Hal Rothman on the need for Las Vegas’ gaming industry to catch up to technology, such as cell phone wagering

Sunday, May 21, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

A friend of mine, a quintessential old Las Vegas gal, was bemoaning the changes in the city, but not in the usual way. Instead of complaining about the size of the hotels or the lack of comps like so many do, she focused on the casino floor.

"I remember rows and rows of tables, with people laughing, talking, engaged with each other," she wistfully recalled. "Now, it is machines, one-armed bandits are everywhere, and nobody talks. They just don't look like they are having fun."

Now, I dearly love my friend, but the way I see it, the only good thing about the good old days is bad memory. There is something in what she said, no doubt, but reality is a lot more complicated.

I see people having fun at the tables, but they are usually younger, out for a night on the town. They travel in packs - I think they call them "posses" now - and slap hands and hoot and holler. The people at the machines are generally older, more solitary, and certainly less inclined to jump up and down.

But my friend had a point. If you had told someone in 1975 that the legalization of gaming in Atlantic City, the spread of Indian gaming, and the entire array of Internet and online options to wager would have improved Las Vegas' position in the gaming universe, they would have thought you were nuts.

So gaming has changed in the past 30 years, both in where you can play and in the nature of the play. It's worth thinking about how it might change in the next decade.

Imagine being able to play 21 on your cell phone as you waited for the dentist. Realistically, you can buy such a program and install it yourself already. You just can't win money.

Especially for younger consumers - the ones who shout out their victories on the casino floor - this kind of delivery is natural. They have grown up in a 12-images-a-second world, accustomed to never having a down moment. No pause is too brief to fill with another activity. I don't quite get it, but I doubt I am supposed to.

So we are in the classic American situation: Technology has once again outstripped law, creating possibilities that the lawmakers who created Nevada's gaming statutes never envisioned.

Las Vegas remains secure to date, the place where the twenty-somethings come to show they are real. While we are on top because of our entertainment, we have not yet considered how to approach the technologically sophisticated daily gaming market. It is money on the table for us, and I for one hate to see it left sitting there.

Don't get me wrong. Bricks and mortar casinos are not going anywhere. But what seems to be happening is that they are becoming increasingly ancillary to the larger entertainment picture. Still the largest piece of the Las Vegas visitor expenditure, gaming is diminishing as a share of the whole even as the dollar numbers continue to rise.

The next decade may very well challenge our assumptions about the delivery of gaming.

It is hard to imagine that Nevada will willingly cede this piece of a growing and lucrative market to offshore online gamers. Our special trait has been flexibility, response to new stimuli in the market. That's how we have succeeded to date.

With all the changes in the delivery of information, the only thing stopping you from gambling on your cell phone is law; we all know that the law is mutable, changed at the discretion of the Legislature. Given the real challenge from Internet gaming, the prospect of a change in Nevada law to accommodate direct delivery of legalized gaming is not as far-fetched as it sounds.