I have lived in Las Vegas 43 plus years. I was brought to this town to conduct the Howard Hughes audit for the Internal Revenue Service. It seems like a long time ago. If you read a few of my posted articles about the past you will develop a sense of how this town was before greed, selfishness, and the Corporations ruined it.

Yes, don’t kid yourself. It is ruined. It will never regain the luster and small town feel that permeated every aspect of living. It was not unusual to have casino owners walk the floors of their casinos inquiring if everything was all right. When you walked into a casino like the Horseshoe, the cocktail waitress wanted to know if the Horseshoe could buy you a drink.

Today, in certain casinos on the strip the machine you are playing has to have its above light turn green from red to demonstrate you qualify for a cocktail. I assume this is true but I can’t verify it since I haven’t been on the strip, except for South Point, since the Mirage was built.

I have no desire to go and probably never will. I have picked up relative visitors in front of the various casinos or in their parking garages. I have witnessed the sidewalk congestion, over grown plants and trees, street people and panhandlers. The beautiful charm and quaintness of each of the destroyed hotel casinos is gone like the torn down history of their past. Replaced with what the Corporations have forced upon their guests while they separate them as quickly as possible from their money. Sad!!!

I can remember when I was working the W2-G project, Jackie Gaughan telling me the secret to gaming success. Win the money but give the player a feeling of wanting to come back. This means let the player play longer on a roll of quarters. We will eventually get that roll so let him play. It is good public relations. Let him play, if the player should win so much the better. The player will tell his friends and will ALWAYS come back to my place.

You see the Corporations have lost the concept of what was/is important to customers. I remember sitting with Benny Binion when he told his chief accountant, Kurt Saylor, “I don’t care whether each department makes or losses money, I only want to know what the bottom line is”. Binion knew how to make money. He knew what was important to his customers and he gave it to them. Who could forget the Binion breakfast special two eggs, a slice of bone-in ¼ inch ham that took up the whole plate, hash browns, toast and coffee - $1.99.

When I was a visitor to Las Vegas when I got out of the Army in 1966 I can remember going to a midnight cocktail show to see the Mills brothers and when the show was over as you left the showroom a free buffet was set up outside the showroom so you could make a sandwich or eat some fruit. Of course the bean counters blamed the hobos (street people were not in vogue) for taking this freebie away from the customers. The truth was the joint could save a buck!

I am going to write a few articles about the various aspects of how my town has been changed. With the advent of nationwide sports book betting, Las Vegas has lost the key factor of what made it different than anywhere else. Gamblers are going elsewhere, Indian casinos, riverboats, any place but here. Why, because gambling is becoming secondary and losing its importance.
See you next week!
Jim