The following articles were authored by Dave

The History of Our Future | Vegas Seven

By on May 16, 2013

I’ve been wanting to write more about Macau, which is such a huge gambling story, for a while, and when given a feature slot for Vegas Seven, jumped on the chance to talk about Macau’s impact on Las Vegas. The result is this week’s cover story:

Back in the early days—2006 or so—American executives signing on for tours of duty in Macau felt like they were stepping into the Wild West. Street violence had subsided since the island’s 1999 reversion to mainland control, but there was still a sense that this was a frontier, a place where anything could happen. And when strangers rode into town—often from the former frontier town of Las Vegas—they went where strangers always go first: the saloon. In this case, that meant the Embassy Bar at what was then the Mandarin Oriental hotel. It was an admittedly upscale saloon, but for an expat executive it was an oasis, a free-port, a place to make crucial first connections and ease into Chinese life. It offered just enough reassuring familiarity, and just enough tantalizing strangeness.

via The History of Our Future | Vegas Seven.

At 4,000 words, this is a long magazine piece for me, but I think you’ll agree it packs a lot of story into those words. The great art really helps. I’m as proud of this as I am of anything I’ve written so far.

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One Game’s Wild Ride | Vegas Seven

By on May 9, 2013

Last Sunday, on a short deadline for my Green Felt Journal, I suddenly got inspired. I recalled that Caribbean Stud Poker no longer had a separate line item in the monthly Gaming Revenue Report (these things apparently stick in my head), and figured, that’s got to be worth a column.

Some digging for numbers and comment later, I had a story. You can read it for yourself:

But with limited floor space, games that no longer draw don’t last. This is nowhere more apparent than in looking at the fate of Caribbean Stud Poker in Nevada. Once nearly ubiquitous, it’s now nearly gone from the state’s casinos.

Caribbean Stud Poker is known in the industry as a proprietary table game. Some games, like roulette and blackjack, have rules that are in the public domain; any casino can offer them, as long as they get regulatory approval. Proprietary games, on the other hand, are developed by a creator who patents his or her work. The creator then sells the game to casinos, which pay a per-table rental fee ranging from $30 to $2,500 per month; more profitable tables command higher rents.

via One Game’s Wild Ride | Vegas Seven.

I learned a lot writing this one–I hope you find it interesting as well.

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MGM’s Park Will Be Good in Vegas Seven

By on April 26, 2013

In addition to the two features (Light and space) in this week’s Vegas Seven, I have a Green Felt Journal, which talks about the probably impact of MGM’s proposed Park development:

How about getting back to urban basics and creating a worthwhile street-level experience? That’s what MGM did on April 18 with the formal announcement of The Park, comprised of retail/dining development on underutilized land between New York-New York and Monte Carlo, a renovation of the Strip-front facades of both resorts and a 20,000-seat arena operated by international sports and entertainment giant AEG.

via MGM’s Park, and Competition With Linq, Will Be Good for Vegas | Vegas Seven.

It’s a project that I think is correctly scaled to what Las Vegas is today. And from what people say about it, I’m looking forward to the Shake Shack, if nothing else.

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Anatomy of a Nightclub | Vegas Seven

By on April 26, 2013

I already shared one feature I had in this week’s Vegas Seven: my piece on space tourism and Vegas with a sidebar on Zero-G, which currently flies out of McCarran. I also wrote a feature on the evolution of nightclubs, as seen in the soon-to-open Light at Mandalay Bay:

With all that success, it’s no wonder today’s nightclub scene is crowded. Meanwhile, clubs are working themselves more deeply into the weft of resort fabric, with dayclubs and vibe dining carrying them into new areas. At the turn of the millennium, nightlife started going Vegas. Now Vegas has gone nightlife.

via Anatomy of a Nightclub | Vegas Seven.

One of the things I like best about the online version is the link back to my January Green Felt Journal, which wondered if Las Vegas had a nightclub bubble.

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Vegas to the Moon! in Vegas Seven

By on April 24, 2013

A few weeks back I got an email about an event connected to the launch of Virgin America’s thrice-daily LAX-LAS flights. I usually don’t go to those kinds of events–there’s not too much to “cover” outside of photo ops. But I got thinking…wouldn’t it be fun to ask Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson how Vegas might factor in his plans for regular open-to-the-public spaceflights?

That’s the genesis of this feature in Vegas Seven:

Could Las Vegas become a launching pad for a new type of tourist—the kind who’s looking for a thrill ride that can’t be found behind the velvet rope?

In the past five years, ideas that once seemed outlandish—medical tourism, a tech corridor, green energy—have been seriously considered as viable tools for our economic development. Why not space tourism?

via Vegas to the Moon! | Vegas Seven.

