Question of the Day - 06 July 2021

After reading your poll [on favorite casino names], I was wondering if a new Stardust was built, can the name be used? Does some corporation own the name?

Yes, Boyd Gaming, final buyers of the Stardust, still owns the name and brand. Boyd is deploying the Stardust brand in the digital world, by launching an online Stardust casino in Pennsylvania shortly. In addition, Boyd has been using the brand in some brick-and-mortar applications. One example is the Stardust Suite at the Orleans; it's a hospitality venue with Stardust photos and decor. The events center at Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Indiana, is also named after the Stardust. It's doubtful that Boyd would open a dedicated brick-and-mortar Stardust casino of its own, but only Boyd could do so if they wanted. 

From time to time in the QoD, you mention Anthony Curtis' column in the Las Vegas Advisor, called Couponomy. I googled the word and came up with a defunct company called The Couponomy and an entry for Coupon Sony. No definition. Is there one? If so, what does it mean?

"Couponomy" is a term coined by the late great Peter Griffin, author of The Theory of Blackjack and a long-time friend of Anthony's. Peter took the word "coupon" and added the Greek suffix "nomy," which means "distribution, arrangement, and management." In everyday usage, it indicates the laws governing, or the sum of knowledge about, a specified field of learning and enquiry. Examples would be economy, gastronomy, taxonomy, astronomy, and the ever-popular cheironomy. Thus, "couponomy" refers to the sum of knowledge about the distribution and management of coupons and Peter cleverly applied it to the raison d'etre of the Las Vegas Advisor. Anthony adopted it long long ago as the name of his column, the only one that he writes in the first person. 

Did Robert Irvine's restaurant at the Tropicana survive the pandemic?

Yes it did and we're happy about that. It was a great 24-hour play for classic British-pub/comfort food. It closed in the shutdown in March 2020 and not only didn't it reopen, a new outlet, Trop & Go, replaced it. We hadn't heard anything either way about it, and since the Tropicana is in the midst of changing hands again and the new outlet was in its place, we were afraid it wasn't coming back. But a couple of weeks ago, rumors started surfacing that it was returning and it did, finally, reopen last Thursday (July 1); its hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. That's definitely a plus for the Tropicana food scene.