Last weekend, my wife and I were subjected treated to what is undoubtedly — without any question — the worst hotel stay of our lives. So-called Affinity Gaming wanted to show off its $8 million retrofit of Primm Valley Resort & Casino. Most of the money has, understandably, gone into the casino floor (we’d seen some new PTZ domes being hung over the table pit earlier this summer), with whatever largesse was left sprinkled around the remainder of the property. Hotel-corridor carpeting and wallpaper are new, for instance, although you could have fooled me. Some ancient-looking video poker machines were parked in the long, mostly empty passageway between the casino and the adjacent outlet mall, so an extension of the casino floor may be in the works.
“Damn, it’s hot in here,” observed Mrs. McKee, when we got to our room. Primm Valley Resort‘s hotel is arranged in a hollow square and the air conditioning peters out as Continue reading
Guess which city 
Mike Tyson, 
Posthumous congratulations to Martin Stern Jr. (1917-2001), father of the vertically integrated casino resort. He will be the recipient of the annual Jay Sarno Award at this year’s Global Gaming Expo. The choice of Stern has been such a closely guarded secret that not even Sarno biographer (and keeper of the Stern archives) Dr. David G. Schwartz knew when I asked him last Thursday. Ironically, the honor comes the same year that Stern’s first Strip project, the high-rise expansion of the Sahara, closed for business. Current owner Sammy “The Naz” Nazarian 
Stern’s first signature property was the (now) Las Vegas Hilton, uniting all the key casino components under one ginormous roof. Kirk Kerkorian liked Stern’s work so much, he hired him to execute the first MGM Grand, now better known as Bally’s Las Vegas. While Nevada projects represented fully half of Stern’s output, he also designed Trump Plaza. In recent years, Prof. Schwartz has helped draw attention to Stern’s unrealized dream: Xanadu. The half-Mayan, half-Jetsons casino would certainly have been aesthetically preferable to the horror that arose on Stern’s intended site: Excalibur. Figuratively, those 
Which is a little odd, coming off the big deal about Project Linq being an attempt to reposition dining and retail on the Strip toward the middle class … but never mind. Finding money to polish off the tower was one of the objectives of Caesars’ busted IPO a year ago. Evidently the company found enough spare change under Gary Loveman‘s sofa cushions to push ahead on Octavius all the same. However, one notes significant “budget creep” on Project Linq. The $550 million 
Tomorrow afternoon, at 12:15 p.m. (just in time for the lunch-hour crowd), UNLV‘s Design, Science & Technology program presents an unusual — for it — lecture. It’s entitled Taming Vice: How Machines and Architecture Changed the Culture of Gambling. The speaker will be visiting scholar Kah-Wee Lee, doctoral candidate in architecture at the University of California-Berkeley. Lee holds forth in the Special Collections Reading Room, on the third floor of beautiful Lied Library. For more info, go to gaming.unlv.edu. I’ll be there: Just look for the overweight guy with the straw hat.
Whatever one thinks of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas‘ business plan, the $4 billion resort seems bound and determined to position itself as a lifestyle-oriented hangout for the upwardly mobile, with casino gambling just one amenity among many others. But perhaps you looked out over the pool deck last weekend and thought, “Wow, that looks like the largest 
On principle, demanding a 25% benefit reduction from your workforce is a crappy thing to do. However, with over half of the city’s 11 casinos running at an operating loss, ownership has a case for pleading poverty. Over at ancient Resorts Atlantic City, CEO Dennis Gomes is conducting a discrete set of labor talks (having already made the truly draconian austerity measures when the former Colony Capital 
If it seems that the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino‘s infamous Rehab pool party has been keeping a lower profile this year, that’s no illusion. The expulsion of Morgans Hotel Group and its party-hearty executive team has brought a de-empahsis on 
Angel not only loses its Rehab gig but also 
Do you ever have the feeling that CityCenter isn’t getting its message across? Incidentally, leave your cursor on the Harmon wrap for a moment and you’ll get an amusing — but wholly accidental — bit of snark from Cosmopolitan PR’s department.
Breaking out of its recent abundance of caution, Pinnacle Entertainment has 
Excluding Trump Taj Mahal, the new owners of Trump Entertainment Resorts 
OK, so it’s called “paying a premium,” but Steve Wynn finally pried 51 acres of Cotai Strip™ 
If other tracks follow Kentucky Downs’ path, it may not be a moment too soon. Gov. Steve Beshear (D, right) has been pushing for gambling expansion through the Lege since before his first term commenced and accomplished squat to date. If he loses his reelection bid this year, casino opponent and state Sen. David Williams (R) will be able to put the issue on ice for another four years. Time’s a wastin’. To the east, Harrah’s Cherokee wants to deal itself some live table games, among other expansions. The administration of Gov. Bev Purdue (D, below) 
The revenue pinch is also being felt in the great state of New York, where a version of Class III gambling is being sought for the state’s racinos, which currently make do with VLTs. If Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D, right) backs the tracks, he’s literally taking a gamble: Wagering money that’s currently owed to the state by the Seneca Nation against billions in table game dollars that 
OK, so Benny & Bjorn were writing about a gal named Elaine not a hurricane called Irene. Although the storm is estimated to have cost Atlantic City casinos $40 million last month, it didn’t change the underlying narrative. J.P. Morgan‘s analysts have accounted for the Irene Effect and estimate that the Boardwalk would still have been -9% from August 2010, acts of God notwithstanding. That’s on top of an 11% declivity in August ’10 and Morgan’s Joseph Greff expects “results will continue to remain soft.” Last June’s mild 4% drop in business looks more and more like an aberration, not “a light at the end of the tunnel.”