Las Vegas Hit Hard by Recession

zengrifter

Banned


Down and out in Las Vegas

The good-time capital of the US has hit a losing streak.
Guy Adams reports on an epidemic of bankruptcies, foreclosures and mass lay-offs

Saturday, 5 July 2008

Since the day Las Vegas was created in the shimmering Nevada desert, visitors have been drawn by one simple promise: "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". The motto adorns the city's road signs, and has inspired everything from its souvenir T-shirts to the local tourist board's seductive advertising campaigns.

These days, that motto is imbued with a worrying sense of irony. Because America's most outrageous city is facing a growing multitude of problems, and they all boil down to a single, unavoidable point: right now, far too little happens in Vegas, because not enough people are actually staying there.

MORE- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/down-and-out-in-las-vegas-860513.html (Archive copy)
 

Jeff Dubya

Well-Known Member
I saw this today as well and can only say this... I just got done booking a trip to Vegas for later this month, and I saw none of the hotel deals this article mentions. I don't discredit the article one iota, I believe it. However, I don't know how the average consumer can take advantage of these savings.
 

jack.jackson

Well-Known Member
zengrifter said:


Down and out in Las Vegas

The good-time capital of the US has hit a losing streak.
Guy Adams reports on an epidemic of bankruptcies, foreclosures and mass lay-offs

Saturday, 5 July 2008

Since the day Las Vegas was created in the shimmering Nevada desert, visitors have been drawn by one simple promise: "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". The motto adorns the city's road signs, and has inspired everything from its souvenir T-shirts to the local tourist board's seductive advertising campaigns.

These days, that motto is imbued with a worrying sense of irony. Because America's most outrageous city is facing a growing multitude of problems, and they all boil down to a single, unavoidable point: right now, far too little happens in Vegas, because not enough people are actually staying there.

MORE- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/down-and-out-in-las-vegas-860513.html (Archive copy)
Its not just happening in Vegas, its happening everywhere! Today, I only see about 1/2 the traffic on the road, as I did, opposed to about a year ago. What goin on? I just saw on the news how my local casino's drop was down by about 25%.

Surely this has to be good news for us card counters, right? Seems to me they would be offereing better rules to attract customers.
 

ihate17

Well-Known Member
Vegas has always gambled and won, but not because of itself

Bad times have come to Vegas before when the nation hit economic bad times. During many of these times some major businesses went broke, people claimed the town was overbuilt and yet things have always turned around and the town seemed underbuilt, so they built more and more with more success.
Why has this worked? Simply because the economy has always turned around from recessions to prosperity over and over again, and the gamblers (owners) of Vegas have always put their money behind the economy bouncing back with a vengence and doing it fairly quickly.

Not wanting to be a pesimist, I do worry (not for Vegas but for the Nation) that this time their are so many aspects of the economy that are hurting and they are also inter-related with so much else within the world and really not in our control, that the turn around may be a long way off. The master projects in the works may be halted or sit near empty, or open and just take business away from others causing their going under. The heavily leveraged firms may land up closing up losing hotels or selling off pieces (this could be a good thing).

Another problem with Vegas today is that it is no longer small enough to be built on the gambler. Today it is built on the tourist. The hotel, restaurant, show room, club etc all need to show profits. The majority of people who come to Vegas spend more money on these things than they do on gambling and with the huge amount of hotel rooms, not filling them means more profits in all sectors.
So better games may not be the answer because the room fillers really do not know the good from the bad. Discount rooms, travel etc will get them to town but then will they spend enough? I really do not think so.

ihate17
 

SystemsTrader

Well-Known Member
Good I'm happy Vegas is taking a beating. Vegas has really changed over the last decade. I miss the good ol' days when I could walk from the sidewalk directly into a casino and start playing blackjack. Now I have to walk 20 yards up the street, go over a bridge to cross a street, come back 20 yards, walk around some giant lake, walk through a maze of high end fashion stores, hope I don't make a wrong turn, walk into a casino with a sea of slot machines, snake my way through the machines to finally find a pit of table games, which unfortunately only has CSM's and 6-5 blackjack. Then I must keep searching pits before I finally come across a playable game. After wonging a few tables I must finally get out of the casino and start my long twisting journey out again hoping I don't make a wrong turn somewhere.

My point or complaint being, Vegas used to be about gambling and now its about everything else and the gambling is just secondary. When it was about the gambling people would come back over and over again because rooms and food were cheap. Now rooms and food cost a lot of money, you need a weeks salary to take the girlfriend to a show and these resorts all have to be bigger and better than the last place which went up and it gets to the point were they all look the same. Nobody is impressed anymore when the next big over priced place is built as you can't tell one from another. It was interesting when they first started with all the new mega hotels and now nobody cares. The poor economy just happens to be coinciding with the bin there done that of Las Vegas for most people.
 

jack.jackson

Well-Known Member
Will the real systemtrader please stand up!

SystemsTrader said:
Good I'm happy Vegas is taking a beating. Vegas has really changed over the last decade. I miss the good ol' days when I could walk from the sidewalk directly into a casino and start playing blackjack. Now I have to walk 20 yards up the street, go over a bridge to cross a street, come back 20 yards, walk around some giant lake, walk through a maze of high end fashion stores, hope I don't make a wrong turn, walk into a casino with a sea of slot machines, snake my way through the machines to finally find a pit of table games, which unfortunately only has CSM's and 6-5 blackjack. Then I must keep searching pits before I finally come across a playable game. After wonging a few tables I must finally get out of the casino and start my long twisting journey out again hoping I don't make a wrong turn somewhere.

My point or complaint being, Vegas used to be about gambling and now its about everything else and the gambling is just secondary. When it was about the gambling people would come back over and over again because rooms and food were cheap. Now rooms and food cost a lot of money, you need a weeks salary to take the girlfriend to a show and these resorts all have to be bigger and better than the last place which went up and it gets to the point were they all look the same. Nobody is impressed anymore when the next big over priced place is built as you can't tell one from another. It was interesting when they first started with all the new mega hotels and now nobody cares. The poor economy just happens to be coinciding with the bin there done that of Las Vegas for most people.

:laugh:You said it man. Weve completely amused ourselves to death, there's nothing left to amuse. I wish the Gansters still ran it. At least then, you could still have a good time. They've literally turned the place into a 3 ring circus. If you ask me, the whole world is in need of reality check. Nothing seems real anymore. Its time we quit pretending, in the likes of fining people for their grass being to high. And let people run their business'es the way they want to run them. Gimme a break!
 

zengrifter

Banned
More good news!! zg
Gaming revenues drop more than 15 percent (Archive copy)

Nevada gaming revenues fell more than 15 percent in May, according to figures released this morning by the Gaming Control Board.

News from Vegas only getting worse -- Precipitous drop in gambling revenue guts casino stocks

Casino stocks were battered again Thursday, with shares of the big players scraping to multiyear lows on the back of news of a precipitous drop in Nevada's gambling revenue.

Mayor says Vegas hurt more than other cities by gas prices


Although mayors across the country for months have been paying lip service to concerns about the fast-rising cost of gas and its effect on their constituents, most are not really all that concerned, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said at his July 3 news conference.


 

N&B

Well-Known Member
I'm not hearing good news about the new MGM at Foxwoods either. But they are offering a bit lower table stakes, meaning more $15 tables longer... no sign of $10's.
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
If only somebody could build a small oasis in the desert where there was decent gambling geared towards the low roller.someone who remembers that casinos are for gamblers,not watered down Broadway shows and fancy zoos.
Did someone say Don Laughlin?
 
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