The Eight-Hour-Every-Two-Years Trailer Casino: The Gloriously Weird Loopholes of Licensing Laws

Specifics of Las Vegas casino licensing laws make for some weird little things, like the eight-hour-every-two-years

 trailer casino on a vacant lot.

Boing Boing told the story today:

from the moment you close your doors [as a licensed casino], you have two years before the license expires…Technically, to keep the license from lapsing, you need to have been open to the public for eight hours during the previous two years…..

 As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, Station reduced the old Castaways casino to rubble shortly after buying it, turning it into a 26 acre dirt lot. But it was a special dirt lot due to the license. In late 2007, Station asked the Gaming Commission for permission to bring in a trailer -- to be in open for one day only -- outfitted with 16 slot machines. By operating this mini "casino," the license stayed alive for another two years…..

 In January of 2008, about two years after the implosion of Castaways (but before that all-important two-year anniversary of its last bet placed), the 400 square foot trailer rolled into the dirt lot and opened for business….The casino's eight-hour existence was sparsely attended and the biggest jackpot won was $2.50….

They did not, however, end up building a new casino within the two year window ending early 2010 or, for that matter, by the the time of this writing. Instead, the trailers kept coming back, most recently in late 2013.

Comments

[SIV]

You get a whiff of what taxed and regulated marijuana will smell like in the future.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

For a clearer vision, go down to your local craft beer store and have a conversation with the owner about wholesalers. The conclusion to Prohibition created a whole new class of rent seeker out of political necessity and compromise, and that special interest has lingered for a hundred years due to the usual concentrated benefits and dispersed costs. When it finally ends, the War on Drugs will result in the same.

[robc]

Or you could ask someone at the other end of the 3 tiers.

Neither tier 1 nor tier 3 is all that happy with tier 2.

[Robert]

Do you think a better deal was likely? I'm afraid that had that compromise not been reached, liquor prohibition might've become as entrenched as it became for narcotics. And then exported to other countries as a successful policy, although probably a lot slower than for narcotics.

There had been other compromises in the works that'd've been less libertarian. Some would've kept the prohibition regime, but defined most beers & ales to not be intoxicating liquors.

[Sevo]

IANAL, and correct me if I'm wrong:
All those car companies naming some new model a Testa Rossa (for pete's sake!) really have no choice.
(I am told) If a c/r name is not used and kept 'active' within a certain time span, it becomes public property.
So we get Carreras with two cams, Testa Rossas with hips 8' wide, etc, courtesy of US IP laws.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Hey, licensing legislation with arbitrary standards yields bizarre and wasteful outcomes. First time for everything.

[cavalier973]

OT:

Unlike the men who took my Male Dating Market Value test, I do not expect *any* women to be completely honest with themselves taking the Female Dating Market Value test. The female ego is simply way too fragile to absorb the shock of such a brutal self-assessment. Therefore, I will be mentally subtracting 10 points from every woman who posts her score here in the comments.

[Corning]

Fucking stop using the word Beta!!!

Holy shit, humans are not wolves and even if they were betas are just juvenile wolves who are children of the alphas...the word does not mean what you think it means.

[pan fried wylie]

Omegas?

That, or Zeds.

[Agammamon]

There are Zeds and then there are Zods.

Kneel before Zod.

[Corning]

I went to regulation hell and all I got was this magical Casino that only appears on a blue moon for eight hours.

[Bardas Phocas]

No 'Brigadoon' reference?
Cultural illiteracy is rife in our land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X9lUzqwQcI

[Zombie Jimbo]

Unless they got an 8 hour liquor license to go along with it, it couldn't be Brigadoon.

[Doctor Whom]

Shared cultural knowledge no longer has to extend beyond the latest antics of the Kardashians or of whoever is currently famous for being famous.

[userve32]

Wow that makes a lot of sense dude.

http://www.Crypt-Anon.tk

[Robert]

I'm imagining a CSI episode investigating the disappearance of one of these trailers. What clues might be left on the scene by the hijackers, leading to a party who'd have something to gain by interfering with someone's casino license?