I will make poor decisions, beyond any I have already made, of course.
November 9, 2014 11:50 AM Subscribe
A Horseshoe Up My Ass: 24 hours at Baltimore's shiny new casino
Joe MacLeod is a veteran City Paper columnist.
Bonus food review: Horseshoe Casino's celebrity-chef restaurants provide wildly different results
Joe MacLeod is a veteran City Paper columnist.
Bonus food review: Horseshoe Casino's celebrity-chef restaurants provide wildly different results
That's how Joe MacLeod writes. I've gotten used to it over the years; your mileage may vary.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:16 PM on November 9, 2014
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:16 PM on November 9, 2014
Bonus food review
In my experience, casino food all tastes like cigarette smoke. Or at least, that's the only thing that I can taste after having fought through the clouds of it on the slots floor trying t to get to the restaurant section.
posted by octothorpe at 12:24 PM on November 9, 2014
In my experience, casino food all tastes like cigarette smoke. Or at least, that's the only thing that I can taste after having fought through the clouds of it on the slots floor trying t to get to the restaurant section.
posted by octothorpe at 12:24 PM on November 9, 2014
Hunter Thompson wannabe.
posted by Splunge at 12:33 PM on November 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by Splunge at 12:33 PM on November 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
The Baltimore City Paper has been a glory since the time I was growing up in Maryland in the 1980s and more power to it for still being standing when so many weeklies have gone under. Also, Joe McLeod is a national treasure. That is all. Now I will go read this article.
posted by escabeche at 1:37 PM on November 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by escabeche at 1:37 PM on November 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Wow, you can really tell the point at which he just gets tired. The writing absolutely reflects it.
I am surprised that the security people only approach him once, about the photographer. I would have thought they'd have got nervous about him after five hours or so. Then again, he was pretty clearly harmless.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:50 PM on November 9, 2014
I am surprised that the security people only approach him once, about the photographer. I would have thought they'd have got nervous about him after five hours or so. Then again, he was pretty clearly harmless.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:50 PM on November 9, 2014
Heh. I'm in Baltimore right now(eating $1 oysters and drinking beer). We saw the sign for that place from the highway. I actually like casinos, but decided against it.
posted by jonmc at 2:56 PM on November 9, 2014
posted by jonmc at 2:56 PM on November 9, 2014
Wow 24 WHOLE hours? Oooo. Did he almost lose ONE HUNDRED dollars too? UNPRECEDENTED
I'm jking but 24 hrs is pretty much a warm up for a serious degen, especially in a poker room. Great writing as usual and a couple good stories but man, this seems pretty lightweight for a casino in downtown Baltimore? I bet if Joe spends every night there for the next month he could could get some into serious craziness eventually.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:17 PM on November 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
I'm jking but 24 hrs is pretty much a warm up for a serious degen, especially in a poker room. Great writing as usual and a couple good stories but man, this seems pretty lightweight for a casino in downtown Baltimore? I bet if Joe spends every night there for the next month he could could get some into serious craziness eventually.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:17 PM on November 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
Jonmc go to the Ottobar or the Sidebar and for breakfast go to the golden west cafe.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:19 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:19 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
That said I used to live in Baltimore and had to journey into the depths of bmore county or down to PG or Annapolis to find a semi-pro underground card room. I've known games that got robbed, games run by cheaters, games where the cops busted in and arrested people, pocketing the bank. Not to mention how many times I nearly crashed my car speeding back home after missing my marital deadline by a few hours! Hopefully this casino may save a few lives or at least marriages.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:24 PM on November 9, 2014
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:24 PM on November 9, 2014
This guy is working on a set of dice for the craps table, like that little scene in the Major Motion Picture “Casino” starring Robert De Niro, where he’s measuring the dice with a micrometer or something, and then he gives them a spin, before approving them as dice and turning them loose on a table full of happy craps players.
I'm so sorry. I'm generally a nice person but I now want every bad thing in the world to happen to the author of this piece.
posted by ftm at 3:37 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm so sorry. I'm generally a nice person but I now want every bad thing in the world to happen to the author of this piece.
posted by ftm at 3:37 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed it.
posted by gingerest at 7:49 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by gingerest at 7:49 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Hunter Thompson wannabe.
If wanting to be HST is wrong, I don't wanna be right. I thought the piece was enjoyable. The writing could be better, the subject matter is a bit tired, but it still managed to hold my attention from half across the globe. For a target audience consisting of people who might actually visit a Baltimore casino in 2014, does it matter if Hunter did it better from Vegas in 1971?
posted by delegeferenda at 12:21 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
If wanting to be HST is wrong, I don't wanna be right. I thought the piece was enjoyable. The writing could be better, the subject matter is a bit tired, but it still managed to hold my attention from half across the globe. For a target audience consisting of people who might actually visit a Baltimore casino in 2014, does it matter if Hunter did it better from Vegas in 1971?
posted by delegeferenda at 12:21 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
We're doing the "Let's build casinos, that'll solve everything!" tango here in Albany, NY as we speak. I forwarded this on to a lot of friends, as a case study. The part about how displaced workers from A/C are dealing with the fallout was a good insight.
posted by mikelieman at 1:24 AM on November 10, 2014
posted by mikelieman at 1:24 AM on November 10, 2014
I voted against the expansion of casino gambling here in Maryland because I lived through it in Louisiana. The only people who benefit from it long-term are the gaming companies. I'm not sure what it is about casinos that makes people believe in magic money fairies all of a sudden. It's going to be as big a failure here (from the point of view of the state and local governments) as it has been everywhere but Las Vegas. The casino owners don't care whose pockets they pick, they just care that they pick them. I'm interested in what's going to happen to Maryland Live! once the casino at National harbor is in full swing.
posted by wintermind at 5:33 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by wintermind at 5:33 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
Hah. We are in Maryland right now and just drove past this place the other day. That it is situated between a Holiday Inn Express (for high rollers) and a Public Storage (for low) pretty much tells the casino's tale before you even arrive.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:35 AM on November 10, 2014
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:35 AM on November 10, 2014
The only people who benefit from it long-term are the gaming companies.
