Casino News

Gambling certainly has its ups and downs. At one point I had won ten hands in a row at blackjack and the next I had tripled my bet, gotten a split with a double-down and lost them all. Suddenly I was in the hole. I won 10 hands, lost three, and was in the hole! The gambling part is great, the frustration part is terrible. We all live with the ups and the downs. Life is full of them.

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Yup, that's right. I owe an apology to every New York Giants football fan for ever doubting that their team had a chance against the Patriots. Go Figure. Just because they were peaking at just the right time (like, hmmm, what, a few years ago) and the Patriots had hit a plateau (like, hmmm, what, a few years ago), I still didn't expect the Patriots to go away empty-handed. Of course that's why I don't bet sports for a living.

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This year's Superbowl is just a day away, and it's time to make my prediction. I'm obviously qualified to make a prediction because of my extensive background in football. As you can see from the photo above I played football in high school. I'm the one with the circle around his head. No, not a halo. That's something my mother added to point out the kid that most needed a haircut. You can also check-out professional Sports bettor Mark Franco's Super Bowl Picks if you doubt my ability.

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Well, I never know who to call, so I'm telling our readers here, the new Ghostbusters slots are paranormal. That's good.

The new IGT slots first haunted the Vegas Strip at the end of September on a 30-day exclusive run at MGM properties. That engagement still allowed other properties to capture the slots for their own use well before Halloween. The games have been popular as part of IGT's new Center Stage Duo model, two machines sharing a 55-inch overhead LCD screen with loud MEGAfx Surround Chairs.

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Did you ever hear a really obnoxious store clerk asking somebody what their problem was? I was in a major department store and heard a buyer complaining about a sweater she had purchased. After she got it home she found some off-color spots on one of the arms, brought it back, and the salesperson treated her like she was a criminal. It made me want to skip my purchase and never go back!

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Sometimes it is amazing the lengths I will go for a good meal! When in Vegas, you can have Chef J. Joho's Eiffel Tower Restaurant serve you the most acclaimed cuisine available in any Las Vegas French restaurant, with lamb seasoned to perfection and foie gras unlike any other. And, you can enjoy your amazing meal inside the Eiffel Tower. It's a pretty cool experience.

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This past World Series of Poker included the usual array of poker prowess by many poker stars, but amazingly, Doyle Brunson continues to play excellent poker. It's one thing to have a few good years as a poker pro. I have, and I'm not that impressed with myself. Other players are sharp and successful for a decade or more, but by and large, players begin to lose their focus after a dozen years or so in the bone-yards of poker. It's just a fact.

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I've wondered about the eye-in-the-sky since I first heard a song by the same name. If you know the 1982 Alan Parsons Project song, "Eye in the Sky" then you might wonder if it has to do with casinos. I did. It does. A couple of great lines are: "dealing with fools, I can cheat you blind," and another is "looking at you, I can read your mind." I love the "Eye in the Sky" Buy Direct.

Now those lines may be a little esoteric, but the The Project's previous album was called "The Turn of a Friendly Card." Coincidence? Of course not.

Alan Parsons was an assistant engineer on the Beatles' "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be" albums. He also worked as the engineer on Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" album, all concept-based recordings. He met Eric Wollfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in 1974 and the two musicians hit it off. Eventually they would form The Alan Parsons Project, and while not their first album, "The Turn of a Friendly Card" was certainly a story of its own.

If you don't know the album, don't feel bad, but the 1980 release tells the story (through light, progressive rock) of a middle-aged, frustrated and restless man who heads to the casino, ready to risk everything he has. Songs include titles like: May Be a Price to Pay, I Don't Wanna Go Home, Turn of a Lucky Card, and the hits Games People Play and Time. The latter, probably my favorite.

The album also includes Snake Eyes and Nothing Left to Lose, but Eye in the Sky came on the next album. Why? I can't figure it out.

Now the actual eye-in-the-sky that casinos use has been called many things. It's often referred to as the "peak" or the "tower," but one thing remains, it sees everything, if it is well designed and well-managed. While the "sky" used to consist of a guy laying on his belly across a dusty plywood beam in the cat-walks of the casino rafters training a pair of binoculars at the tables below, surveillance is very sophisticated now.

If you drop a dime on the floor, a good surveillance operator can switch cameras at the flick of the wrist, swivel a joystick to move a pan-and-tilt camera and zoom-in to read the date on the coin, in living color. That's why so many cheats are caught. It takes somebody, like an attentive pit boss on the gaming floor or a smooth operator (wait, that's another song) in the "eye" to know what to look for, but once a problem is detected, it's just a matter of time!

Much like Steve Wynn, who owns the Wynn casino in Las Vegas and Macao, Sheldon Adelson wants a Republican in the White House next year. Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which has properties on the strip and also in Macau, has investing $5 million in a "super PAC" trying to boost Republican Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign. According to the Associated Press (citing an unnamed source), Adelson is ready to contribute even more to try to win the White House for a GOP nominee.

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