Showing posts with label Las Vegas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Las Vegas. Show all posts

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Las Vegas Installing Public Video, Audio Recording Surveillance




[From article]
The Las Vegas Public Works Department has begun testing a newly installed street light system with wide-ranging capabilities including audio and video recording.

http://www.infowars.com/las-vegas-installs-intellistreets-light-fixtures-capable-of-recording-conversations/

Las Vegas Installs “Intellistreets” Light Fixtures Capable Of Recording Conversations
Mikael Thalen

Infowars.com

November 9, 2013


Saturday, October 12, 2013

Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling, Coming To Boston Soon, Book Review

Posted September 26, 2013 2:46 AM ET; Last updated October 12, 2013 7:25 PM ET



Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas
Natasha Dow Schull
Princetion University Press 2012

Natasha Dow Schüll is a cultural anthropologist and associate professor at MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society. Her new book, ADDICTION BY DESIGN: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas (Princeton University Press 2012), draws on extended research among compulsive gamblers and the designers of the slot machines they play to explore the relationship between technology design and the experience of addiction. Her current, ongoing research concerns the rise of digital self-tracking technologies and the new modes of introspection and self-governance they engender. Her documentary film, BUFFET: All You Can Eat Las Vegas, has screened multiple times on PBS and appeared in numerous film festivals.
This is a very well researched book on video gambling. Schull spent ten years attending corporate gaming conferences, and interviewing addicted gamblers. She found the compelling factor is not winning, but "getting into the zone." She tells of gamblers who ignore others who get ill and they just keep gambling. The machines are able to gather information about every time the player touches the machine. When they get near their losing limit the house sends out "ambassadors of luck," who have hand held computers, with vouchers for free dinners to keep the players at the machines.


The casinos can estimate how much a person will lose in a lifetime. Some stories show that the players are highly intelligent and intentionally play to lose as a way of helping bring on death. Their inability to cope with human interaction is a reason why the video machines are attractive. The machines eliminate uncertainty. The players know they will win or they will lose. No uncertainty. The only decisions they have to make are which cards to keep and which ones to throw. The objective is to keep playing as long as possible. Winning is an interruption. Some innovations came to the US from Australia. What struck me as problematic is that the way that the gambling industry gathers information about their players, is a pattern used by the military, and by corporations to try to control a person's actions and spending behavior.

That is the addiction which casinos bring to an area. Boston, Massachusetts voters will decide where they want their casino to be. It is an issue in the Boston Mayor's race to be decided on November 5, 2013.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304626104579123383535635644.html?mod=WSJ_hp_EditorsPicks

October 11, 2013, 1:56 p.m. ET
How Often Do Gamblers Really Win?
New data provide some answers on the real odds on gambling
By MARK MAREMONT and ALEXANDRA BERZON
* * *
Uploaded on Jan 14, 2011
Las Vegas casinos increasingly pay attention to their customers - their likes, dislikes, moods and patterns - in order to create an engaging experience. As Natasha Schull explains, the stated goal of these new designs is "customer extinction" - the moment at which the customer is out of money. This talk, essential viewing for anyone interested in the design or user experience of electronic gambling machines.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Jet Blue Boston MA to Las Vegas NV OCT 2010 Five Parts

