At 3:45 a.m. on Monday, October 3rd, I got a text from my stepdaughter, Michelle: Are you OK?
I’m sure many of you had a similar situation in early October. My Michelle, a high school guidance counselor in the Fort Lauderdale area, had awakened at 6:30 a.m. to headline reports of deaths and injuries at a country music concert in Las Vegas.
Like many others, I had flown on Sunday to Las Vegas for the Global Gaming Expo. Michelle also knows that I’m a country music fan. Had CDC Executive Editor Jeffrey Compton not arranged a staff get-together on Sunday night, there’s a good chance that I would have bought a ticket and been at the concert instead.
So after I called Michelle to find out what she was texting about, and checked the local news myself, I called Jeffrey: “There’s been a shooting on the Vegas strip. Mass casualties. Turn on your TV.”
For those of you who live in Las Vegas, your life is different since that Sunday. You wonder about security. You’re particularly less likely to forget what happened because if you’re just one or two degrees of separation from someone who was at the concert that night. Or if you were there yourself.
And it will strongly affect how you remember 2017. Understandably.
But as a member of the gambling world outside of Vegas, I want to note many positive experiences this year. One reason, as those of you who work in the business know, is that our business has a lot of very good people. Part of that could be because it’s a service industry – if someone doesn’t like people, they’ve probably gone on to do something else.
My list:
Best new product: Jackpot Digital’s Jackpot Blitz. This Vancouver company has developed poker tables with virtual cards. That’s been done before, but the tables can also be programmed to offer other electronic table games, horse or sports wagering, and/or other action to poker players who are not actively engaged in a poker hand. Visualize one giant iPad.
Breakout star: Daniel Wallach, PASPA legal expert. I first met Wallach back in 2014 when I chaired a mish-mosh panel that included him talking about the legalities of daily fantasy sports. (I thought he was really, really out there.) Well, like Baby’s father in “Dirty Dancing,” when I’m wrong, I say so. Wallach was well ahead of the issues, back then, and is now the go-to quote guy for journalists everywhere, even penning a column for Forbes magazine. Well done.
Best work-around: Florida Governor Rick Scott and The Seminole Tribe of Florida. With negotiations for a compact extension at their usual impasse in my fair state, the parties signed a “settlement agreement” after a tribe victory in a court of law. That agreement locks in blackjack and other table games – and payments to the state – for years to come, with no legislative approval necessary.
Most energetic team: AGS. Long before the company devised its “Obsessed With the Game” video house ad, this band of free spirits enthusiastically marketed the sparkly Orion slot cabinets and other games. AGS began with Class II roots but is now a player almost anywhere in the country.
Best reality check (non-Vegas category): Hurricane Irma. This Category 5 storm initially was expected to be just graze my community, on its eastern side. Then it shifted to the western side, which meant that somewhere along its timeline, we were dead-on in its sights. I still have fencing folks, roofers, and landscapers on speed dial, but it Irma wasn’t that bad for either me or my community, for which I’m grateful.
Best journalist experience: Working G2E and spending four memorable nights at the El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas. The morning carpool with coworkers Cory Roberts, Aaron Stanley, and Mark Gruetze reminded me of my early newspaper days. Particularly for those of us who have set up our shops in our own living rooms, the days at G2E were a pleasant reminder of what it means to be part of a team.
Here’s wishing that all my dear readers have an (even) better 2018!
