Saturday, March 31, 2018

E-263: Now I Know Why We Drink



Random Vegas
In 1909, Nevada criminalized gambling, specifically to play or deal in social card games, games of chance like craps and slot machines.  However almost as soon as the law passed, it started to be chipped way at 
  • Two years after it was made illegal, in 1911, prohibition on virtually all social card games, except Poker, was relaxed
  •  In 1913, all social card games including certain slot machines were allowed as long as the payoff was for drinks, cigars or sums of money less than $2
  • 1915 saw pari-mutuel betting legalized at race tracks
  • 1919 brought back state licensed card rooms
Ironically, it was the passing of prohibition in the 1920s and the great depression that followed, that encouraged the movement to re-legalize wide open gambling in Nevada, although it wouldn't be successful until 1931 (The Book - Roll the Bones: Casino Edition) 

Twitpic of the week



Continuing to bland up the market, Monte Carlo continues its death march to becoming the forgettably named Park MGM.  Yes it was a rich theme for the poor man and yes the name Park MGM isn't as bad as the Las Vegas Hotel (aka LVH) but that doesn't mean we aren't going to lament it's passing.  Dethemeing has its documented successes and failures since the concept was introduced to the market, i.e. Imperial Palace into LINQ and Sahara into SLS, but honesty those examples probably have more to do with their locations than execution on the concept.  This week @MeltzVegas showed us another instance of history in the making as the name Monte Carlo is no more on display at the property...at least not on the hotel tower. We are told the plan is to renovate into high end.  Here's hoping the concept skews more Cosmopolitan than pretentious elitism.

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