Green Felt Journal
Green Felt Journal
Earning a Place at the Table
February 9th, 2012
In a fluorescent-lit training room at the M Resort, class is starting. It’s not your usual HR-mandated training session on blood-borne pathogens or reimbursement protocols. Instead, this is Change Your Life 101, taught by table games supervisor Timothy Eastep. A selected handful of M employees are learning to deal blackjack. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
The Rise of Chinese New Year
January 26th, 2012
Strip casinos have been marking Chinese New Year since the 1970s, but it really took off with the explosion of high-end Asian baccarat play in the past few years. For Las Vegas, the winter/spring season doesn’t correspond to months on the calendar but to events in the city’s arenas, casinos and convention halls—from NFR to New Year’s Eve to CES to Chinese New Year to the Super Bowl to March Madness. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Reinventing the Party Machine
December 22nd, 2011
Richard Wilk, vice president of nightlife marketing and operations at the Tropicana, is opening a new club, RPM, in the space vacated by the one-season-and-done Club Nikki, part of the busted Tropicana/Nikki Beach experiment. “The approach was not right there,” he says. “They had the idea that ‘If you build it they will come.’ But Vegas is a different animal—what works in Miami or Cancun won’t work here. You have to create something people will be thinking about when they go back home, that they’ll be dying to come back for.” Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Our Annual Cowboy Makeover
December 8th, 2011
There is one event that thaws the December chill, National Finals Rodeo, which continues through Dec. 10 at the Thomas & Mack Center. Since 1985, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s big championship has been a major draw, with more than 170,000 spectators over the event’s 10-day span. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Rounders’ Rules
November 24th, 2011
Poker can be a heartless game, but it’s never a lawless one. With so much riding on each turn of the card, rules are important. Unless everyone’s playing by the same book, even a friendly game can dissolve into accusations of cheating and mutual recriminations, to say nothing of high-stakes tournaments. Unfortunately, there’s no single agreed-upon set of rules for playing the game. That can make for some challenges, particularly in a place like Las Vegas, where players from all around the world come to test their luck. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Nights in White Linen
November 10th, 2011
With about 250,000 hotel and motel beds, Las Vegas has a lot of dirty laundry. And it’s vitally important to the city’s success as a tourist destination—not to mention the public health—that all those bedsheets, bathrobes and terrycloth towels get immaculately cleaned, every time. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
In the Dining Business, the Plaza Plays Smart
October 27th, 2011
A renovated classic hotel, a veteran casino chef reaching out to locals. The Plaza’s game plan is another example of how downtown has responded to the recession with creativity and a solid instinct for the area’s identity. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Heavyweight Hospitality
October 20th, 2011
Caesars Palace has constantly reinvented itself by adding towers, restaurants and venues, from the Colosseum to Pure nightclub. But like an aging heavyweight champion who’s lost a step, Caesars isn’t the world-beater it used to be. Iconic is great, but in a city that’s about newer and better, Caesars is often overlooked. But Ramesh Sadhwani, who in September was named the hotel’s vice president of operations, might be the man to help Caesars recapture the title. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
The Sweet Scent of the Global Gaming Expo
October 13th, 2011
Purveyors to the gaming industry have three chances a year to show off their wares: the two Global Gaming Expos and London’s International Casino Exhibition. For those after the American market, the Las Vegas expo is their big shot; if they don’t sell it here, it might remain unsold. That’s why, from the obvious (cash-sorting devices) to the whimsical (a product billed as “zero gravity fruit”), if a casino could possibly want to buy it, someone was selling it. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Vices, Hidden and in Plain Sight
September 29th, 2011
The Marina Bay Sands is one of only two casinos in Singapore, a relatively wealthy city-state that’s about 200 miles from the nearest casino. CityCenter, on the other hand, opened on a saturated Strip that was experiencing falling visitation and revenue numbers. Those trends have since reversed, but CityCenter has nowhere near the upside of the Marina Bay Sands. Read more »
