ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

Being a writer in Las Vegas is not always easy.

It probably goes without saying, but Vegas-based publications are highly dependent upon local casino ad revenue.  This is a one-industry town, and unless you want to hemorrhage cash year-after-year-after-year, you have two choices:

1. Kiss the beanbag
2. Write for someone who doesn’t depend on local casino advertising dollars

For the last couple of years, I have mostly done the second.

It’s not that I can’t “write mainstream”.  I can and I have.  I’ve penned “mainstream” articles in a variety of places, both online and in print, for close to 20 years.  VegasRex is an (obvious) pseudonym which allows me to write milquetoast bullshit elsewhere without anyone making the connection, but I don’t really enjoy doing so.  Corporate media can be extremely frustrating.  You can write a 2,000 word masterpiece, only to have it stricken because it is too controversial.  Hell, I once got bounced from a New York paper by referring to Barbara Streisand as a “carpetbagger”.

She came to Brooklyn to stump for David Dinkins during the ’93 elections (or “erections” as they’re known in Japan), and I wondered aloud why any New York resident would listen to an elitist who lived 3,000 miles away in Malibu, California.  I was read the riot act … “we hold Ms. Streisand in very high esteem at this publication!”, and was told to rewrite it (which I did not do).  Barbara was not even an advertiser.  Sony bought lots of ads, however, and Sony owned Columbia and, well … who knows why they were really so gung-ho about the lady.  Such is the state of corporate media, though.

Shortly after moving to Las Vegas, I started my own “blog”, and became somewhat of a Vegas Internet writer.

For over three years, I blogged relentlessly, posted more photos and videos than I’ve bothered counting (it’s certainly in the thousands), and for what?

Well, I didn’t do it for money, that’s for damn sure.

You know this because I didn’t make any.  Not only did I not make any, but it cost me a lot of money to keep the thing going.  For three solid years I criss-crossed the valley, bought cameras, bought tickets, burned cash, paid for servers, spent god knows how much time “blogging”, and each month I lost more and more money.

At the absolute peak of “blog” prosperity, at the peak of Las Vegas’ popularity, when ad revenue and affiliate programs were flowing, I did what few other bloggers did.  I left all of that money on the table.  Hell, there was a buyout offer for my own site back in 2007 which I politely declined.  My decisions seemed very odd to some people, but in reality, I just did what I had always done when I started something new.

For instance, it’s like starting a band.  In the early days, you’re happy just to be heard.  You are more than willing to print up your own fliers, rent your own space, and clean up after the gig.  During this period, it’s really just about the music, and you resent any notion that you are doing it for the money.  The first few times you do make a couple of bucks, you actually feel guilty and you start questioning your own integrity.  After all, now that you are making a couple of dollars for each show … what separates you from the fucking Backstreet Boys?  I mean, besides the legions of female fans and worldwide fame.

For a long time, I resisted even putting dopey Google Ads on my site.  The way I saw it, I had not earned it.  Until I had a couple of years and a fairly large catalog of content under my name, booking my own gigs was the right thing to do.  You’ve got to bust your ass and pay your dues before you should even think about trying to break even.  You need to get boo’ed off the stage and hit in the head with a couple of beer bottles until you’re even remotely legitimate.

Sadly, most people these days try to skip right over this step.  They register a domain and cut-and-paste press releases and “special deals” as blog posts.  They are generally content to let the record company write their songs.  If not all of their songs, at least half of their songs.  If given the choice of being the next Fugazi or the next Ke$ha, most people seem more than happy to choose the latter.  What can I tell you, it’s a ringtone generation.

It’s because of this that I don’t buy the RIAA’s position that people will stop making music if file sharing continues unabated.  To the contrary, music would not only continue, but it would probably get better.  If there were no money to be made in music, musicians would continue making music … it is the posers who would stop.  Sure, the musicians would have to work at Starbucks while they made the music, but I’ve never heard a real musician say “I’m not going to write this song because nobody’s going to pay me for it.”  If they did say that, then chances are it wouldn’t be a very good song anyway.  It certainly would not be a genuine, honest, heartfelt song.

While blogging and music don’t seem to have much in common, it’s really the only other creative pursuit with which I can relate, and most creative endeavors do have some similarities.

Painters, poets, musicians, writers, magicians, comedians, photographers … these are all people who relentlessly produce something that comes from within themselves, from their own perspectives.  They create something that did not exist before they made it.  Most creative people can move between different artistic pursuits quite easily (some of the best poets are musicians, and some of the best writers are comedians).  Be it a photograph of a flower, a sketch of a new cartoon figure, or a new joke that makes people laugh … these people create for the sake of creating, and the vast majority of them would do it in a complete vacuum.  With or without an audience, with or without a dollar.

Some people are able to commercialize on their own perspective, and some never do.

Fortunately, I have an agent.  I have had one for a long time.  This individual represents me in matters completely unrelated to blogging, yet this person was able to convince me to take a blogging gig.  They put it all together and hashed out the details (I never get involved with the business aspect of anything), and it was set.

At the end of 2008, I was finally signed to CasinoGuide for a regular column and there was a minor outcry.  I got one email after another from people accusing me of being a tool, a sell-out, and Osama Bin Laden’s evil twin.  For a few weeks, I felt bad.  I mean, maybe they were right.  I had only been “VegasRex” for a few years.  Who in the hell was I to blog about Las Vegas on a more formal basis?  Surely there were bigger and better unsigned bands out there who had yet to reach their full potential.  It happens all the time.  Look at the Screaming Trees.  One of their members now delivers newspapers for a living while “Soulja Boy” releases three albums in as many years.  The lead singer for Green River and Mudhoney now works in Sub-Pop’s warehouse for Christ’s sake.

Life’s not fair, but I knew one thing … I didn’t want to be Soulja Boy.

I took some of the initial hate mails to heart, but after getting maybe the 30th flame, I came to a conclusion, and that conclusion was:

Fuck you.

I earned it.

You guys had three years to hit me in the head with beer bottles and boo me off the stage, and believe me … you did.  After you were done abusing me and calling me all kinds of unflattering things, I came back for more.  And more.  That’s what real (anything)’s do, and if I was in it soley for the money, I would have been gone a long time ago.  I kept going, though, and as bad as you insisted that I was … you bastards had no qualms about sticking me with ever-increasing bandwidth bills.  It was not reasonable to ask me to rent the venue where you pelted me forever.  For Christ’s sake, even Bikini Kill sold records.

DIY is a great ethic (this is how I run my forums) but it just doesn’t work for blogs.  You eventually have to find a label.

And so I did.

That label was CasinoGuide and I’ve been with these guys for almost 2 years.  Although it may sound like I am kissing ass, the people have all been great.  From Day 1, they’ve always “gotten” who I am and what I do, and they embraced it without fear.  In this day and age, that kind of courage is pretty rare.

It is, therefore, with some sadness that I announce my departure from CasinoGuide.

Companies move around, restructure, consolidate, and just generally do what companies do.  It’s neither good nor bad, it just is.

Now, before you break out the champagne, I urge you to exercise some restraint.

In July of 2010 (only a few short days from now), I will begin writing for a new venue.  It is called CasinoTop10, and it too is an online gaming portal.  For the reasons stated above, it’s a good fit.

Anyway, I would like to thank CasinoGuide for a very enjoyable run.  It has been great working with them over the past couple of years.

I wish them all the best, and I hope to see the rest of you over at CasinoTop10.

Crank That Soulja Boy.

• Keep updated through Newsletter or on Facebook

  E-mail:
  

  Subscribe
  Unsubscribe