leaves in his wake.
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posted by Dave at 9:07 AM

Site news

This took me two days of almost constant striving, so it qualifies for a weblog entry. I have updated the Published Gaming Dissertations page. I added about 85 dissertations published in the two years.

I think that this qualifies as "Progress in History:"

I just found that photo one day in the archives. There is no explanation that I know of. The scary thing is that this float probably made perfect sense to people back then--no one looks very confused. One day, the things that we cherish may mystify future generations as well.
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posted by Dave at 3:45 PM

USA 5 minutes ago

I've got to hand it to USA Today: they are right on top of the breaking stories. From today's edition comes the blockbuster news that Vegas isn't only about the gambling:

Las Vegas. Everyone take a moment to collect your thoughts about this adult paradise, or Sin City, whichever moniker you prefer. The city was founded on gambling, and its casinos are known throughout the world. It's the place we go to find lady luck (hopefully), and maybe catch a show, or even attend the conference that brought us to town in the first place.

A comment made after last week's buyout of Mandalay properties by MGM sheds some light on where the future of Vegas may be headed. Only about half of the casino's earnings come from gambling, as opposed to 30 years ago when that figure stood at 85%, MGM Mirage CEO Terrence Lanni said at a news conference....

But the truth is, Vegas is only partially about gambling these days. So where is the rest of that revenue coming from? Restaurants, shopping and hotel rooms — all of which add up to an important part of the bottom line for many casinos.

"There has been a significant increase in non-gaming revenue in Las Vegas because as recently as 10 years ago, you did not see world-class signature restaurants or the great variety of retail opportunities," said Yvette Monet, spokesperson for MGM Mirage.

Rooms in Vegas can still demand a high rate; pricing hasn't suffered in the past few years as it has throughout the rest of the country. And yet they're still not a major portion of the big properties' profits. Rather, restaurants and shopping bring in the most revenue.

All of this is, of course, absolutely true. But why is it that a travel writer for a national newspaper considers this today's news? I was disappointed that there wasn't a multi-colored graph showing how happy people were to be blowing their vacation money on show tickets instead of slot machine pulls.

Finally, there was this bizzare closing thought:

The merger also may strangle some properties out of existence. We'll have to wait and see the impact. Owning almost half the rooms open for business is a citywide deal that's only begun to show its intended effects.

USATODAY.com - Vegas isn't only about the gambling

That paragraph is a great example of writing that says nothing. I'd like to know how the merger will "strangle properties out of existence." What difference does it make to the Stardust or, for that matter, Casino Royale if the same parent company owns Bellagio and Luxor? I'm not sure the last sentence even means anything. It's "a citywide deal that's only begun to show it's intended effects." Yeah, right. I'd be pretty happy if a seventh-grader turned this in as some kind of school report, but I can't believe that standards of written English have sunk so low that a newspaper presumably staffed by adults published that sentence.
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posted by Dave at 10:38 AM

Amid new casinos, bad metaphors

There are only so many ways of saying that the citizens of Asian countries like to gamble, and that the expansion of the casino industry there means more money for whoever is running the casinos. But that doesn't mean that people can't try new and ultimately maladroit metaphors for Asian gaming expansion. Take this UPI piece, for instance:

Leading the pack is the former Portuguese colony of Macau, which has become a new competing turf for Las-Vegas moguls since the government liberalized the market in 2002 by breaking the then 39-year monopoly of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) and awarding two new 20-year gaming licenses: one to the Galaxy Casino Group of Hong Kong which has given a sub-concession to the Las Vegas Sands, and one to Wynn Resorts, owned by Steve Wynn.

While the Las Vegas Sands, owner of the Venetian casino, opened last month the $240 million Sands Macau, the $60 million Galaxy casino is set to open this week and so is the ground-breaking Wynn Resorts' $705 million mega project.

On the top of this hive of activity, MGM Mirage, the third largest American casino company has just announced plans to build and manage a casino in Macau, in a joint deal with Pansy Ho Chiu-king, the daughter of Stanley Ho whose company was controlling gaming in Macau up to now. The resort, which will use the "MGM Grand" name, could open by late 2006.

Far from recoiling at the competition, SJM director Ambrose So sees the new casinos has complementing its own portfolio.

He argues that China's recent relaxation of individuals to travel to Macau and Hong Kong is having a "baking powder effect on Macau's gaming pie."

"Last year, the number of Mainland visitors outgrew that of Hong Kong. This is a strong indication of the potential of the Chinese market," So said.

So revealed Tuesday that on the month the Sands Macau opened, SJM's revenues grew 24 percent over April and 107 percent year-on-year (due to the low base of SARS).

