We’ve all seen the nonstop headlines claiming “Las Vegas is in Freefall” “Vegas is Dying” and “Vegas is Finished and Will Never Recover.”
All of which is a gross exaggeration.
First of all, Vegas is plenty busy- just like always. Just a little less busy than last year. Revenues are down single digits from last year- which was one of greatest years in the history of Vegas.
Well, to accountant types, all growth must continue and in fact increase, regardless of circumstance. Which is a decent reason to beat accountants to death with clubs.
But compared to last year (the best year in history) business is down this year, and Vegas casinos are laying off employees. That part is true.
So, what exactly is happening? Why is business down this year? The mainstream media would never understand this, but this is another classic case of Republican success versus Democrat failure.
Not all of Vegas is down. Only the Vegas Strip is down. The off-Strip and suburban casinos and hotels in Vegas are booming. Why? What’s the difference?
The reason why is simple. All the major resorts on the world-famous Vegas Strip are owned and operated by Democrats — mostly Ivy League-educated Democrats from Wall Street, who know nothing about gambling or tourism.
And here’s the good part:
MGM is run by Democrats. Caesars is run by Democrats. Harrahs is run by Democrats. Wynn is run by Democrats (since they ran brilliant Republican billionaire Steve Wynn out of town). Even Venetian sold out to Apollo Global Management based in New York, since the death of brilliant Republican billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
Not only are the Strip casinos run by dumb, clueless Ivy League Democrats, but most of them sold the land under their casino-resorts to Blackstone- Wall Street firm that now charges them obscene annual $100 million to $300 million land lease charges.
But the off-Strip casinos and resorts are almost all owned and operated by Republicans.
Station Casinos is booming- the Republican Fertitta family owns them. The downtown Golden Nugget is booming- it is owned and operated by Tillman Fertitta- a Trump Republican who is now President Trump’s Ambassador to Italy. Boyd Casinos are booming. They are run by the Boyd family- who gives mostly to Republican candidates and PACS. South Point Casino is booming- it is run by the Republican Trump supporter Michael Gaughan.
And the details:
The Vegas Strip resorts run by dumb, clueless Democrats from New York are all charging rip-off rates. Parking your car is now $50 at any Strip hotel. Two martinis cost $80. A nice meal costs $500. Resort fees will run you up to $100 extra a day on top of room charges. At MGM properties a bottle of water in your minibar might cost you $25. And here’s the craziest rip-off of all: MGM (run by a bunch of dumb Democrats) now charges $25 extra for room service if you want knives, forks and napkins.
Putting Manhattan cost structures into a Western desert town.
On the other hand, at any of these off-Strip and suburban resorts owned and run by Republicans, the parking is free, the meals are reasonable, the room rates are inexpensive, and they have movie theatres, bowling alleys, food courts and babysitting. Anyone can afford a fun night out on the town! It’s still like “old Vegas.”
I have to stipulate at this point that I cannot stand Las Vegas: Strip, off-Strip, suburban, whatever. Every time I go there — once because I’d never been there before, the other times on business or to attend a conference — I couldn’t wait to leave, couldn’t wait to get on the plane, get in the car, whatever. Nothing about the place attracts me, and just about everything in the place repels me. In my own parlance: I’d rather watch an F1 Grand Prix race at Spa Francorchamps, in the chilly rain, than the one in Las Vegas.
But as a case study in how to screw up a good thing, modern-day Vegas is surely an excellent example. As Wayne Root memorably puts it:
Personally, I preferred the Mafia. They knew how to treat customers.
What’s the difference between a vacuum cleaner and a Democrat on a motorcycle?
The vacuum cleaner has the dirtbag on the inside.
Anyways. These casinos should be able to vacuum tons of money and profits but the liberals could fuck up a wet dream.
There’s a few Casinos in Massachusetts. I’ve read that they make money but not at the level they “projected”.
Vegas is disgusting. They call it sin-city, & while sin may be free elsewhere, it ain’t free in Vegas.
I think I’ve been to LV about a half-dozen times and in every case left disappointed. The place is vile. The Strip is worse. In fact I was just there about six weeks ago with my brother, and daughter for a concert. Brother had never been, and hated it as well. And yes the assholes that run the strip casinos are largely responsible for the hatred.
There are the occasional diamond-in-the-rough type places but mostly Vegas Sucks.
Haven’t been to Vegas since the 80s, and that was because I was working up north on the Combat Ranges with breaks down at Nellis AFB over a Thanksgiving weekend. Back then the dinner buffets were cheap, and the only place I spent real money was while renting a full auto MP-5 at a shooting range.
So not a bad time, but the gambling stuff was all a waste for me. I hung out at a casino for a while because the guys with me wanted to hit the blackjack tables. I got a roll of nickels and played the slots until I got bored (still had a buck or so) and just found a corner to read until they ran out of money.
