TheResumator
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CheckDog.com
CheckDog scans any website to look for misspelled words. The system can be setup to run monthly reports and email you the results. This is great for finding misspellings before your website visitors do. It’s also fun to run reports on your competitors to find the many errors on their website.

SEOmoz
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Google TV Advertising
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Google Adwords Remarketing
Google Remarketing is one of the most powerful forms of advertising I have found. Essentially remarketing, or retargeting as it is sometimes called, allows you to advertise to people that have viewed a particular page on your website on a third party site. A typical example would be: Customer visits your website, puts shoes in their shopping cart, then leaves or abandons the website. Using Remarketing, you can advertise the shoes in her shopping cart while that visitor is on a third party site, like Youtube.com for instance.

What business tools are indispensable for you in 2012?

http://www.giveforward.com/teamrachelkayebethke

Thank you for your help.

Travis,

You asked a bunch of questions. All of them are good, but some make incorrect assumptions and are based on incomplete information.

In terms of pay/benefits:

Wages in the U.P. are lower than are wages below the bridge for most if not all professions and jobs. Please understand, however, that a good number of the 1,000 workers at the Kewadin properties are not full time (some are part-time, some are seasonal, etc.). In addition, many (if not most) casino employees earn tips in addition to wages (some dealers earn many thousands in tips). The amount they earn in tips is NOT part of the salary number. All full-time jobs include health care and other benefits. Almost certainly, the salaries at the Lansing casino will be higher, and full-time positions will include benefits as well.

In terms of number of workers:

Have you been to the five Kewadin properties in the U.P.? They are not equal in size to one another so would not “average 250 jobs per casino.”Two of the properties (in St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie) are rather large casinos with many slot machines and table games and other amenities. Three of the five are satellite casinos —small facilities in Hessel, Christmas and Manistique that cater to snowmobilers, anglers, hunters, folks on color tours, etc. In total, the five Kewadin casinos have 86,000 square feet of gaming space and 1,000 employees. The Lansing casino will have 125,000 square feet of gaming space, thus the need for more (about 1,500) employees.

In terms of the cost of construction:

In the blog you based your calculation of $1,960 per square foot for the Lansing casino on 125,000 square feet. That square footage number represents only gaming floor space, Travis. The total project footprint is 276,000 square feet, which takes into account all back of house space, counting rooms, cages, restaurants, kitchens, and on and on. In addition, the project includes two parking garages with 2,900 (roughly) total parking spaces. In addition, the FF&E (furniture, fixture and equipment) budgets for casinos are quite expensive because of all the technology in gaming properties. Please understand each slot machine in a casino costs roughly $9,000 and up. And then comes the computer management systems, all the electrical work, the surveillance technology, player tracking technology, and on and on.

In terms of revenues and profits:

The developer will assume all financial risks and spend $10 million to get the project approved. Then the Tribe will take all the risks and assume all debt and costs for building and operating a $245 million project. The Tribe will use its profits from the project to fund health care, elder care, college educations, housing, human and social services and other programs for their members. In addition, to be able to generate enough revenues to send every Lansing public school student to college is something we are proud of and, we would note, something no one else in this region is doing. And while the developer’s payment ends after seven years, the $5 million a year for Lansing public school students continues on and on.

Lets look at the revenue that two groups will receive directly from this casino.
1. The scholarship for Lansing kids
2. the developers

Lansing Kids get:

The project would include two parking decks and would share 2 percent of revenue - estimated at $5 million to $6 million - for the city to start a scholarship program for Lansing public school students - LSJ

Revenue $250,000,000/yr * 2% = $5,000,000/yr for the kids

Developer gets:

Sault tribal officials negotiated a contract with Lansing Future that would award the developer 14 percent of the casino’s operating profit, projected at $150 million annually, for seven years, the website reads. The tribe also would have to reimburse the company for as much as $10 million of its initial investment if the casino succeeds. - LSJ (Screenshot)

Operating Profit $150,000,000 * 14% = 21,000,000/year for Developer

7 Year Deal: 21,000,000 x 7 = $147,000,000

Lansing Kids Get: $5,000,000/year
Developers Get: $21,000,000/year

—

I don’t care if the Lansing Casino is built or not. I just think the Lansing Casino Math is interesting.

More on Casino from Mlive: Screenshot

My 2008 Pontiac G6 convertible had a whistling sound that I took into get looked at. I received a call from Glenn Buege saying that “a new dual exhaust system would cost $1,500″. I turn them down and said I will come pick up my car.

Later I find out that my car does NOT have a dual exhaust! After calling a few other places, and leaving a messages for the General Manager of Glenn Buege, I get a return call from the service department saying that “Actually it’s a single exhaust and will only cost $480″. Glenn Beuge tried to steal $1,000 from a loyal customer. I won’t be returning.

I keep finding interesting bits of math in the announcements.

This is a neat one. - (screenshot)

“The tribe already operates five casinos in northern Michigan, where it claims to employ about 1,000 people with a $25 million a year payroll. For Lansing, 1,500 new fulltime jobs in addition to the 700 construction jobs needed to build the 125,000-square-foot casino would boost a local economy that already has momentum.”

$25,000,000 in payroll / 1,000 employees = $25,000 average annual salary per employee

1,000 jobs / 5 Casinos = 200 jobs per Casino on average

1,500 new lansing jobs / 200 average jobs per casino = 7.5 times the current average number of jobs per casino.

Seems odd.

The article also points out some interesting stats on salaries. I hope the casinos provide health care and fringe benefits because those salaries are a little lower than what I expected.

“Gaming Dealers: $25,910. They operate table games like craps, blackjack and roulette. In Detroit, the mean annual wage is $30,140; in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula it’s $18,110.

Gaming Supervisors: $47,100. They oversee the gaming operations and personnel in an assigned area. In Detroit, the annual wage is $57,840; in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula it’s $37,880. Gaming Managers earn more.

Gaming Cage Workers: $11.97 per hour (the mean wage in 2008). They work in the central depository for money and gaming chips.

Gaming Surveillance Officers/Investigators: $33,020. They observe casino operations for irregular activities such as cheating or theft by either employees or patrons. In Detroit, the annual wage is $37,710.

Slot key persons: $25,460. They coordinate and supervise the slot machine department at its workers.”

This seems to be the best article - (screenshot)

A $245 million American Indian casino in downtown Lansing could create about 2,200 jobs and help fund scholarships for area students, backers of the plan announced Monday. ….. The 125,000-square-foot casino would offer up to 3,000 slot machines and 48 gambling tables. Bernero said he hopes construction could start in 12-24 months, and estimates it would take 14-18 months.

$245,000,000 cost / 125,000 square foot = $1,960 cost per square foot

2010 house construction data for Lansing was “Ave Cost per SF: $88.02″ (of course this is for houses so not a fair comparison but only data I could find)

Another comparison I am familiar with is the company I work for. From publicly announced press releases we know that for a fully equipped, state-of-the-art, data center the cost is:

$60,000,000 investment / 90,000 square foot = $666 cost per square foot

Could casino construction really cost that much more than a data center?

This math just seems strange to me but I am admittedly not a math expert.