SJM's total gaming revenues totaled $3.7 billion in 2003 for 11 casinos, compared with total revenues of $4.8 billion for Las Vegas casinos. For this year, it is forecasting revenues of $4.2 billion for SJM.

To face the increasing competition, the company is in the process of updating some of its casinos and recently introduced two themed casinos: Pharaoh's Palace and Crystal Palace (with 36,000 crystal columns). It is also planning the extension of his most famous and largest casino, the Lisboa, with construction to start later this year for completion in 2006.

This will be around the same time that Wynn's mega-resort, with 600 rooms, seven restaurants and 100,000 square feet of gambling space, gets completed.

Meanwhile, the 120-acre, $10 billion "Cotai Strip" of 20 casino-resorts which will be built by the Las Vegas Sands should be completed by 2009, with the anchor hotel a reproduction of the Venetian.

"This is not the first time we have faced competition. We encountered the same in the 80s with Australia opening up, but which still had constant growth and we're not afraid of this competition," So told United Press International on the side of the Asian Casinos Expo 2004.

"With China opening up tourism the gaming pie is going to grow," he said, pointing that last year mainland China accounted for 40 percent of SJM's casino players, with another 40 percent from Hong Kong.

According to a recent report by Deutsche Bank, revenue in the Macau casino market may grow 25 percent a year over the next five years. The average casino win per table per day in Macau is $22,000, compared with $2,600 in New Jersey's Atlantic City, and $2,200 in Las Vegas.

So acknowledge that while typically slot machine will represent 70 percent of earnings in Las Vegas, in Macau 90 percent of revenues comes from table. "This is related to the Chinese mentality. Players here believed that they have a better control of lady-luck if they play at a table," he said.

RGB's Lim pointed that Baccarat remains the game of choice in the region, taking 70 percent of the market.

So noted the new entrants to the Macau casino market who will be pushing slot machines their strong point. "That's why we see complementarity's between our competitors and us," he said, adding that many of the new Mainland players like to start on the slot machine.

United Press International: Asian casinos blossoming a new El Dorado

So a new El Dorado is blossoming? That should make the Superfriends happy, if no one else. The mechanics of a city of gold blossoming are somehow lost on me. But it's a hive of activity.

How about the "baking powder effect" on the gaming pie? Baking is hardly my strong point, and I'm not much of a dessert person, but I thought that pie was pretty much a flaky crust filled with fruit, cream, or peanut butter. How is baking powder going to materially change anything? Pehaps a more apt analogy would be that the relaxation of travel restrictions would add yeast to the bread of the Asian gaming market, or cheese to the pizza of the casino world.

As for me, I'm glad that the casino rivals can look beyond their competition and see their "complementarity's." The world needs people to be more in touch with our universal complementarity's.
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posted by Dave at 11:17 AM

French Quarter follies

Last year, when I attended a conference in New Orleans, I was lucky enough to spend some time around Bourbon Street. While I was there, I saw something I did not think possible in the 21st century: a three card monte thrower. He was set up in the middle of the street and was actually getting people to toss their money away.
It turns out that he wasn't the only carnival "gambler" in the Quarter. Check this out from the Herald Tribune:

A 93-year-old French Quarter souvenir shop owner has been released on bond after pleading innocent to conspiring to protect a lucrative gambling business that allegedly preyed on tourists.

Federal prosecutors did not object to releasing Mitchell N. Schwartz Sr. because of his age and health problems. U.S. Magistrate Louis Moore set bond at $5,000, which Schwartz posted.

A co-defendant, Terrence "Scotty" Border, 62, also entered an innocent plea. He was jailed after being unable to raise bond.

The two were booked in April on state gambling and drug charges after a state police raid on Schwartz's store in the French Quarter. According to a grand jury indictment, at least one New Orleans police officer was bribed. No officers have been charged.

The arrests involved a carnival-type game called "Razzle Dazzle" that police say was aimed at tourists and brought in as much as $2,000 per day. The game involves a slick-talking barker who lures players into the near-impossibility of scoring enough points to win.
heraldtribune.com: Southwest Florida's Information Leader

Schwartz is no relation to me (that I know of). For me, this is a reminder that gambling has still not left its carnie roots that far behind, and that there's still a sucker born every minute.

Here's a tip: if the game has a "slick-talking barker," you're not going to win.
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posted by Dave at 10:56 AM

Taking the "gamble" out of "Gamble City"

Las Vegas has been superbly successful at inventing itself as an international travel and vacation destination; in about sixty years, the city has transformed itself from a desert rest-stop to the casino and entertainment capital of the world. Anyone who read Suburban Xanadu* knows that they key to the Strip's success was the repackaging of gambling within a larger vacation experience that sanitized gaming as a fun pastime.

