The Grit Beneath the Glitter
The Grit Beneath the Glitter

Author: Hal Rothman

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2002-03-15

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 0520935454

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The Grit Beneath the Glitter is the first real look at the new Las Vegas from the inside. In it, long-time residents as well as professionals reflect on the transformation of one of the fastest-growing and most famous cities on earth, yet one about which relatively little is known. They offer a lively and compelling portrait of the other side of Las Vegas: the people and institutions that support the glitter of the gaming and entertainment industry. Examining a range of topics--from the city's commercial history, labor conditions, and environmental problems to an analysis of the famous lights of the Strip--the contributors uncover the contradictions between the illusion and the reality of the city, the seam between fantasy and the life it masks. The essays in this collection explore the world that employees experience when they enter gaming palaces from an employee entrance in a back parking lot rather than through the scripted doors of casino/hotel palaces. They take readers into the neighborhoods where 1.4 million Americans now live, attend school, eat dinner, and go to work.

The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Gambling
The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Gambling

Author: Leighton Vaughan Williams

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-11-12

Total Pages: 834

ISBN-13: 0199376697

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There is growing interest among academics and policymakers in the economics of gambling, which has been stimulated by major regulatory and tax changes in the U.S., U.K. Continental Europe, Asia, Australia and elsewhere. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive source of path-breaking research on this topic. To fill this gap, we commissioned chapters from leading economists on all aspects of gambling research. Topics covered include the optimal taxation structure for various forms of gambling, factors influencing the demand and supply of gambling services, forecasting of gambling trends, regulation of gambling, the efficiency of racetrack and sports betting markets, gambling prevalence and behavior, modeling the demand for gambling services, the economic impact of gambling, substitution and complementarities among different types of gambling activity, and the relationship between gambling and other sectors of the economy. These are all important issues, with significant global implications. Specifically, we divide the Handbook into sections on casinos, sports betting, horserace betting, betting strategy, motivation, behavior and decision-making in betting markets, prediction markets and political betting, and lotteries and gambling machines

A Comparative Geography of China and the U.S.
A Comparative Geography of China and the U.S.

Author: Rudi Hartmann

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-07-17

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 9401787921

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The book is the outcome of a unique venture: a team of Chinese geographers and a team of American geographers collaborated on a new Comparative Geography of China and the United States. The book meets a high demand for comparative information about China and the United States, as the home of the two leading economies in a globalizing world. Comparisons of the two countries include the similarities and differences in their physical environments and natural hazards, the growth and changing spatial distribution of population and ethnic groups in China and the U.S., traditions and contemporary regional expressions of agriculture and food production as well as the rapidly changing urban and industrial patterns in both countries. The book also highlights the two countries’ interconnectedness, in trade and in the exchange of cultural, social, scientific & technological information. The volume serves as a major resource in geographic education as it contributes to a better and more comprehensive understanding of the formation and development of the two countries’ basic geographical patterns and processes.

An Ordinary City
An Ordinary City

Author: Justin B. Hollander

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-08-08

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 3319607057

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This book paints an intimate portrait of an overlooked kind of city that neither grows nor declines drastically. In fact, New Bedford, Massachusetts represents an entire category of cities that escape mainstream urban studies’ more customary attention to global cities (New York), booming cities (Atlanta), and shrinking cities (Flint). New Bedford-style ordinary cities are none of these, they neither grow nor decline drastically, but in their inconspicuousness, they account for a vast majority of all cities. Given the complexities of growth and decline, both temporarily and spatially, how does a city manage change and physically adapt to growth and decline? This book offers an answer through a detailed analysis of the politics, environment, planning strategies, and history of New Bedford.

The Peoples of Las Vegas
The Peoples of Las Vegas

Author: Jerry L. Simich

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13:

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Las Vegas is known the world over as an oasis of entertainment in the Nevada desert, but to more than a million people of exceptionally varied origins, it is also home. Yet this city is rarely mentioned in studies of ethnicity or immigration, and the rich diversity of its population is largely invisible to Las Vegans and visitors alike. Such ignorance can be partly explained by the effects of the city's rapid growth. Las Vegas largely lacks traditional ethnic neighborhoods, and the restaurants and markets that cater to its diverse population groups are mostly hidden away in anonymous strip malls. Nonetheless, a remarkable variety of nationalities and ethnic groups has been drawn here since the city's beginnings in 1905, and today Las Vegas's vital service industry, entrepreneurial opportunities, reasonable cost of living, and appeal as a retirement center attract many more. Recent world events and international currents of immigration have only enhanced this diversity. In The Peoples of Las Vegas, seventeen scholars profile thirteen of the ethnic groups that make up their city's population. kaleidoscope of ethnicity that helps define Las Vegas today and analyzes the economic and social conditions that make Las Vegas so attractive to recent immigrants. The individual contributors--most of whom are members of the groups they write about, and who come from a broad array of disciplines--discuss the motivations and processes of their group's migration to Las Vegas, economic pursuits, institutions and other means of preserving and transmitting their culture, involvement with the broader community, ties with their homelands, and recent demographic trends affecting each group. This collection of essays provides a provocative look into the vibrant ethnic life that lies just beneath the glittering surface of one of America's most unusual cities.