There ARE the guys who deliver the concrete to the construction sites. My understanding is they're paid before they unload.
posted by mikelieman at 6:00 AM on November 10, 2014
There ARE the guys who deliver the concrete to the construction sites. My understanding is they're paid before they unload.
posted by mikelieman at 6:00 AM on November 10, 2014
There ARE the guys who deliver the concrete to the construction sites. My understanding is they're paid before they unload.
Not to mention the people who move steam pipes (but not so much the neighborhood groups the money was intended for...
more power to it for still being standing when so many weeklies have gone under.
It hasn't seemed to change it yet, but the city paper is now owned by the baltimore sun (which is itself owned by the tribune company or whatever). So, I guess that's what it takes for a weekly to survive.
posted by advil at 6:09 AM on November 10, 2014
Not to mention the people who move steam pipes (but not so much the neighborhood groups the money was intended for...
more power to it for still being standing when so many weeklies have gone under.
It hasn't seemed to change it yet, but the city paper is now owned by the baltimore sun (which is itself owned by the tribune company or whatever). So, I guess that's what it takes for a weekly to survive.
posted by advil at 6:09 AM on November 10, 2014
The only people who benefit from it long-term are the gaming companies.
And the people who get jobs in the casinos and the various service businesses that come with them; but screw them, I have "concerns".
posted by spaltavian at 6:19 AM on November 10, 2014
And the people who get jobs in the casinos and the various service businesses that come with them; but screw them, I have "concerns".
posted by spaltavian at 6:19 AM on November 10, 2014
That it is situated between a Holiday Inn Express (for high rollers) and a Public Storage (for low) pretty much tells the casino's tale before you even arrive.
Yeah, that's the thing. This wasn't at all "downtown". This was a crumbling industrial area. Did you notice that building with the big smokestack on the water? Waste to energy incinerator. The casino doesn't even "lower" it's neighborhood.
That Holiday Inn Express in three stories, but apparently they are permitted to but in a seven story hotel. My friend in the hospitality industry tells me they're not going to do it, though, as the area needs more attractions to make it worth their while. The casino and a refurbished Royal Farms aren't enough.
posted by spaltavian at 6:23 AM on November 10, 2014
Yeah, that's the thing. This wasn't at all "downtown". This was a crumbling industrial area. Did you notice that building with the big smokestack on the water? Waste to energy incinerator. The casino doesn't even "lower" it's neighborhood.
That Holiday Inn Express in three stories, but apparently they are permitted to but in a seven story hotel. My friend in the hospitality industry tells me they're not going to do it, though, as the area needs more attractions to make it worth their while. The casino and a refurbished Royal Farms aren't enough.
posted by spaltavian at 6:23 AM on November 10, 2014
And the people who get jobs in the casinos and the various service businesses that come with them; but screw them, I have "concerns".
There are jobs but, at least around here, they're low-paying, non-union jobs with no health benefits.
posted by octothorpe at 6:53 AM on November 10, 2014
There are jobs but, at least around here, they're low-paying, non-union jobs with no health benefits.
posted by octothorpe at 6:53 AM on November 10, 2014
It's better to have no jobs? Like I said above, this is a crumbling industrial area in Baltimore, it's not a Wal Mart situation where the casino took away great jobs to put in service ones.
posted by spaltavian at 6:58 AM on November 10, 2014
posted by spaltavian at 6:58 AM on November 10, 2014
And the people who get jobs in the casinos and the various service businesses that come with them; but screw them, I have "concerns".
Ah yes. Because the only thing urban casinos in blighted areas do is generate jobs for the nearby poor people, who should be grateful really. Silly people who pay attention to other cities and their "concerns".
(But the drive from canton etc to BWI sure does look nicer now! For some value of "nice".)
posted by advil at 9:08 AM on November 10, 2014
Ah yes. Because the only thing urban casinos in blighted areas do is generate jobs for the nearby poor people, who should be grateful really. Silly people who pay attention to other cities and their "concerns".
(But the drive from canton etc to BWI sure does look nicer now! For some value of "nice".)
posted by advil at 9:08 AM on November 10, 2014
No, but those jobs are more important than the pearl clutching over gambling.
posted by spaltavian at 12:36 PM on November 10, 2014
posted by spaltavian at 12:36 PM on November 10, 2014
Is that where we are now? People should just shut up and be happy that they have any job and not complain that it's only 30 hours a week and has no benefits and doesn't pay enough to support a family?
posted by octothorpe at 12:52 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 12:52 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
Guess where I am right now!
Not even a good signup bonus for the player's card. Boo to that.
It's definitely a casino. Ugly, mean and with a constant top 40 of 20 years ago soundtrack.
posted by codacorolla at 1:11 PM on November 22, 2014
Not even a good signup bonus for the player's card. Boo to that.
It's definitely a casino. Ugly, mean and with a constant top 40 of 20 years ago soundtrack.
posted by codacorolla at 1:11 PM on November 22, 2014
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I didn’t drive here, though, the Photographer, my companion for most of my 24-hour stay, did the driving, because even though Sleep Deprivation is my drug of choice, there’s no way I’m gonna drive here, spend 24 hours, and then drive home, are you kidding me?
posted by jpe at 12:02 PM on November 9, 2014