..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

LAS VEGAS -- Even though parts of New Orleans remain under water -- and troops still patrol the streets -- merchants have begun to roll out the welcome mat to the French Quarter and other tourist destinations. There’s talk of hosting an abbreviated Mardi Gras, which could help replenish city coffers, rescue the hospitality industry and answer the prayers of the makers of Girls Gone Wild videos.

Fortuitously, the French Quarter was spared much of the horror that was visited on New Orleans and its Gulf Coast neighbors. Unlike the strength of its glass and masonry, the district’s spirit was never in question.

Katrina’s devastation of local casinos was unprecedented, however. Last week, ripples from the savage storm hit the annual Global Gaming Expo, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Historically, G2E has topped the list of conventions that are as entertaining as they are worthy of attention by industry insiders, financial analysts and niche media. It’s where everyone gathers to check out the latest innovations, economic strategies and regulations, while also putting new slot machines to the test on the companies’ nickels.

This year’s G2E was a more somber affair than usual, primarily because hundreds of casino executives from the hurricane zone had other things on their minds and stayed home. More than a dozen of the venues in the nation's third largest casino market were seriously damaged or destroyed, leaving some 14,000 people at least temporarily without a place to work. And, while most employees of major properties remain on the payrolls, there’s no guarantee how long that will last.

Too many questions remain to be answered, including whether state laws requiring casinos to be water-borne may inadvertently have contributed to the destruction of the properties. No one on the Gulf Coast, especially insurance providers, is likely to tempt fate twice by betting on the viability of barge-like casinos tethered to piers and hotels.

In Mississippi alone, this could leave 25 million annual visitors -- representing $1.2 billion in annual revenue -- looking for other places to place their wagers. Again, New Orleans fared a bit better, with its three riverboats and Harrah's land-based casino expected to re-open in a matter of weeks. Even so, it’s estimated that Louisiana is losing as much as $167,000 per day in tax revenues.

Louisiana’s emerging film-production infrastructure was wounded, but not to the extent of its gaming interests. The most valuable assets of the state’s second biggest industry -- the French Quarter being one of them -- were the least ravaged. Nonetheless, representatives of the state’s film commission and legislator ventured to Toronto last week to re-assure producers, and remind them that the investor's tax credit has been raised from 18 to 25 percent for films shot entirely in the Sportsman’s Paradise.

The Governor's Office of Film and Television reports that several of the films that were being shot in New Orleans have since relocated to the Shreveport area, and the call has gone out there for cast, crews, extras and catering staff. The projects include Premonition, starring Sandra Bullock, The Guardian, with Kevin Costner; The Flock, with Richard Gere; The Reaping, starring Hilary Swank, Scarlett, a made-for-TV with Rebecca Gayheart; and several episodes of the fX Network series, Thief. (Making the decision to pull up stakes, however, were The Last Time, with Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser, Vampire Bats, Time and Bats and Disney’s déjà vu.)

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu reported that the site for a new $20 million sound stage — across the river from New Orleans, at the Blaine Kern Mardi Gras World site — was undamaged.

Last week, Las Vegas opened its doors to New Orleans police and rescue workers in desperate need of R&R, and job offers to laid-off casino employees are likely to follow (several east-coast Indian casinos have already sent out invitations). Nevada-based companies with properties in the stricken areas have thrown benefits for employees there, and almost everyone else in town has found other ways to contribute.

(Brad Brennan, managing partner of the Aladdin’s Commander’s Palace, donated proceeds from its namesake Las Vegas property to help displaced employees of Brennan-family properties back home. He also was able to reassure CP fans that damage to the original restaurant was not extensive.)

Just as film commissions of states not affected by Katrina have been cautious in their approaches to producers -- if only to seem less avaricious than they usually are -- Nevada gaming interests have yet to openly woo gamblers from the Southeast. Clearly, though, Las Vegas will benefit by taking in displaced conventions.

At G2E, booth models and other exhibit staff from New Orleans actively networked with their Vegas-based counterparts, looking for semi-permanent gigs in the ever-expanding convention industry here. Exotic dancers and other professionals in the adult-entertainment business already made the emergency commute.

When the casinos do reopen, though, it’s likely that many of the vendors represented at G2E will rush back to the Gulf Coast to share in what could be a windfall of insurance settlements. If the damage to the casinos’ infrastructure is anywhere near the worst-case scenario suggested by insiders and media, everyone will get a big slice of a very large pie.

Today’s casino executives already walk a fine line between the traditional and the cutting-edge, so it will be interesting to see where those settlement dollars will be put to use. Will 3-reel mechanical slot machines dominate the casino floors, as they have for most of the last 100 years, or will modern 5-reel, 20-payline video games fill more of the space? If they do, brands associated with celebrities (living and dead), movies and TV franchises, comic strips and cartoon characters will continue to make their presences felt in the marketplace.

