饱受争议的赌场老板安迪·桑伯恩已将他与新罕布什尔州彩票委员会和总检察长办公室的争斗升级到州最高法院。桑伯恩已请求法院确定州是否通过阻止他出售其业务，康科德赌场，而非法行为。
律师们声称，州通过错误地撤销桑伯恩的许可证，关于大流行欺诈的指控，并拒绝桑伯恩的买家自己的许可证，从而挫败了一次销售。
桑伯恩需要撤销这一撤销，以便出售赌场。
委员会在经过长时间的行政斗争后，于11月撤销了康科德赌场的许可证。在新的法庭文件中，桑伯恩的律师们争辩说，没有那个许可证，这个生意就一文不值。
丹尼斯·康拉德一直是一个有远见的人，一个颠覆者和一个创新者。
成千上万的博彩行业人士参加了他的会议，参加了他的培训，阅读了他的书籍，听了他的演讲，并吸收了他的高度个人化的文章，包括他为CDC博彩撰写的月度专栏。
在1990年代，当博彩行业迅速从零售和航空业采用分析和直接营销时，同时还有一个在博彩行业中日益增长的声音，宣扬“顾客崇拜”和员工权利。
这个声音来自内华达州里诺的一家名为Raving Consulting的小公司，属于创始人丹尼斯·康拉德。
在20多年的时间里，Raving Consulting已经成长为博彩业中一个知名度高、备受尊敬的影响者，致力于客户服务和玩家发展。在一群赌场专业人士的推动下，Raving Consulting最终能够满足任何寻求帮助的公司的各种需求。
丹尼斯·康拉德会告诉你，他在博彩行业超过50年的成功秘诀是依靠他“利用比我聪明的人的技能的能力”。
创新和远见
从纽约州布法罗的郊区到内华达州的交易：丹尼斯·康拉德是一名赌场执行顾问，也是Raving Consulting Company的创始人和前总裁。他是斯坦福大学的毕业生，在博彩行业拥有超过50年的经验，在哈拉斯娱乐公司和马戏团马戏团企业/曼德勒湾度假村集团担任过多个高级职位，然后在1998年创立了Raving。
他是《康拉德角落：关于赌场、营销和生活的观察》(2004年)和《康拉德论赌场营销》(2009年)的作者。他是各大主要博彩出版物的30年专栏作家，包括CDC博彩，并且是国内外博彩会议上的热门演讲者。
除了建立一个主要的营销咨询公司外，他还创立了赌场营销会议、印第安博彩全国营销会议和主持人会议等。丹尼斯构思并帮助执行了赌场营销终身成就奖、罗梅罗奖、巴罗纳/VCAT印第安博彩营销卓越奖，当然还有他最喜欢的年度奖项，带有讽刺意味的年度最佳（和最差）赌场促销。他在2015年获得了赌场杂志的营销终身成就奖。
丹尼斯已经半退休，但仍为真正关心以客户和员工为中心的博彩客户工作。他继续自豪地支持诺塔·贝盖三世基金会及其改善美国原住民儿童健康的至关重要的工作。
扑克和高尔夫
康拉德很早就在纽约西塞内卡，布法罗南部的一个郊区开始接触博彩，那里经常发生严重的湖效应暴风雪，常常成为全国媒体的焦点。他开始和他妈妈及其朋友们一起玩扑克，赌注是便士和镍币。后来，他用这些赢来的钱开始在当地的市政高尔夫球场卡泽诺维亚高尔夫球场赌美元，那里他是一个著名的青少年球员。
“我和一群好的青少年球员一起玩，赌注大约1美元，这是一笔大交易。你不仅仅是和赌徒玩。你是和一些相当不错的人玩。这对磨练我的技能然后赢得一些钱是个好练习，”康拉德说。
“有点像我的经纪人”
“我爸爸在一家叫Trico Products的公司工作。他们制造雨刷。他们是汽车行业的一部分，在布法罗有三个工厂。他是一个中层管理人员。
“当我开始打球时，他看到我打得很好。他有点想通过我来过他的生活。我连续两年赢得了纽约州男孩锦标赛和布法罗地区区男孩锦标赛。然后第三年我输了。我是14到18岁时的青少年高尔夫热门人物。
“所以，当我打得好时，我爸爸成了我的经纪人。我没有要求他这么做，但他认为那里有一个高尔夫奖学金。在1969年和1970年，并不像现在这样。只有几所学院提供高尔夫奖学金。
“我从斯坦福得到奖学金提议的那一年，他们只有半奖学金。斯坦福的半奖学金就像在其他地方支付全额学费一样，因为它很昂贵。所以那是我从斯坦福得到的提议，”康拉德回忆说。
贝基
1974年从斯坦福大学毕业后，康拉德被锡拉丘兹法学院录取，但从未就读。
“我在回布法罗去上法学院的路上，在爱荷华州遇到了我的未来妻子贝基。在我放弃那件事之后，我说，‘贝基，我要回到西部。我会顺路过来。所以现在我爱上了她。我离开了布法罗，回去和她在爱荷华州在一起。”
“我在爱荷华州的夏天找工作，但所有的大学生都抢走了所有的暑期工作。所以，我说，‘我要回到加州去。’”
“贝基说，‘我也想去。’她有一辆1965年的野马，后备箱的车身都生锈了。但她有一辆车和1000美元。所以，我们坠入爱河。我们去拜访并与全国各地的一些朋友住在一起，最终在西部破产和沮丧。我们跛行进入加州的尼德尔斯。我们不得不修车并找工作。我找到了一份代课教师的工作，”康拉德回忆说。
我们应该这样做
丹尼斯在当地学校系统和汽车旅馆工作，“当房间是六美元时”，贝基在当地的山姆博斯工作时，康拉德开始在当地赌场玩二十一点。
“我们去这些赌场，荷官穿着漂亮的衣服；他们戴着漂亮的珠宝。你可以看出他们在赚小费。我不知道他们赚了多少钱，但我说，‘贝基，我们应该这样做，因为他们赚的比我们多得多，’”康拉德说。
这导致了丹尼斯和贝基从1975年开始在内华达州的赌场工作的岁月。康拉德担任过肯诺作家、荷官和调酒师。贝基最初是一名老虎机换钱员、肯诺跑腿和宾果叫号员，后来成为了荷官。
我问康拉德他从那些日子在赌场一线工作中学到了什么，后来在他作为作家、作者和赌场顾问的职业生涯中使用了这些东西。
“你会对一线人员必须经历的事情有所了解，对吧？我对这些人工作有多努力，他们必须忍受的东西有所了解，”康拉德说。
赌场队长
康拉德的突破来自于一个名为赌场队长的角色，他用这个角色教人们如何玩赌场桌面游戏，就在它成为拉斯维加斯哈拉斯之前的假日赌场。
“这个角色是 dressed up as a ship captain with a room service jacket and a little hat, and that’s how you gave the lessons as this character.