I will be different. I like Vegas. However, I just use it as central point. Starting point to spending the day exploring Death Valley, or Flame Canyon. Some scenic, while not challenging dirt trails to four wheel drive. Places to hunt fossils. If you haven’t toured Hoover Dam, well worth a day. Pioche, other historical sites are fun to visit and explore. Staying in Vegas makes it easy and affordable to see so much from one central point. Vegas itself, well when I have My Goddaughter with me, one day walking the strip, ride the roller coaster, then it is out of town the rest of the time. But yeah, Stay off strip.
I’ve been to Vegas twice because my wife went there for a work related convention. It was interesting to see but unless you want to gamble or see a show there just that much to it. Sure there are some fine restaurants but most are over priced for forgettable meals.
Out of all the places we have visited, our trips to Las Vegas rarely get discussed and we never talk about returning.
I was condemned to a nearly yearlong TDY in Vegas about a dozen years ago. Little known fact: Las Vegas is an obscure Latin term. When accurately translated, we find that it means “Sprawling Urban Shithole In The Middle Of Nowhere.” I’ve never seen anything so gaudy, plastic and artificial as the yeast-infected gash known as The Strip.
While I was there, some public agency or other performed a urinalysis of the public sewage, & determined that We’re number one! vis-à-vis meth consumption.
I lived in Vegas before the corporations ran the mob out. I agree with Wayne Root: Vegas was a great place when the mob ran it. I date the beginning of the downfall with the MGM fire of ’80. Seems it wasn’t too long after when Disney et al came in and ruined the place. Granted it was only 400,000 population then and only a spec of light lost in the dark desert. There wasn’t much of anything except buried bodies west of Rainbow. Summerlin was raw desert. Used to go shooting out that way. Lots of empty out to Red Rock. Not anything like it is now.
Ah, progress …
Las Vegas was my home town. I was born and raised there and lived there until 1990; I moved to ill-annoy, a true shithole of a state, to a suburb of shitcago, the definition of a sphincter city (except for good food and interesting architecture and the river taxi is fun). My fiance had a great job (as did I) but hers was more stable with better prospects so I moved instead of her. Save for that we might still be living in Las Vegas.
It was a great place to grow up. There were some bad spots (North Las Vegas and some others) but the Strip and downtown were occasional dalliances where you could pick up $1.99 steak dinners after midnight (free parking, drinks extra), family friendly places like the Showboat on Boulder Highway that had fantastic buffets, wide streets, plenty of parking except on the rarest of occasions, lots to do that didn’t involve gambling. Drive a few miles out of town and you were in open desert (all sadly overgrown now) where you could go four-wheeling or shooting to your hearts content.
State constitution: no income tax. Somewhat high gas taxes to make the tourists pay more but not ridiculous. Moderate overall taxes compared to many states. Slots and video poker machines at the grocery stores to drop your change into on the way out.
The most dangerous thing in many places were the microencephalic tourists from california who even then had the ‘pedestrian has right of way over God!’ complex from their misbegotten upbringing. Just walk into the street no matter where and no matter how busy.
The two things that came since I left that I might have loved were a large raceway/track/park and what is supposed to be an excellent shooting facility. And when I visit there (family) I try to stay at Sams Town, a Boyd facility.
But Las Vegas got gang-banged. So many people flooded there that construction and schools could not keep up. Family moves in and immediately starts consuming public resources, schools, welfare, etc. They were building multiple schools a year (More taxes, more bond issues, etc) and still fell behind; most of the public schools had trailers ad portable classrooms and suddenly class sizes ballooned. Then the teachers union started raping the school district (my brother was a teacher for a few years, first hand knowledge from him). Crime went up, more areas started depressing with all the poors flooding in. The county government had always been democrat but it went harder left with the newcomers. Now (well 2019, the last time I was there) there are homeless everywhere, beggars at many street intersections, street people follow you into restaurants and stores nudging and begging (just like san francisco in the late ’70s, and like SF the store or restaurant people won’t do anything about it because they’re the ones who would get in trouble with the powers that be).
It isn’t just democrats running the county, the city, the strip, the downtown casinos. Its democrat owned private equity firms which are driving the insane fees and costs. PE firms have been the death and destruction of many companies… now they’re trying to destroy a city and raping it for all its worth on the way. It was a western town/small city when I grew up there. Now its another hard leftist democrat run cesspool, and it breaks my heart.
I still have family there and a few friends. They know where its safe and where its not, their neighborhood is still good, but I expect when my eldest aunt passes that they’re going to be moving.
I live in a little, slowly dying ghost-town in West-Central NV that in the first decade of the 20th Century was NV’s largest, and probably wealthiest town, then it caught fire when a still blew up one night, and 80% of the town disappeared, and never recovered.
I am the proprietor of a small gun-shop and used to go to the SHOT Show every year – now, I can’t be bothered, and won’t go to ‘Vegas except under penalty of death. A lot of us North of ‘Vegas would be happy campers if Clark Co. would just up and leave and join CA.