Today, Nevada has a tourism office in China, and that office is free to promote the glories of the Silver State with one caveat: it cannot mention gambling. From the LV SUN:

Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt and Nevada Commission on Tourism Executive Director Bruce Bommarito recently wrapped up a nine-day tourism-boosting mission, which included the official opening of the tourism office, located in a busy hotel in the embassy district of Beijing.

Hunt, who chairs the Commission on Tourism, and Bommarito, the state agency's executive director will report on the trip at Wednesday's quarterly meeting of the commission.

At the Beijing office, a two-person staff with a $100,000 annual budget will promote the state, pass out brochures, schedule advertising and make community presentations in and around the metropolitan area of Beijing.

The staff will not promote what has made Nevada famous -- the state's largest employer, the casino industry.

Bommarito told the South China Morning Post that the mainland government doesn't have a pro-gaming policy, "so we will not market gambling in China."

Added Karen Chen, who is heading Nevada's office, "We assured the China National Tourist Administration that we will not promote gambling."

A Chinese businessman in Las Vegas who has dealings in China said he doesn't think the city will suffer as a result of the ban on promoting gambling.

Alan Chen, operations manager for Chinatown Plaza Inc., the management company that operates the shopping center at Las Vegas' Chinatown and a public relations spokesman for the Chinese American Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas, said the Chinese know all about the city.

"Everybody knows what Las Vegas is," Chen said. "The literal translation of the Chinese word for Las Vegas is 'Gamble City.' "


Las Vegas SUN: Nevadans not marketing gambling in China

I just picture some tourism rep droning on about Lake Mead, Valley of Fire, shopping, entertainment, and dining, and then throwing out there: "Oh yeah, the place is called "Gamble City" (wink, wink). This city never ceases to fascinate me.
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*For some reason, amazon has reverted to the old, placeholder cover image that someone at Routledge mistakenly provided them when the book came out. A few months ago, I emailed them the correct cover, and it has been up since then, but it inexplicably reverted back today.

Also, they still have the book categorized as being about poverty and gambling addiction, when in fact is it about neither. Still, I guess it beats vampires, crocodiles, and war crimes.
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posted by Dave at 2:12 PM

California dealin'

Governor Schwarzenegger is set to sign new gaming compacts with five tribes in a move that will shift the geography of California Indian gaming. From the SF Chronicle:

After months of exhaustive negotiations, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveils several new tribal gaming compacts today, a $1 billion payment toward the "fair share" he pledged to win from the state's Indian casinos during his campaign for governor.

Only five of California's 61 gaming tribes will sign deals today, but the new compacts set the standard for all future negotiations: higher payments to the state's general fund in exchange for the state removing a cap of 2,000 slot machines per tribe.

Today's signatories -- the United Auburn, Rumsey, Viejas, Pala and Pauma bands -- are generally content with the economic terms of the compacts. However, other tribes are holding back, fearful the new deals will compromise something far more important -- their sovereignty.

Under the compacts, the tribes are being told to deal with labor union elections, and they are being told to resolve disputes with local governments through binding arbitration. It's this "being told" that is holding up more deals.

"You're dealing with agreements between governments," said George Forman, a lawyer representing the Southern California tribes of Morongo and Sycuan, which are still trying to reach new compacts with the state. "Certain of the things ... I think we would find more offensive than others."

Winning over the dissenting tribes is key if Schwarzenegger is to further boost revenue for the state -- negotiations could yield an additional $1 billion for this year's budget alone -- while advancing his reputation as a champion dealmaker.

Already, it's proving a tough sell in some corners of Indian country. One tribe, the Rincon Band of Mission Indians, is so angered by the state's new round of deals that it has sued to have them voided and plans to seek a federal restraining order early this week to keep them from going into effect.

Details of today's compacts include a $1 billion bond secured by the five tribes to help this year's budget and annual payments of $275 million from their projected slot-machine expansion -- an estimated 15 percent of the tribes' net profits. That's less than the 25 percent Schwarzenegger had earlier suggested he would view as their "fair share." In turn, the tribes will see the slot-machine cap vanish and their casino gaming exclusivity preserved through 2030.

Deals set on Indian casinos
5 of 61 tribes to sign; cap on slots lifted, state gets $1 billion

The big question is, of course, whether other tribes will sign similar compacts. Further complicating the issue is the fact that two competing referenda that would also expand slots remain viable for the November election.
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posted by Dave at 9:01 AM