“Poker is an all-American game. It’s a game that I learned as a teen and continue to play today. Just like millions of other players I enjoy the 
strategy and skill involved.” So said Rep. Joe Barton (R) as he introduced the Internet Poker Freedom Act, a counterthrust to Rep. Jason Chaffetz‘s efforts to shut down online gambling altogether. (It should be noted that Internet gambling was never outlawed at the federal level, only the processing of financial transactions related thereto … creating a legal penumbra in which operators like PokerStars continued to operate.)
Unfortunately, Barton’s bill would authorize the federal government to license Internet poker sites and regulate the industry. This would be the proverbial camel’s nose inside the tent of the gaming industry. If the states can’t be trusted to regulate I-poker, who’s to say the feds wouldn’t intrude into other facets of the industry. The Barton bill also implicitly raises the specter of a federal tax on (part of) the gaming industry, and we don’t want to go down that primrose path.
* James Packer must have a fiscal death wish. He’s entitling his Vegas casino-to-be Alon Las Vegas (with a long-vowel symbol over 
the capital “A”). Now what the hell does that mean? It has about as much brand-equity as Vdara, another emetically pretentious hotel name. What compels casino moguls to be so pretentiously abstruse? (Cromwell and Linq anybody?) Alon boss Andrew Pascal gets shirty with Howard Stutz for having ferreted out details of the project when he ought to be mad at whoever came up with that stupid name. He’d also do well to junk the initial look of the property, which is Dullsville writ large. It wind up looking more like Packer’s forthcoming Crown Towers in Perth but even that resembles Son-of-Cosmopolitan a bit much for comfort.
* The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, in a blunder of historic 
proportions, closed its celebrated Center Bar last night. A celebratory HRH press release damned the bar as “infamous” and promised “a new bar concept” while begging the question why one was needed. Fittingly, Warner Gaming brought in Robin Leach to heap the last spadeful of dirt on the Center Bar’s grave. Surprisingly, the structure did not give way beneath the burden of Leach’s literally incredible girth. (If you’re going to double as a public figure as well as a gossip columnist, it does not befit one to be morbidly obsese.) Farewell, Center Bar. You were loved.
* Lawrence Ho will see Gary Loveman‘s Ferris wheel and raise him a figure-eight track and a steampunk design scheme. Your move, Gary.
Sleepwalkers from Dan Rosenfeld on Vimeo.
* If you’ve got a sentimental attachment to the traditional design of a casino floor (not very navigable, except around the perimeter), the future could hold some big surprises for all of us. Forbes explores Urban Putt, a former San Francisco mortuary that has been transformed into a new-century miniature golf course, very popular with millenials. Another coming influence is, believe it or not, Dave & Buster’s, which has already shaped NagaWorld in Cambodia. One of Urban Putt’s many piquant features is “tiny glowing creatures that respond to people’s hands,” an installation called “Sleepwalkers.” I can’t wait for something like that to come to Vegas.
