Near the end of his life last summer, former mobster Frank Cullotta said Las Vegas as depicted in the movie Casino will never come back.

New year! Newfound riches! With hopes of striking it rich in 2021, several people are making the drive to the Nevada-California border to buy a lottery ticket as the Mega Millions jackpot stands at more than $400 million on Friday.

By getting back to “personalized attention,” Las Vegas casinos can recapture the magic that defined the famous Rat Pack era from decades ago, says a gaming historian.

Businesses in the valley are trying to navigate through the governor’s latest restrictions with the toughest one being the customer cap at 25%.

Anti-smoking coalitions are using the COVID-19 pandemic as a weapon in their crusade to convince lawmakers to permanently stop the indoor consumption of tobacco on casino floors.

COVID-19 continues to impact the national and local economy, forcing the Las Vegas hotel industry to make some major adjustments.

On Nov. 21, 1980, a devastating fire raced through the MGM Grand hotel (now Bally’s Las Vegas) killing 87 people and injuring more than 600. That tragedy led to sweeping safety changes that now stretch far beyond the Las Vegas Strip.

There are several good authors currently working the casino/gaming genre, but in my view, David Schwartz is at the top of the list. He came to my attention almost 15 years ago upon publication of his Roll the Bones in 2006. It was, and is, a definitive history of gaming, beginning in Pompeii and ending at the opening of Wynn Las Vegas in late 2005. Schwartz is an academic with a Ph.D. in History from UCLA and was serving at the time as the director of the Center for Gaming Studies at UNLV. I have to confess that I initially bought that book to have it sit on my shelf and, ideally, impress my bosses.