Traditionally, Hollywood had dodged any association with Las Vegas interests, especially in light of the town’s history of organized crime. In the past three years, however, studios and other licensers of intellectual property have literally begun throwing themselves at manufacturers of slot machines to have games carry the likenesses and logos of their clients and properties.

Table games are attracting new players, as well, thanks to the World Poker Tour’s ability to turn Texas Hold ’Em into a spectator sport on television. Younger gamblers also seem to be embracing craps, roulette and card games that weren’t even invented when the WPT started building “lipstick cameras” into their tournament tables.

“When things settle down (on the Gulf Coast), casino managers will look at the games that worked better for them than others, and will base their new investments on past experience,” said one development executive for a major supplier of slot machines. “They’ll also be able to re-conceptualize the layout of their casino floors, to make better use of the space.”

Because many of the new gaming products introduced at G2E were exhibited as prototypes, it’s likely the hotter titles will enter the market at about the same time the Gulf Coast casinos are ready to re-open for business.

Although the convention only attracted a handful of celebrity endorsers -- if one counts Morgan Fairchild, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS, Don Cornelius, George Lopez, Ed McMahon as celebrities --the explosion of branded games continued apace. Clint Eastwood didn’t make an appearance to promote his Fistful of Dollars-themed slots, as he did last year, but the popularity of the year-old game already has inspired Dirty Harry and Bronco Billy spin-offs from WMS Gaming.

The company’s 7-year-old “Monopoly” franchise, a pioneer in the branding trend, has more than 20 separate variations of the game in the marketplace. Men in Black, introduced two years ago, is into its third edition. WMS’ lineup of TV-themed games includes several variations of Hollywood Squares, Match Game and the new Beat the Clock, Love Boat, Green Acres and You Bet Your Life.

Another attention-getter was a 4-D game based on Top Gun, which combined chip-based, multi-reel, multi-payline slot technology, in an arcade environment. Players sat in a chair that shook and vibrated as fighter jets navigated their way through a gauntlet of bogies.
Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards were prominent on the display placards, but not Tom “Maverick” Cruise. It isn’t exactly clear where Scientology -- Cruise being its most visible practitioner -- stands on the issue of gambling for fun or profit, but his absence may be explained, as well, by the fact that he doesn’t need the endorsement money or he has no desire to promote any consumer product.

At the IGT booth, new titles included slots themed to Soul Train, The Apprentice, Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Fairchild’s oxymoronic “Penny Megabucks” and comedian Paul Rodriguez’s “One Night Only.” They stood cheek-by-jowl with next-generation editions of games based on Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe; Wheel of Fortune, The Price Is Right and Jeopardy!; The Terminator, Alien, Back to the Future and Star Wars; and The Addams Family and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Both WMS and IGT introduced video poker games designed to take advantage of the pro-poker craze. The WMS model is affiliated with the World Series of Poker, and IGT is offering a World Poker Tour machine.

The difference between these games and the million other video-poker machines extant is the addition of a bonus round, in which players participate in simulated games with the pros. Hall-of-famer Doyle Brunson stares out from the screen in the WPT game, while a host of faux pros provide the World Series iconography (the real stars, I was told, demanded too much money for their likenesses).

Like traditional video-poker games, these variations provided fast action and the lure of a pot of gold at the end of the digital rainbow.

Bally’s licensed titles included Playboy, Hee-Haw, The Blues Brothers, Fear Factor and S&H Green Stamps. The model hired to help promote Hee-Haw was too young to remember the show on which the game is based, however, and couldn’t differentiate between Buck Owens and the buck-toothed mule grinning from the machine’s signage. (Not that there would have been any good reason for her to have a familiarity with that long-running celebration of cornpone humor.)

Lopez appeared at the Aristocrat Technologies booth, for the introduction of his penny-slot game (which becomes a $2.50-a-pull game, if one shoots for the progressive jackpot). The company’s roster also included Andre Agassi, Pele, Jeff Foxworthy, Pele and Zorro.

How these brands will play in the international marketplace is a question whose answer will reward the winning players far more than $64,000. The expansion of Las Vegas-style casinos and hospitality has already begun in Macao, and developments in Russia, Europe, South America and Asia were the topics of much discussion at G2E.

This much is known, however: big-budget Hollywood movies are as popular overseas as they are here … perhaps, more so; locally produced versions of Wheel of Fortune are shown in dozens of countries around the world; the “Monopoly” board game is sold in 80 nations, and translated into in 26 languages; and, no matter where one travels, Elvis is still the king.

And that, boys and girls, is why the marriage between Hollywood and Las Vegas is destined to be long and bear lots of fruit. Let’s hope someone remembers to share the spoils with the displaced citizens of the New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, many of whom labored in the once-fertile vineyards of the gaming and movie industries.

September 19 , 2005
- Gary Dretzka