Simpson, covered Las Vegas gaming industry, dies at 51

Jeff Simpson, who covered the gambling industry for both Las Vegas newspapers for more than a decade, died on Thanksgiving at the age of 51 after emergency heart surgery.

Jessica Fryman of the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes, “Simpson most recently wrote for Two Way Hard Three, a blog on Las Vegas casinos. He was a business reporter at the Review-Journal from 2000 to 2004 before moving across the valley to become business editor at the Las Vegas Sun, where he worked until 2009. Simpson also regularly appeared as a guest on ‘Nevada Week in Review,’ a show on Las Vegas public television station KLVX-TV, Channel 10.

“He grew up in Olmstead Falls, Ohio, and received a bachelor’s degree in history from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. He moved to Las Vegas in the late ’90s.

“‘He was able to cover some of the most exciting years when the city was really booming,’ said Jazmin Casing, his girlfriend of seven years. ‘In Las Vegas, casino openings and closings define this town and they bring up a lot of emotion in terms of where we’ve come from and where we’re going and Jeff understood that and he loved to document that.’

“Simpson cultivated relationships with many gaming executives, and became particularly close to Steve Wynn, which gave him the chance to grasp an inside look at the opening of Wynn Las Vegas, a story that meant a lot to him to cover, Casing said.”

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