G2E Day 2 - Parallels and Paradoxes

Day 2 at G2E highlighted the parallels and paradoxes around us.

?On one hand gambling is an old business- the first recorded casino was in 1638, yet the technologies and developments are as cutting edge as in any industry.

It was also in 1638 that Nicholas Poussin painted his depiction of Titus destroying the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem that prompted the dispersion and exile of the Jews from Biblical Israel. The memorial to the event was the Arch of Titus in Rome. Yesterday's news from Israel was biblical in its horror.

Observing a conference about the gaming business seems unimportant. It is.

Bill Carstanjen at Churchill Downs Incorporated was reflecting on 150 years of horseracing in America at the morning keynote. Jette Nygaard-Andersen of Entain was talking about online and digital gaming. Old meets new.

?I was invited to lunch where I had the pleasure to sit next to Jeffrey Silver . It would be highly inappropriate to suggest that Jeff was regulating the tables back in Venice, but probably has had as much impact in developing the framework that allowed Las Vegas to expand and become the city that it has become today. Thanks to him, Michael Feder and Dickinson Wright . On the show floor, I bumped into Augusta Massey, Esq., MBA and the next generation of regulators chatting about issues facing ?Las Vegas today. ?

I also spent time talking to Tribal leaders. Here we have some of the oldest institutions in the country, respecting and embracing their own history after multiple generations, but developing some of the most modern and innovative gaming cathedrals in the world.

Andrew Tottenham was the first person I ever met that worked in the gaming industry and the formidable Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs the first in Las Vegas. I blame them both for me being here!

Seeing them both again brought back memories - my first G2E was 11 years ago - on a panel with Julie!

JCJ ARCHITECTURE and Lifescapes International Inc. have been commissioned the memorial to mark the tragedy of the October 1 shootings in Las Vegas. The sister of Neysa Tonks, who was murdered on that night, told how she went to Las Vegas’ hospitals until they could identify her sister's body. I had almost the same conversation, just hours before, with a friend who was driving from hospital to hospital in Israel looking to see if their missing niece is alive, dead or has been taken hostage in Gaza. It is so painful.

And to cap the evening off, I joined Gary Roudette for his Birthday drinks and dinner. I didn't know it was his birthday. It would have been a cake instead of a sandwich.

I got home at 1am. Checked my social media and saw someone had posted the picture of Titus’ Arch illumined with the flag of Israel. Events, memorials, people and places. Parallels and paradoxes indeed.

Happy birthday Gary!

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