September 2004

Notice for online regulation campaign

It looks like the mainstream media is picking up a story reported on the Internet last week about BetOnSports’ David Carruthers’s campaign to bring online gaming regulation before the public. From the LVRJ: But unless Congress abandons efforts to prohibit Internet gambling. Carruthers said, the United States stands to lose billions of dollars in potential […]

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news about gambling

Of milkshaking and men

This tidbit intrigued me so much I had to post it. From the San Diego Herald Tribune: In horse racing lingo, it’s called “milkshaking.” Under cover of darkness or a blanket, a handler inserts a tube into a horse’s nostril, directs it to the stomach and feeds the animal a baking-soda solution in the hope

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gambling & culture

Speed bumps

I don’t have any news story about this: it’s just personal observation. There are too many speed bumps in Las Vegas. They just put three of them in the driveway that leads out of my apartment complex, probably because the hammerheads that live there were speeding around the curving road that leads to Howard Hughes

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life in vegas

Hold em more profitable than banking

Sometimes, I like to step back from things and consider them in historical context. We truly live in a fantastic world of wonders. I’ll explain after this story, from KeralaNext.com: A mathematics graduate from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who snubbed a 40,000 pound a year banking job to earn a mere 4,500 a week playing internet

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gambling & culture

Mother nature hates casinos?

That’s the irrational explanation for those who try to impose causality on random events–something that many gamblers excel at. Anyway, because of the looming threat of Hurricane Ivan, the state has closed Mississippi coast casinos. From the Sun Herald: State regulators ordered the coast casinos shut to customers at noon Tuesday. Casino workers had until

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news about gambling

Elderly gamblers healthier

This story has been bouncing around for a few days, and even made the CNN Headline News ticker. According to a Yale University study, older people who gamble are actually healthier than those who don’t. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: The findings are not rock-solid. They’re only based on telephone interviews, but the results are the

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gambling & culture

Police poker popped

Like many other Americans, police in Virginia Beach like playing poker. For almost a year, they’ve been holding a monthly Texas Hold’em tournament in the Fraternal Order of Police lodge. But now, because the tournaments are apparently illegal, they will cease. From HamptonRoads.com: The game became an issue with the FOP after the state Department

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news about gambling

New debate on online betting

The parent company of BetonSports.com, a big Internet wagering site, has announced that it will launch an initiative called “Proposition 1: To Regulate or Prohibit Online Gambling?” which will bring the question of the legality of online gambling before the United States public. From yahoo, who just ran the press release: The initiative will be

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news about gambling

Must be some misunderstanding

Three years ago, NASA scientists sent the Genesis spacecraft on a mission to collect star dust. The capsule’s contents were too delicate to withstand a crash-landing, so NASA engineers designed a ingenious system for snagging it as it re-entered earth’s atmosphere. One problem–the parachute didn’t deploy, and the caspsule crashed into the Utah desert. Read

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haphazard world

Worst lead-in ever

How do you punch up a bland story about bilateral air traffic agreements? Make a reference to Chinese take-out that, to me, seems to border on the politically incorrect. From the LVRJ: With an appetite for a different type of Chinese take-out service, the Clark County Commission will on Wednesday discuss a $360,000 consulting contract

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haphazard world

Open for business

Hi there. I’m Dave, this is the Die is Cast weblog, and thanks for stopping by. Please add your comments as you see fit, and browse the rest of the site. People seem to love the casino carpet page. I’ve still got a few bugs to work out, so if you see something that looks

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what's new

New thing at Newport

I think that was the name of an Archie Shepp album in the 1960s. Anyway, today I’m talking about Newport, Kentucky. Once a major stop on the national “flourishing illegal casinos and vice” circuit, the city has cleaned up its image. The city became a vice center in the 19th century, and remained so until

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news about gambling

Democracy by lot

In the Bible, lots were often used to make tough decisions. Joshua apportioned the land of Canaan to the Israelite tribes by lot, for example. In the Roman Empire, some official positions were filled by lot. There is something completely democratic about selecting someone for a job using nothing more than what anthropoligists call sortilege,

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gambling & culture

Getting there slowly

Well, it looks like greymatter is installed. I’ve still got a lot of work to go in customizing it to my exacting specifications–well, making it look something like the rest of the site. “It’s a transitional thing right now…when it grows in, it’s going to look great.” While that’s apropos for the current state of

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what's new