Back in the early 1980's, I was at a blackjack table at Harveys, having fun & talking to the dealer. The subject of competition between Harveys and Harrah's-Tahoe, across the street, came up. This was the era when Harvey Gross was still alive and running Harveys as a privately-owned business. Harrah's was publicly held by then, I think, and while Bill Harrah had passed on, his lieutenants were still running it according to the Harrah's high standards set up by Bill Harrah.

Anyway, the dealer explained that twice a day, a couple of Harrah's guys would come through Harvey's to do a customer count. (I think Harvey's did the same thing in reverse too.) Bill Harrah and his executives were always interested in providing a competitive product and they wanted to compare their results to the competition.

Sure enough, at the appointed time that the dealer mentioned, here comes 2 guys (Harrah's managers) waliking the isles and mentally counting or estimating the crowd. Up one aisle and, in a little while, back down the other aisle and then disappearing again.

I miss the days when private owners took such pride and interest in their properties -- and gave customers a pretty good gamble for the money. Now Harrah's & Harveys share a common corporate ownership. Tahoe's still a great place to visit, but not quite like the old days.