Wednesday, September 06, 2006

New national surveys seem to show Americans' fascination with Las Vegas
could be waning. Americans still name the city as a top vacation
destination, but they say security at airports will keep them closer to
home. The cost of living has them looking for ways to save. Also, gaming may
be losing its luster. On the other hand, the same surveys show that those
with discretionary money to spend are looking for longer vacations without
heading overseas, which might augur well for Las Vegas. The results are
mixed, but security hassles seem more and more to be the central issue for
travelers. The simplest solution to traffic clogging the resort corridor
would also have the biggest effect, experts say. Still, insiders say it's a
"nonstarter." The idea is to turn the Strip into a one-way thoroughfare
north. In return, Paradise Road or Swenson Street would become one-way in
the other direction. Insiders say the problem is it would simply move
congestion from one street to another. But look at Waikiki, where a similar
traffic reconfiguration has worked for 15 years, and you might wonder.
Operators complain that this move would turn one of the greatest pedestrian
experiences in the world into a rush-hour race of traffic, but it's still
the only way to significantly alleviate Strip gridlock.

Giving poker a run for its money, the 10-episode first season of the
Ultimate Blackjack Tour begins on CBS on Sept. 16. Bringing together 14 of
the "most dangerous card players on the planet," the "juiced up" game will
lead into the network's college football broadcasts. If any gambling program
has had a winning broadcast slot, this is it, marketing gurus say.
Participants will include poker greats Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Johnny
Chan, David "Devilfish" Ulliott and Layne Flack, as well as World Blackjack
Champion Kenny Einiger and blackjack stars "Hollywood" Dave Stann and
Anthony Curtis, all sweating out 30 high-stress hands, with three
eliminations and the audience seeing the hole card. At the end, the player
with the most chips wins.

Readers say that while the statistical odds of getting a royal flush in "Let
It Ride" is 1 in 649,740, as we recently reported, it's not as hard as you'd
think to get "dealt royal." One reader was dealt a royal on a 50-play video
poker machine. He got 50 simultaneous royal flushes for a $10,000 total
jackpot. IGT, which makes the machine, told him this had happened before
with a few other players. There are also reports of "dealt royals" on
triple-play, five-play and 10-play video poker machines. And yes, there have
been royals dealt on single-play video poker machines. Stories like these
are what makes video poker the crack cocaine of gambling.