In October 2010 I visited Las Vegas NV for the second time in my life. The first time was in 1966 or 1967. During that first visit, which lasted only for a few hours, I felt as if I were in heaven. I immediately lost all the cash money I had with me. There were not as many hotels and casinos then. I think I went to the Sands then. I sat in the casino staring at the lights and the gambling tables. I wondered how I could get more money to win back what I lost. I called the airline to see if I could cash in my plane ticket. They asked how I paid and since it was by credit cards they told me I could not cash it in. Lucky me! Hertz had an offer for their credit card holders to advance $20 in cash. I drove back to the airport and got the $20 and went back to the casino. I lost that too. Again I sat and stared. Mesmerized is an appropriate word. In 1966 waitresses offered free drinks. Today they no longer give away free drinks to all players. Maybe to the whales but not to people like me. I no longer gamble anyway. Today the hotels in Las Vegas do not even have coffee makers in the rooms. They place bottles of water in the rooms, explaining that it was part of the hotel's effort to make the guest's visit perfect. They reveal that they will replace the bottles if used and that they cost $4 each. Nickle and diming visitors in Las Vegas? Or was it just how they treated me? When I arrived at the Las Vegas Hilton a man appeared next to me while I waited to check in. The front desk had places for about 25 clerks. About 15 were working, mostly women. The man next to me pointed out a VIP line for important people to use to check in. He told me, "I think I'm a VIP but no one else does." I smiled and didn't speak. I thought he was being friendly. Then he pointed out that some men were using the VIP line. I thought they would be directed to the ordinary person line but instead they did get served faster. Then the man next to me suggested, "Why don't you go into that line?" I realized he was patronizing me trying to get me to do something. Did he think he knew me? Was he trying to provoke an incident? I just stood there. He again suggested I use the VIP line. The man said to me, "I'm not so important now as I used to be." I suspected he thought he knew what I thought and was making fun of me. My thoughts were, "This guy is telling me that I am unimportant today. And I was so important to him, that he came to stand next to me to tell me how unimportant I was." I found the incident humorous. Then a man named Wes came out from a door and waved the man next to me to the front desk. He spoke for a few seconds and left. The man did not check in to the Hilton. Then Wes waved me to his line. He told me that he was giving me a "renovated room." I wondered what that meant. Wes gave me a sheet of discount coupons for the hotel's restaurants. I heard the other desk clerks asking the guests if they wanted to upgrade their stay. I noticed that there were options to upgrade on the Las Vegas Hilton web pages. Wes did not ask me if I wanted to upgrade. When I got to the room the button to open the curtains did not work. One lamp did not work, and did not have bulb in it. When I put a bulb from another lamp the lamp still did not work. There was no coffee maker and two 1 liter bottles of water for sale for $4 each. The chair for the desk was broken and the color did not match the room. A renovated room? I've been staying at Hiltons for three years. They usually treat me well and gave me great rooms. But in Las Vegas I was "unimportant?" The city was starved for visitors and the Hilton employees insulted me? What were these people thinking?

Jet Blue Boston MA To Las Vegas NV. Part 1 OF 5. Views of McCarran Int'l Airport, local bus, Las Vegas Hilton, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Riviera, tributes to Elvis Presley.



Jet Blue Boston MA To Las Vegas NV. Part 2 OF 5. Views of Fountainbleau (unfinished), Mono Rail, Bottled Water Peddlers, Motorcycles, Sahara, rainstorm,Circus Circus,Crazy Leroy's, tattoo parlor, Wedding Chapel of the Bells, Aztec Hotel, Bonanza Gift Shop.



Jet Blue All You Can Jet visit to Las Vegas. Part 3 of 5. Views of Las Vegas Strip, Deuce luxury local bus, Steve Wynn's Wynn and Encore, retail shops, restaurants, Clarion, Marriott, Hilton, Echelon (unfinished), Trump, Palazzo, Treasure Island, Mirage, Royal Resort, Somerset Gardens, Convention Center, Mono Rail, Riviera.



Jet Blue All You Can Jet visit to Las Vegas. Part 4 of 5. Views of Las Vegas Strip, MGM Grand, Las Vegas Hilton, Sahara, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Tropicana, New York, New York, Monte Carlo, Aria, retail shops, M&M Dancer, Elvis, Marilyn, Hard Rock Cafe, Cosmopolitan, Paris, Caesar's Palace, Bally's, Bellagio Fountain Light Show, Jockey Club.



Jet Blue All You Can Jet visit to Las Vegas. Part 5 of 5. Views of Las Vegas Strip, Flamingo Hotel, Tropicana, Bill's Gambling Hall, Retail shops, Exotic Dancer, Treasure Island Pirate Show, Harrah's, Imperial Palace, Mirage, Casino Royale, Venetian.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Bringing Hookers to Jesus

SECRET SERVICE: Annie Lobert left the sex trade five years ago. A new series records how she refused to leave others like her behind.
SECRET SERVICE: Annie Lobert left the sex
trade five years ago. A new series records
how she refused to leave others like her behind.

http://www.gospelinfinity.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hookers-for-jesus.jpg


http://www.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Entertainment/2010/hookerforjesus640_397x224.png


http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/she_hooker_for_jesus_honest_iTOOpxP0y53d05pWxVcZdK

She's a hooker for Jesus. Honest.
Ex-Vegas harlot saving souls from street
By MICHAEL STARR
New York Post
Last Updated: 12:01 PM, November 15, 2010
Posted: 10:20 PM, November 14, 2010

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

JOB WITH A VIEW -- LVPD

Some jobs have risks and some have benefits. Others have both. In these clips you can see some of the benefits to being a police officer in Las Vegas. Does Mayor Oscar Goodman have fringe benefits as well? The complete traffic stop was broadcast on the FOX-TV Show COPS.