Aside from his Stiffs & Georges gig, David is also an occasional contributor to Question of the Day and is currently the theatre critic for Las Vegas CityLife. He's also got a feature story on the (slim) future of the Russian casino industry slated for the October issue of Casino Enterprise Management Magazine.
David arrived in Las Vegas on Jan. 7, 1999, from Minneapolis. He'd received job offers from both the Las Vegas Business Press and Casino Executive Magazine. He chose the latter and was its managing editor from early '99 to its demise in the spring of 2001. Casino Executive's parent company had recently purchased Casino Journal, and David served as managing editor of that and a quarterly, Casino Executive Reports, from mid-2001 to early 2002, when he became a casualty of the financial damage wrought by the collapse of the World Gaming Congress (another GEM Communications property).
After freelancing for the rest of '02 (which enabled him to keep close tabs on the Anaheim Angels' improbable run to the World Series), David took on another managing editorship, this time of Global Gaming Business, at the end of the year. This was a mistake and he has referred to it ever since as "the worst six months of my life."
Burnt out, David spent the next two years eking out an existence as a freelancer, mostly for the now-defunct Las Vegas Life and for Las Vegas Weekly, as well being a mainstay of Native American Casino. When Dave Berns became editor of the Las Vegas Business Press, he pulled McKee off of the journalistic scrap heap and installed him on the Business Press' gaming beat.
This began a two-year run – first as reporter, then as news editor – of hustling to beat the dailies at their own game. David won several Nevada Press Association awards, mostly notably for an investigative series on the little-known international conglomerate, Tamares Group, that had purchased six downtown Vegas casinos behind a stalking horse, Barrick Gaming.
It was also during this period that the Business Press began aggressively using the Web to break stories and in which the first incarnation of "Stiffs & Georges" was seen. (The title is dealer-speak for bad and good tippers, and was suggested by Raving Consulting President Dennis Conrad, a former dealer.)
All good things must come to an end and Las Vegas Review-Journal Publisher Sherman Frederick elected to relegate the Business Press to a subdivision of the R-J (making David's position redundant), as well as convert it to a happy-talk newspaper, full of Chamber of Commerce-friendly stories. (At least the R-J had the good sense not to evict UNLV's David G. Schwartz from his perch as gaming columnist, from where Schwartz continues to pen thought-provoking essays.) McKee got a very golden parachute and, best of all, didn't have to relocate to the R-J compound, located across from the ruins of the Moulin Rouge.
The following October, Anthony Curtis rolled the dice on David and he's been with Huntington Press ever since. He's also continued a fruitful relationship with CityLife in which he's covered subjects as diverse as Comic Con, restaurants, labor strife, prostitution, and ballet. During his Vegas decade, David has also moonlighted for the program books of the Washington Opera and San Francisco Opera, for International Gaming & Wagering Business, Northwest Airlines' in-flight magazine, and several other publications.
He also, much to his shock, turned up on one of the bonus features on the Stargate: The Ark of Truth DVD. Since "Stargate SG-1" is his favorite TV series of all time, that's his proudest accomplishment. David lives in Las Vegas with his two cats, Fasolt and Mr. Bit, both of whom made the move here with him, lo, those many years ago. Despite having a face made for radio, David recently made his talking-head TV debut, discussing the Station Casinos bankruptcy on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston." What does he recall most about the experience? "My jowls: I looked like Fat Stewie from 'Family Guy'."
