What with all the flashing screens, dinging bells, and glazed-over customers absorbed in the games at hand, a Chuck E. Cheese arcade bears quite a resemblance to the slot machine section of a casino. Are kids, in fact, gambling in between their pizza and soda?
gambling
Madness for Sale: Businesses Go for a Piece of NCAA ‘March Madness’ Basketball Tournament
There’s just no stopping the madness. From Hooters restaurants to businesses selling books for homeschooled children to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, everyone seems to be pursuing a marketing tie-in to March Madness, a.k.a. the NCAA basketball tournament.
‘Sandy Sales’: After a Tragedy, How Soon Is Too Soon to Go Shopping?
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, we’ll be greatly in need of consumers to get back to their free-spending ways to put the economy back on track. But while millions are still coping with destruction, death, and power outages, the idea of hosting a hurricane-themed sale is perhaps in bad taste.
“Not Unless the Earth Gets Struck by the Moon” and Other Highlights from Jamie Dimon’s House Hearing
Jamie Dimon returned to Capitol Hill yesterday for round two of his congressional testimony concerning JPMorgan’s springtime trading fiasco.
10 Fun, Weird, Sometimes Disturbing Factoids About the $640 Million Mega Millions Lottery
Tonight at 11:00 p.m. E.T., the winning numbers of a record-breaking $640 million lottery will be announced. The monster jackpot is causing a frenzy across the U.S., with players waiting up to three hours to buy tickets at “hot” stores and math nerds debating whether it’s worth it to buy a ticket. The media circus over Mega Millions even …
NCAA March Madness and Money, by the Numbers
It’s officially tourney time. Just how much is wagered on games? To what degree do workers slack off to keep up with the action on the court? What is your office doing to stop you from streaming video so maybe you’ll actually get …
Casino’s ‘Fat Tuesday’ Promotion Rewards Overweight Gamblers by the Pound
We hear a lot about the high costs of being overweight—that, for instance, obesity adds $150 billion to our annual health care costs. Yesterday, though, at a casino in Florida, there was a financial bonus for being heavy: …
The Business of Super Bowl XLVI, By the Numbers
The Super Bowl is a big game for NFL fans and players, and it’s arguably an even bigger day for business interests surrounding the event. Here’s a look at some of the stats that have nothing whatsoever to do with what happens on …
Gambling Site Full Tilt Poker Alleged to Be a Ponzi Scheme
It’s easy to lose money by gambling. And it’s really easy to lose money by gambling when the house is basically using a stacked deck, and never plans on paying out all the winnings. According to attorneys who filed a civil suit …
How Consumers Are Coping: Layaway, More Gardens and Pet Adoptions
Consumer activity gives a good indication of how the economy is holding up, and here are five trends indicating that consumers are having a particularly hard time lately.
How to Make $1 Million (or More) Per Year Playing the State Lottery
Is there a way to game the lottery? Without ever winning a jackpot, a small group of bettors have managed to milk a game called Cash WinFall for millions. The key part of the strategy, which resulted recently in just three …
Keeping Us Safe from Poker
It’s been an interesting couple of days in the place where money and gambling intersects, otherwise known as Wall Street. Over the weekend, the Internet gambling sites PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker got taken down by Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which among other things covers …
