Vegas forgot the entire reason it was popular in the first place:
Because it was CHEAP. You could go to Vegas and get a nice hotel and go out every night for less than you could go anywhere else because they made their money on gaming instead of the accommodations.
During Covid they pivoted to trying to be a "destination" by ripping off everyone at every corner. The rooms are loaded down with fees, the food and drinks are ridiculously expensive.
The reason to go to Vegas was that a regular middle class person could FEEL like a rich person. That doesn't work when you are priced out of everything.
International visitors are down due to the orange moron.
Attendance at conventions and corporate meetings are down due to the above stupid decisions. It was a cheap place to hold a large meeting: flights, transit, hotels, meeting hall rental and food were all 30%+ less than anywhere else.
To expand on Vegas' woes, online gambling has exploded. Why bother driving several hours or take a plane to a desert city to play in several casinos when you can bet on a game or a bunch of outcomes by just using your phone?
I wonder why Vegas companies didn't push back against the legalization of online gambling like we saw alcohol and tobacco companies do with marijuana. Perhaps most of them already have their hand in that pie, which is why it's okay. Same thing with how tobacco companies stopped fighting legalization of weed once they became the dominant players.
That was driven by Vegas companies, I remember seeing Bally's and MGM logos on a bunch of online gambling sites/apps when it was first getting started. I don't think they realized just how viral the internet is, and how fast another entity can spin up and eat their lunch.
no only that but they got rid of the physical machines and replaced them with screens that you play the same phone gambling game on. the magic is dead. every casino looks the same and has the same 2 machines playing the same exact games on screens.
This is how I've been feeling about tourist places in general. So many shallow attractions trying to get easy money mixed in with the real interesting stuff, and everyone is competing for a spot with the good stuff, which drives prices to ridiculous levels and still there's a large line and crowd.
I much prefer places tuned to attract locals because they have to at least be good enough to be worth future visits.
Also they turned the whole comp system from something that was a fun treat into what amounts to a grocery store rewards points scheme that isn't fun for anyone. So now instead of a pretty girl coming up to you and just handing you a free drink or some guy giving you a free breakfast because you are a big shot, you instead have what amounts to a subway sandwich punch card.
There was a youtube video a few months back where a person who lived there and had several pro vegas videos outlined how the casinos had done it to themselves.
Last time I went to Vegas was 2023 and free drinks on the casino floor was still a thing at least, though not nearly as frequent as the time I went prior to Covid.
I've only been once, but watching degenerate gamblers and young parents pushing strollers around a big mall drunk was just depressing. I got a vibe of Dollarama Epstein Island.
You know what 1000x better than The Venetian? Venice.
I mean... Yea. But we also have a POTUS and cabinet that invite journalist to their signal groups accidentally. I guess I don't have issue with making a platform to bet on anything, I have issue on people with highly classified information betting on them, getting caught, and then zero consequences.
I disagree. I think it’s helping punish the USA, which is exactly what it deserves for threatening not only much of the world, but also Canada directly. It seems like the perfect response that they boycott Las Vegas, and the entire country and its products.
I think you've misunderstood me. I'm Canadian, and I'm boycotting travel to the United States. I'm currently on vacation in Portugal, and I love it. I can't wait to visit more non-US destinations.
As a Nevada resident you can see this all over the state. The state voted Trump and it’s now gonna pay the price for it. I do feel bad for employees in the housekeeping and food service department. But I do know most of them also voted for trump including a friend of mine who drives taxi in Vegas and complains about everything being expensive. So in that case fuck them, but to the few good ones in the silver state, you have my respect.
Exactly. The top 10% of the US population is currently responsible for 50% of spending, which is propping up the economy. But places like Vegas don't cater to the top 10%. Oh sure, there are high-roller areas; but for the most part, Vegas caters to the lower-middle class. Shockingly, rich people don't like hanging around smokey casinos and a bunch of drunk gambling addicts. It's no surprise that it's suffering.
Everyone is holding onto what little cash they have due to great uncertainty. Doesn't matter which party or which country you belong to. I think history will show us that trump was not a good money man at all. Nothing more than an evil little shit stumbling upward because of dad's money. From that point on it was all grifting schemes and tween dreams.
As someone that loves gambling and always wanted to go to Vegas, I'd rather just go somewhere local if I wanna go to a casino. Vegas is as expensive as any other destination vacation (if not more expensive) but that's not why most people want to go there no matter how much they try to change their image. If you're not someone that likes gambling it's probably cheaper and more worthwhile to go to Disney Land. And if you're someone that likes gambling it's cheaper to go to literally any other casino in the country.
I lived in Vegas for 5 years and absolutely loved it, but I almost never went anywhere near the strip unless friends or family were visiting. I spent a lot of time out at Red Rock Canyon hiking the trails.
Exactly this. The attraction to Vegas used to be that it was cheap and you could go there and feel like a big shot. Without that there just isn't any reason to go. Its just a little town the middle of the desert, but now it costs more than Hawaii.
No no, everything is fine. Las Vegas was too crowded before anyway. And last Christmas, people were spending as much if not more than previous years despite what you may have heard. Our economy is absolutely booming. Just look at the stock market, it's the clearest indicator that everyone is doing very well.