“I took the gig as Captain Casino, and I did that for one year, and it was terrific. It opened some people’s eyes. I had huge crowds around my tables,” Conrad recalled.
The laughing, joking, crazy lesson, crowd-attracting Captain Casino caught the attention of fellow Stanford graduate Phil Satre, then the President of Harrah’s Entertainment, who had Conrad help start a similar program in northern Nevada.
Conrad’s future mentor, John O’Looney, came from Harrah’s Atlantic City at this time to take the job of VP of Casino Operations at Harrah’s Las Vegas. Recognizing the spark in Captain Casino, he promoted Conrad to Special Events Manager and then Casino Marketing Director.
A few years after that, it was suggested that Conrad take the job as Director of the Harrah’s Institute of Casino Entertainment, a program conceived by President Satre to prepare current Harrah’s non-gaming executives for careers in the burgeoning gaming business. Satre said, ‘We need to have a program where we teach smart people in our company about the business.’
“I had to interview with a Corporate Senior VP of HR. I said, ‘I’m interested in this job, but I only want to do it if I can do it the way I want. I want this to be down and dirty, so they see it from the inside. It’s not an academic exercise.’
“’This thing needs to be about the cheater coming in who shows them how to cheat and knows how to do it. We need to show them the inside. We need to take them into the count rooms. We need to have them become customers and see what a customer experiences. We have to tell them about this problem gambling stuff. If I can’t do it the down and dirty way then I’m not interested’,” Conrad said.
The concept for Raving is born
Conrad taught 40-60 executives monthly from all senior levels of the then PROMUS companies, including the Harrah’s casinos.
“This is how I got the idea for Raving. All I did was find the smartest people I knew and turn them loose on stage, and I kind of spearheaded the program.
“When we needed to talk about the math of gambling, I brought in Peter Griffin from Cal State, Sacramento, who wrote the Theory of Blackjack and studied how advantage players got the best of casinos. I got Anthony Curtis of the Las Vegas Advisor to talk about a bunch of different things. I got Steve Forte, the preeminent expert on cheating, to show some ways to take down a casino. I’m taking them into count rooms. I’m making them play live games on the Las Vegas Strip. A lot of these people had never been in a casino back in Memphis. Their eyes are, like, wide open. They all run back home, raving,” Conrad confided.
Twist of fate
In a twist of fate that is all too typical in the casino industry, Conrad was lured away by Circus Circus Enterprises to use his Harrah’s Institute background to help change the culture at Circus Circus Enterprises as the Vice President of Employee Training and Development. Due to changes in ownership at Circus Circus, Conrad’s job as Corporate VP ended, only six months after it had been created. To complete his three-year contract, he was asked to choose a senior-level job at any property in the company, and for a variety of reasons, he chose Circus Circus Reno to be Director of Marketing right after the market-changing opening of the Silver Legacy.
After two and a half years in this role, Conrad found himself with an expired contract, living with his wife and family in Reno and decided to take the $100,000 cash he had saved from his corporate and property roles and start Raving Consulting.
“Becky, who’s from Iowa, loves Reno and she said, ‘We like it here.’ I said there is one thing I’ve thought about. I got this idea from the Harrah’s Institute; I’ve thought about starting a consulting company that has the same principles. You gather up the smartest people you can find that know everything there is to know about their area of the business and you offer it as a package to casinos. It’s going to be whatever you need, the best you can get. That was my first tagline for Raving, ‘Whatever you need, the best you can get.’” Conrad recounted.
After three years, Conrad picked up a few jobs at places like Beau Rivage, but was spending much more than he was making. Around that time, he began working with Steve Browne, and the combination of Browne’s small town casino Cactus Jack’s customer worship and Conrad’s brand of disruptive thinking began to gain traction.
Conrad received a call from the CFO at Majestic Star in Gary, Indiana who had been through the Harrah’s Institute and had read some of Conrad’s columns and said, ‘Do you guys do
