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Posted At : August 11, 2008 10:28 AM | Posted By : D McKee
Related Categories:
Internet gambling,MGM Mirage,The Strip
There's been a steady stream of anecdotal evidence (like this) of a cheeseparing mentality afoot at MGM Mirage, one that may have been afoot far longer than anyone suspected. A thoroughly clogged air-conditioning filter here, exposed construction foam there, faded carpeting and cracked tiles at Bellagio and a discontinued people mover at The Mirage ... it all begins to add up, and to chip away at a company's image. Even if shiny new CityCenter hasn't actually sucked money away from other properties' budgets, it's starting to look like MGM execs are so mesmerized with their new thing of beauty that they're blind to an accretion of inadequacies (sometimes literally) beneath their feet.
This, however, cannot be chalked up to mere oversight. No, replacing Excalibur's poker dealers with PokerPro tables is out-and-out chintziness. True, Playboy once described Excalibur as "tacky even by Vegas standards" (and that was almost 10 years ago!) but it and its customers deserve better than this. Besides, as David Matthews reports, if it flies at Excalibur, MGM Mirage will inflict this on its other properties, creeping up the food chain toward Bellagio.
The company saves 12 salaries, players keep a few bucks that would otherwise go toward tips, and the "casino" experience gets one big step closer to online gambling. I think the key phrase in David's story is when he says the company believes "each table will generate a greater amount of rake per hour." Chalk up another victory for the time-and-motion experts.
Small wonder that the casino industry shows little interest (let alone urgency) about repealing or otherwise circumventing "Slick Billy" Frist's parting legacy, the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforecement Act, that shameful sop to the Religious Right. If it's legally perilous to play poker online and the games aren't always on the square, then why not just offer an Internet-poker simulacrum at the casino instead?
Maybe so. But if this pinchpenny trend spreads, it'll give players one less reason to draw to their inside straights here and to do it closer to home instead. Since M Resort is planning to have freestanding, help-yourself beverage stations, it looks like cocktail servers are next on the Endangered Employee List. I'm sure we'll get to the all-robotic casino floor eventually, but I hope I'm somewhere else when that happens.
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