http://www.thebeargrowls.com/?p=427 Opinions and Commentary on the Gaming Industry Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:47:22 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://www.thebeargrowls.com/?p=427&cpage=1#comment-127 FoolsGold Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:22:53 +0000 http://www.thebeargrowls.com/?p=427#comment-127 It is often said that there is no accounting for taste but perhaps there is! I would suggest the decrease in gaming win is the final accounting for taste. People choose to gamble and that means they choose where to gamble. Oh sure there are some exceptions and some constraints such as a compulsive gambler or a woman who decides that if her husband has selected Las Vegas for a vacation she is not going to let him go there alone. Absent some obvious constraints on selection, its the player who makes the choice. And whatever premium casinos offer or think that they offer, that premium is getting very thin. Screw the public? Well, we all know why the casinos ply their patrons with liquor. Screw the public? We all know alot of players don't know Basic Strategy. Screw the public? I've never heard a stickman intoning Please Confine Your Betting to the Line and Odds Bets and Avoid These Sucker Bets in the Center. So to a certain extent it is Screw The Public ... and price fixing in restraint of trade is buy one more twist of the screw. Perhaps that is why the much-hated Indian Casinos are still full. Why trek for several hours to get to Vegas if the screwing ain't much different a half-hour away? Sure you can talk about product mix and customer mix ... but if this screwing keeps up the Gaming Control Board will no longer be a gutless rubberstamp for a thriving industry. Those players are voting. They have been voting. They will continue to vote. They vote to go elsewhere with their money. Sportsbooks, slots, BlackJack, craps, ... it makes no difference. Casinos that openly engage in collusive price fixing for their sports book are not really all that different from the complacent casinos who screw the half-inebriated tourist with their "loose slots". The gaming control board's loyalty is to the casino, not the player. And that is not going to change even if the casinos start dying. It is often said that there is no accounting for taste but perhaps there is! I would suggest the decrease in gaming win is the final accounting for taste. People choose to gamble and that means they choose where to gamble. Oh sure there are some exceptions and some constraints such as a compulsive gambler or a woman who decides that if her husband has selected Las Vegas for a vacation she is not going to let him go there alone. Absent some obvious constraints on selection, its the player who makes the choice. And whatever premium casinos offer or think that they offer, that premium is getting very thin.
Screw the public? Well, we all know why the casinos ply their patrons with liquor. Screw the public? We all know alot of players don’t know Basic Strategy. Screw the public? I’ve never heard a stickman intoning Please Confine Your Betting to the Line and Odds Bets and Avoid These Sucker Bets in the Center.
So to a certain extent it is Screw The Public … and price fixing in restraint of trade is buy one more twist of the screw.
Perhaps that is why the much-hated Indian Casinos are still full. Why trek for several hours to get to Vegas if the screwing ain’t much different a half-hour away?
Sure you can talk about product mix and customer mix … but if this screwing keeps up the Gaming Control Board will no longer be a gutless rubberstamp for a thriving industry. Those players are voting. They have been voting. They will continue to vote. They vote to go elsewhere with their money. Sportsbooks, slots, BlackJack, craps, … it makes no difference. Casinos that openly engage in collusive price fixing for their sports book are not really all that different from the complacent casinos who screw the half-inebriated tourist with their “loose slots”.
The gaming control board’s loyalty is to the casino, not the player. And that is not going to change even if the casinos start dying.

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