Stiffs and Georges

For the umpteenth time, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has been obliged to go to the media and say, ‘Yes, we not only have gambling but we actually like it, we really do.’ It’s a message that got kicked under the furniture during the run-up year in which the Cosmo promoted itself like a high-end [...]

Hoping to join Evil Dead The Musical and Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in the progression of locally produced musicals to casino showrooms is Summer Camp! The Musical, which opens tonight at the Onyx Theatre, near what used to be the Sahara. (Say, we haven’t heard much from Sam Nazarian lately, have we?) Seen above are [...]

Our favorite welfare queen, Xpress West (née Desert Xpress) isn’t letting its plans be constrained by anything so mundane as reality. Original pitchman Sig “The Fixer” Rogich has crawled off into the underbrush somewhere but his Choo-Choo-to-Nowhere has found additional front men. And Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) continues to push for a record amount of [...]

No, I don’t know who Cobra Starship is but their “#1Nite” (yes, that’s how they spell it) is the sort of bubble-gum pop that ought to stick to the top of the charts. It’s another entry in that can’t-fail music-video genre, “Wacky Weekend in Vegas.” What sets this one somewhat apart is the use of the [...]

Last night, fledgling SFS Productions rolled out The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the Plaza Las Vegas and, true to its subject matter, it’s a emotionless copulation — to borrow a Pauline Kael line, it’s a practiced hooker with cold hands and no thoughts of love. That’s the nice way of putting it. At [...]

In terms of quantity, quality and proximity, the Los Angeles Times is the closest thing Las Vegas has to a major metropolitan daily. (Hell, the Sacramento Bee puts the Las Vegas Review-Journal to shame.) Indeed, the LAT treats Sin City as a distant, less-virtuous suburb of the City of Angels. A recent spate of stories [...]

Guess which city tops the misery index, according to BusinessInsider.com? Yup, good old Las Vegas, where real estate values have totally cratered and employment isn’t looking so hot, either. Any talk of recovery on the Strip looks somewhat relative when placed in the context of what irresponsible developers and borrowers have done to the local [...]

Thanks go out to reader Greg Askins for putting me onto this evocative TWA travel poster from 1965. Some of you might get a kick out of going back to a time when Yr. Humble Blogger was in short pants and a crew cut, and flying was actually

… an occasional series. S&G keeps referring to Donald Trump’s glass jaw — an obvious liability to his phony/delusional political aspirations. Obligingly, The Donald served up a characteristic hissy fit after Caesars Palace headliner Jerry Seinfeld canceled an appearance at a Trump-flagged event. Oh snap! That 2012 presidential field must be quaking in its boots.
Phoenix [...]

Today’s “Question of the Day” about the future of the Sahara Hotel & Casino’s monorail stop (and, by extension, the future of the Las Vegas Monorail itself) provoked a long and thoughtful response from an S&G reader. (By the way, don’t forget to take our poll on the Sahara.) The fate of the bankrupt Monorail [...]

Florida casinos, the latest pet project of Sheldon Adelson and new ally Gov. Rick Scott (R), got the back of the hand from Miami Beach’s city commission. Since Miami Beach is the most desirable casino zipcode in the state, this takes some of the shine off a multi-casino proposal currently being crafted in the Legislature. [...]

Gaming regulators in Missouri got a little unsolicited advice from Ameristar Casinos as to where to put Casino License #13. Ameristar Vice President of Government Relations & Public Affairs Troy Stremming commissioned a study on the matter. Its shocking conclusion: The best place to put a new casino is … as far from an Ameristar [...]

Although the Maryland public has warmed up to the idea of table games, casinos in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey needn’t lose sleep: Marylanders are at least two years — probably four — from voting table games into existence in their state. Until then, electronic simulations will have to serve as a panacea. [...]

It’s been leaked to the Boston Globe that a deal is at hand that would resolve the impasse currently holding casino-enabling legislation at bay. While still probably not to Gov. Deval Patrick’s liking (he wants one racino, the compromise bill would have two), it indicates that the state Senate has prevailed over the lower house. [...]

Thanks to a bit of last-minute perfidy by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), it looks as though Nevadans — and, mark my words, taxpayers — will eventually be stuck with Sig Rogich’s Choo-Choo to Nowhere, the train that boards in Vegas and dumps you in … Victorville. The list of competing proposals has now swelled to [...]

… only to give us Assouline, a store that specializes in big books with lots of pictures and can found in Crystals. However, you needn’t bother shopping there unless you have money out the assouline. Or as a company exec more elegantly puts it, his products are for the consumer who “is inured to the [...]

S&G reader Dawn was the first to guess which state in our great nation has the second-most casinos (after Nevada, natürlich). It’s the Sooner State, Oklahoma — where the wind comes sweeping down the plains, as native Jeff in OKC was quick to point out. Dawn gets bonus points for the accuracy of her guesstimate [...]

If giant equestrian statuary isn't enough to make you pass up Las Vegas for a vacation in Chandler, Ariz., I don't know what will do the trick.
Not impressed. One reader wasn't bowled over by Commerce Casino's largesse to a group of Bay Area firefighters who are battling nearby blazes. Informed that the firemen were being [...]

You could be Phoenix. A reader shared with me a Wall Street Journal article on the cratering hotel market down there. (No link, sorry.) Occupany hit 58% in April, far worse than anything Las Vegas has seen. (J.P. Morgan forecasts 80% Strip occupancy in July.) Also, there are concerns about the addition of 1,900 rooms [...]