Trump International is hawking bargain rates for the Yuletide season, including price-matching, Saks Fifth Avenue discounts, “guaranteed late check out” (translation: Please stay with us!) and more. The sheer plethora of discounts and giveaways hints at an increasing level of desperation within Trump’s Stump. However, it’s also laudable to see the Donald Trump/Phil Ruffin property get off its high horse and start competing in this value-driven market like any other hotel … which it is. Minus gambling. Bit of a miscalculation, that.
We’re not No. 1! And it’s a good thing because Las Vegas has fallen from first to 25th in U.S. home foreclosures. Barring a dump of Continue reading
online Poker and Casino games in the UK market. Zynga’s UK-based [real-money games] service and bwin.party will launch RMG products including Poker and a full suite of 180 Casino games in the first half of 2013, which include table games such asslots, roulette and blackjack.” And if you’re a FarmVille fanatic, Zynga and Bwin.party will offer British punters “the first-ever, online FarmVille-branded real money slots game.”
Monday’s interview with Interblock global sales supremo Tom O’Brien (right) yielded some passing observations that are probably too peripheral for my upcoming Casino Life piece … but perfect for S&G. Interblock maintains field offices in Las Vegas (soon to become the de facto headquarters) in Australia, Macao and Nova Scotia. In order to staff these, O’Brien takes a ‘horses for courses’ approach: “For instance, you don’t put an American in Macao who’s never run that market before. He needs to study it. Australia, the same thing. You can’t run an American over to Australia and say, ‘Go ahead and run this market. It’s gonna be great for you.’ You have to find an Australian operator or vendor who’s got that kind of background.”
Ouch! Sounds like a bank-shot reference to 
In attempt to get some TV time, Donald Trump vowed he was going to say something to someone about somebody else today. But frankly … 
Whenever one goes to a gaming expo, one of the main lines of product on display is the robo-dealer. You know: An electronically run roulette, blackjack, baccarat, craps or sic bo “table” (more of a big workstation, in reality), presided over by an unsettlingly blank-faced, computer-generated “dealer.” These sorts of machines are coming on strong both domestically and overseas (particularly in Spain). However, they’ve run into player resistance in the world’s two most gambling-mad marketplaces: Macao and Singapore.
Shortly before Global Gaming Expo, I had a chance to sit down with Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith and query him on the company’s growth strategy, which will soon plant the Boyd flag in Kansas and Iowa. While many casino CEOs talk like an SEC filing, Smith is a pleasure to interview: Economical with words, right to the point and 
limited engagement at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts. The low-overhead, high-recognition Broadway hit is a logical follow-up to Paris-Las Vegas‘ acquisition of Jersey Boys and 
“I’m a Republican and I’m not voting for Mitt Romney at all! You want to know why? Because of these constant phone calls!” — unidentified, irate Las Vegas Philharmonic patron, overheard speaking to a telemarketer in a Smith Center for the Performing Arts restroom stall, where he’d gone to answer the call of nature … the only call that cannot be forwarded.
If you want to see 
There are so many places Legends could go that it’s difficult to speculate on what the mystery venue is. Rule out the Stratosphere, which recently booted 
Folks down in the Pelican State had better things to do than gamble last month … like clean up after Hurricane Isaac. This might account for a 5% year/year decline in casino revenues. Louisiana‘s gambling venues grossed $200 million last month, posting a 2% increase entirely on the strength of Pinnacle Entertainment‘s new L’Auberge Baton Rouge. And I mean strong: $13 million, which was more than Baton Rouge‘s two other casinos grossed ($12 million) together, 
$23 million). Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) opposed this project and, faced with revenue and job creation on that magnitude, he’s welcome to suck it. Remember, this is the same fella who tried to demonize high-speed rail along the I-15 corridor as “a train from Disneyland to Las Vegas,” even as 
and a better financial performer than its predecessor, the unlamented Viva Elvis. However, does anyone find 
“It seems that if the [Las Vegas Review-Journal] is going to run a fluffy pucker piece about Ayn Rand, there should be some sort of disclaimer attached. The paper’s 
D’ya remember that Flava Flav restaurant venture, just off “Crack Alley,” that sounded “
vote on interlocking Measures 82 and 83, which would approve 
a whole two bucks. However, The D’s PR reps have informed me that these brewski specials have been discontinued. (“They no longer have running specials but do run different random specials from time to time.”) Also, there are no longer any tables on the Vue patio, from which one used to be able to watch zipliners and other Fremont Street Experience denizens. Yes, I know Stevens has to pay for the recent makeover that expunged many of the remaining vestiges of Fitzgeralds from The D, but gouging patrons for a humble draft beer suggests he may be getting ideas above his casino’s station. And when that happens in Vegas, bad things usually follow.
For a couple of days I’ll be busy on the USA Today front, doing the first quarterly update of my online travel guides (Evil Dead the Musical 
If there’s a saving grace to August’s rather glum Nevada gambling win (-3%), it’s that the month ended on a Friday, so there may be some as-yet-unreported slot revenue that will fluff the September results. (That optimism must be offset, though, by the fact that August 2012 had one more weekend day than the year before.) Lighter slot play depressed Las Vegas Strip results (-1%), which were buoyed mainly by boffo baccarat win (+32%), hold (+12%) and money wagered (+30%). Other table games were down 8.5%, with metrics declining across the board.
Politico.com profile. Adelson (right, ca. 1998), who can often behave like a colicky infant, was on his best and most statesman-like behavior. Although his assertion that “I do whatever it takes, as long as it’s moral, ethical, principled, legal” should cause the Las Vegas Valley to resound with gales of laughter — partly because of how Adelson’s conducted himself in the past, and partly since it’s coming from a man who’s under scrutiny for possible Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. Need I remind anyone that this is the man who considers it immoral to gamble on the Internet … but not in his casinos? He should have simply said, “I do whatever it takes.” Nobody would dispute that, not least in a year when he’s