I also did a companion piece about a company that’s already flying out of McCarran. It won’t take you to space, but it will get you weightless:

You want to experience the feeling of spaceflight, but you don’t have the 200 grand to fork over to Sir Richard. What to do?

As always in matters of semi-sane wish-fulfillment, Las Vegas can help. The Zero G Weightless Experience—available several times a year at McCarran International Airport—never leaves Earth’s atmosphere, but does let participants leave gravity behind.

How to Get Spacey Without Going to Space

Between this and last week’s video game wagering piece, I’m all about proposing strange new worlds for Las Vegas to consider.

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Will Video Games Go Vegas? in Vegas Seven

By on April 18, 2013

Based on a Twitter conversation with @AgentMarco, I decided to look into what was happening with betting on video games. The result was this week’s Green Felt Journal:

Could betting on video games be the last chance for gambling? In 2009, Woody Levin debuted BringIt.com, a website that let gamers open accounts and bet against each other on a host of Xbox, PlayStation and Wii games. Accepting bets from $1 to $100,000 per matchup, the service appealed to hardcore gamers and soon attracted more than 100,000 users. But encountering some technical challenges, Levin chose to shift emphasis toward the social-gaming space, hosting mini-games where players competed for virtual currency. But he believes that wagering on video games has an enormous potential.

via Will Video Games Go Vegas? | Vegas Seven.

This was fun to write for a few reasons. First, it was a story idea that developed as part of a genuine conversation on Twitter, which to me shows how great a medium Twitter can be. When it’s done right, it’s people talking, and learning from each other.

Second, it’s something that I honestly haven’t seen much written about, so I’m glad to have the chance to blaze a trail. Not like it’s not fun talking about the latest month’s revenues, but there’s only so much to be said there. I’m really glad to have an editor, Greg Blake Miller, who lets me do stuff like this.

Finally, this week, as usual, I’ve been given great art for the column–I love the homage to Space Invaders.

I hope to write more about this in the future, and I really do think Atlantic City casinos should strongly consider doing something with video game tournaments.

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The British Are Coming! in Vegas Seven

By on April 4, 2013

In this week’s Green Felt Journal, I take a look at how a British invasion has changed Las Vegas nightlife:

The two biggest demographics in Las Vegas these days seem to be nightclubbers and international visitors. As a bit of anecdotal evidence of the trend, the casinos in development that have stoked the imagination plan to cater either to the former SLS, Gansevoort or the latter Resorts World. So when you get the two together—international visitors who like to party—you know you’re talking gold mine. Add in that they’re from one of the most lucrative feeder markets for Vegas—the United Kingdom—and you’re practically printing cash.

via The British Are Coming! | Vegas Seven.

Interesting that my last two GFJs have been about the influence of other cities (London, Macau) on Las Vegas.

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Resort Fees Costing Casinos Goodwill in Vegas Seven

By on March 29, 2013

I’ve got a little resort fee reverie in Vegas Seven this week:

Resort fees—those mandatory per-night add-ons of between $3 and $25 that include charges for services guests may or may not use during their stay—migrated to Las Vegas in the early 2000s, but have recently gotten a second wind. Caesars Entertainment had for years railed against them, even staging a showgirl “protest” march down the Strip in July 2011 to call attention to its policy of not charging a resort fee. Yet Caesars recently reversed course and began charging fees at its Las Vegas properties. And the South Point, another casino that had advertised its lack of resort fees, also started charging them.

via Resort Fees Costing Casinos Goodwill | Vegas Seven.

If you can’t guess, I’m not a fan of resort fees. My feeling is that if you don’t like them as a customer, there’s no reason to implement them as a manager. Clearly that’s a minority opinion, or other people really do like them.

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With Resorts World, Macau Comes to Vegas in Vegas Seven

By on March 21, 2013

In this week’s Green Felt Journal, I take a look at how the proposed Resorts World Las Vegas differs from the project it replaced:

When Resorts World Las Vegas rises from the abandoned husk of Echelon on the north Strip, it will be very different from what Echelon would have been. And the differences tell us a lot about where Las Vegas has gone in the six years since the property’s 2007 groundbreaking.

via With Resorts World, Macau Comes to Vegas | Vegas Seven.

I look forward to seeing Resorts World take shape. It may define post-Macau, post-recession Las Vegas.

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Keeping a Season Ahead in Vegas Seven

By on March 7, 2013

In this week’s Green Felt Journal, I take a look at how the Strip’s original boutique hotel is keeping up with the competition:

But the original boutique hotel-within-a-hotel on the Strip, the Four Seasons, is generating some buzz of its own with a two-phase renovation that’s just started its second half. Sharing the Mandalay Bay complex with the Delano Las Vegas, it’s got something the other boutique projects don’t: a history in town.

via Keeping a Season Ahead | Vegas Seven.

I’m hoping that the free wifi thing really does catch on. MGM’s already rolled it out at many of their properties.

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