I've had Floor Men automatically hand me a golf-pencil and a chart when I buy-in at a Baccarat or MiniBacc table. It is the most absurd thing ever to waste time and effort creating charts.

Streaks in Baccarat? Sure. Just look at the photograph that accompanies your article. One of the lovely young ladies sitting there has very attractive streaks in her hair. No other streaks are at all relevant.

It may have been a misunderstanding as to "once the card leaves the shoe" versus "once the card is exposed to view". I don't know. It seems the player felt he was in the right and was walking away rather than fleeing. I'd like to see retraining for all personnel involved. Laid off employees and budget cuts may have made inroads into casino operations that are best addressed by retraining rather than by harsh fines. Not all dealers are native speakers of English and the entire event may have been the dealer's fault.

Utterly absurd to think an honorable businessman would want to attract people who had such problems. Drawing fine distinctions about entertainment rather than gambling is not going to cut it. You do not invite an alcoholic near a bar, you do not invite young children near an abandoned refrigerator, you not lead a horse near a gopher hole or cliff edge.

Signage, layout and sounds of gambling are a lure even if one goes to the casino's swimming pool or jazz lounge. It is not proper to market to someone with a known problem. Not ever. If a casino owner can't make money from those who gamble for entertainment he should get out of the business rather than try to lure those who are desperate.

Its good to have the nimbleness that results from there being no committees and its certainly good to have an independent when other players in town form an oligarchy, but this puff piece creates a lingering impression of some major change having taken place and that is simply not true.

Don't get me wrong. I think that casinos should indeed be more generous and that most casinos are acting towards their customers today as if there were no recession.

The actions taken by Mr. Gaughan were quite correct, but they are insufficient and clearly do not indicate any fundamental changes that have taken place. It seems to me that the chip changes were but a technically necessary precursor to the writing of the deceptive article.

If this represents some change of policy at South Point then I wonder why the craps tables are still at 2x odds when half of LasVegas is at 5x, many are at 10x and some are at 20x. Yet South Point lags behind with a tight-fisted 2x.

>Gaughan didn't advertise the change.
Somehow the reporter learned about it and apparently he gave an interview.
>few hundred slot machines...
Out of over 2,300 slot machines, 300 undisclosed is not all that high a number.

Please note. The article claims certain slot machines were loosened but makes no statements about other slot machines having been tightened.

Loose, looser, loosest ... there is little Truth in Advertising in Las Vegas but with regard to these terms it pretty much boils down to its not worth walking next door to a different casino because the grass is probably the same shade of green there too.

I can not comment on the property or the demographics of its players but I do agree that the room rates seem high for the present market. With everyone else in town holding "fire sales" on their rooms, what is the Hilton thinking?

Just as police can not bypass a magistrate in order to conduct a search and seizure, the casino can not bypass a magistrate in order to fill empty seats at some Diversion Program, much less utilize scare tactics to do it.

Casino management tends to view the phrase "educated player" with the same disdain it would have for the phrase "educated whore". Just as a whore's education is irrelevant to the transaction, so too is the player's knowledge of 6:5 versus 3:2. The casino wants to take money from the players. If some players want to bet at the dollar level they will be paid even money for blackjacks; if some players want to bet at the five dollar level they will be paid 6:5 for blackjacks; if some knowing soul in the high-limit room wants to play some real money then and only then will the casino offer him some old-style blackjack with its far more favorable rules. Why? Because despite recent headlines about declining tourism there are still hordes of gamblers who are both willing enough and stupid enough to play under the adverse conditions established by the greedy casinos.
Management scalps the players who have come for "the Las Vegas experience" instead of a good gamble and then management goes on to scalp the stockholders who are also short term oriented and don't know that a truly successful parasite never kills its host. Left behind is an empty corporate-shell of a casino for the bankruptcy lawyers to feast on.