Sex, video games and Table Games

Does ANYONE know how to run Las Vegas.

We've got Aria issuing view-only teaser videos of a man undoing a shoulder strap on a woman's evening gown and promising more installments yet to come.

We've got the head honchos at Cosmopolitan going after the Junior High VideoGamers demographic and not really knowing what they are doing to market their casino.

We've got new TGs being offered right and left while casinos with the old stand by TGs are empty.

Pennsylvania may teach everyone a lesson after all. They made Table Games the profitable way to pay 55 percent taxes,,, but Pennsylvania casinos are not recruiting and educating Table Games players they are just hoping that such people are some how naturally in the pipeline because New York City alleys are not that far away.

Stiffs and Georges was recently very down on casino marketing efforts (their videos don't even show a casino much less a recognizable game), perhaps its all over if casinos don't simply start with the basics and teach people how to gamble properly.


From Stiffs & Georges:
Yesterday’s big announcement from identity-challenged Cosmopolitan that PlayStation 3 video games would be available in its new EA Sports Bar gives even more reason to wonder if either Deutsche Bank or CEO John Unwin knows how to make back the cost of their expensive curio, which is — and the news may come as a shock — a casino? A $4 billion casino, no less?

My simple answer is Yes, some do, but the people at Cosmo have no clue.
The bigger question is who will be the next owner of it and how much assumption of debt will they buy it for? I would assume MGM will end up with it since the property could be easily integrated into CC. Not that it is a profitable venture either, but that doesnt seem to be a requirement anymore.

Quote: FleaStiff

Pennsylvania may teach everyone a lesson after all. They made Table Games the profitable way to pay 55 percent taxes,,,

the slot revenue is taxed at 55%, the table games revenue is taxed at 16%...FYI

Quote: WongBo

the slot revenue is taxed at 55%, the table games revenue is taxed at 16%...FYI

Yes. Slots are already installed at 55 but will be reduced slightly. The only way to develop casinos and make more money on them in Pennsylvania will be to install and operate more table games (at 16 now, 14 later). The point is that unless the casino owners get busy they won't have enough TG players.

Executives at Aria think they can bring in gamblers with seductive removal of a nightgown strap. Executives at Cosmopolitan don't think, they just play with images that seem unrelated to gambling at all and hope people will show up, perhaps to play video games perhaps to gamble, perhaps to sing.

Elsewhere everyone is trying to introduce some sort of new TG or new slot or new this or new that....
ain't nobody running a casino.

Even the M Resort's recent Five Question Quiz to educate slot players didn't go far enough and ain't nobody done a quiz to educate Table Games players. Are they relying on the Indian Casinos for supplying the next generation of gamblers? Are they going to be limited to those who learned dice as toddlers?

First the M Resort and then The Rivieria tried to invoke the ghost of Benny Binion. They couldn't do it. MResorts got hit their second night by a dice team, took out their greatest Video Poker machines, turned off their FreeWifi in the lobby while awaiting the hordes of customers to show up invoking the spirit of Benny Binion. All they got is the statue.

The people who are wandering into casinos and filling out new players club cards don't seem to have any money and are content to gamble as if they were dipping their toe into a tainted pool. So Vegas is building more clubs, more pools, more restaurants ... and getting away from the casino floor. It won't work.

I think video game parlors will become the new age pool halls.

The wired generation is all primed to play but has to trek to Vegas and rent a terminal so some casino there can get their money?

Quote: FleaStiff

The people who are wandering into casinos and filling out new players club cards don't seem to have any money and are content to gamble as if they were dipping their toe into a tainted pool. So Vegas is building more clubs, more pools, more restaurants ... and getting away from the casino floor. It won't work.

Why will it not work? Vegas leaves me little incentive to want to gamble there. Many casinos offer horrible rules, MUCH worse than the ones I get at casinos I can drive to. Hotel options are plentiful, but only the best customers get rooms at decent rates. Many casinos have not updated their rooms, as they are dying on the vine, so the cheapest rooms are a step above a Motel 6.

Still, the nightlife and atmosphere are amazing. It's awesome to see so many casinos grouped so close together. There's something about Vegas that a local casino can't provide, but it's not the gambling... it's EVERYTHING ELSE! So Cosmopolitan appeals to a different crowd, while Aria tries to sell sex. There is a lot of appeal in that approach.

As far as new Table Games, these come and go like slot machines. The difference is a great table game will get a loyal following. There are very few slot machines that were popular 5 years ago that remain that popular in that current state. FRANCHISED slots (like Jackpot Party, Reel Em In and such) get "reinvented" all the time, keeping slot players happy. But old slot machines just fade into the background.