Caesars and MGM don't care about your US$5k vacation to Vegas anymore. They just want to deal with the Epstein class that are going to play US$100k hands at their card tables.
Work trip was to Vegas a few months ago. It was pretty dead on a Friday afternoon. It was me and my coworkers walking around trying to find something to do. They were charging $8 for water at the bar. And my nachos was $22.
A decade ago, there would at LEAST be two dozen dealers hanging out at empty tables, inviting people. You'd bump into people or try to navigate a crowd. You'd get coupons for food, and courtesy deals for being a member. Not anymore.
It was a casino with a mall, food court and club scene too! My town's mall had more activity than this. Hell, the McDonald's on the highway had more activity than this.
Same thing is happening on Orlando. The parks have decided that they are getting to crowded, so they raised the prices. That keeps out the poors, and makes the park less crowded for the wealthy, who buy more, and have a better guest experience without the crowds.
The parks still get crowded at peak times, but the parks conveniently have expensive passes that wealthy people can purchase to skip the lines.
I got free express passes for a work event, worth normally around $160 each. I got to spend 2.5 hours in line (the express line!) before the ride broke down and we all had to leave. In just over 8 hours in the park, we rode exactly 2 rides and would have spent over $500 each for the privilege had it not been a work trip.
Disney didn't charge extra for fast-pass last time I went there. Anyone could schedule their rides on an app so they didn't have to wait in long lines. The only shitty thing there was that they used to make you schedule day-of, and when they changed to letting you schedule months in advance it meant that when I went on a trip with like a week's notice all the reservations were booked.
I wonder if the wealthy becoming exceedingly more wealthy and wages stagnating has anything to do with this. Prices going up, wages not. Seems like nobody can afford vegas right now.
Hopefully they realise that they need us earning if they want us spending.
Vegas forgot the entire reason it was popular in the first place:
Because it was CHEAP. You could go to Vegas and get a nice hotel and go out every night for less than you could go anywhere else because they made their money on gaming instead of the accommodations.
During Covid they pivoted to trying to be a "destination" by ripping off everyone at every corner. The rooms are loaded down with fees, the food and drinks are ridiculously expensive.
The reason to go to Vegas was that a regular middle class person could FEEL like a rich person. That doesn't work when you are priced out of everything.
Two major things that are hurting Vegas today
International visitors are down due to the orange moron.
Attendance at conventions and corporate meetings are down due to the above stupid decisions. It was a cheap place to hold a large meeting: flights, transit, hotels, meeting hall rental and food were all 30%+ less than anywhere else.
Yeah, my company could offer me a fully covered trip with extra free time to explore or have fun in the US and my answer would still be no.
To expand on Vegas' woes, online gambling has exploded. Why bother driving several hours or take a plane to a desert city to play in several casinos when you can bet on a game or a bunch of outcomes by just using your phone?
That's a great point to bring up.
I wonder why Vegas companies didn't push back against the legalization of online gambling like we saw alcohol and tobacco companies do with marijuana. Perhaps most of them already have their hand in that pie, which is why it's okay. Same thing with how tobacco companies stopped fighting legalization of weed once they became the dominant players.
That was driven by Vegas companies, I remember seeing Bally's and MGM logos on a bunch of online gambling sites/apps when it was first getting started. I don't think they realized just how viral the internet is, and how fast another entity can spin up and eat their lunch.
no only that but they got rid of the physical machines and replaced them with screens that you play the same phone gambling game on. the magic is dead. every casino looks the same and has the same 2 machines playing the same exact games on screens.
Also, at least in my area, there are these skeezy little gaming parlors that have popped up in every strip mall where the Curves used to be.
Back in my day you had to drive over state lines to legally ruin your life.
Exactly. They make Joe the HVAC guy feel like James Bond for a weekend. Now it's just a regular vacation but without an attraction.
This is how I've been feeling about tourist places in general. So many shallow attractions trying to get easy money mixed in with the real interesting stuff, and everyone is competing for a spot with the good stuff, which drives prices to ridiculous levels and still there's a large line and crowd.
I much prefer places tuned to attract locals because they have to at least be good enough to be worth future visits.
They hike the prices through the roof and drop quality and it’s the consumers’ fault for not wanting to pay extra for crap
Also, who would visit the U.S. right now?
They also changed the games to where it was even harder to win and the payout was less.
But business analysts said that bleeding their customers dry through predatory tactics was the most important thing to do!
Think of the shareholders!
Also they turned the whole comp system from something that was a fun treat into what amounts to a grocery store rewards points scheme that isn't fun for anyone. So now instead of a pretty girl coming up to you and just handing you a free drink or some guy giving you a free breakfast because you are a big shot, you instead have what amounts to a subway sandwich punch card.
There was a youtube video a few months back where a person who lived there and had several pro vegas videos outlined how the casinos had done it to themselves.
Last time I went to Vegas was 2023 and free drinks on the casino floor was still a thing at least, though not nearly as frequent as the time I went prior to Covid.
And winners are quickly banned. Why would anyone gamble and NOT card count?
I've only been once, but watching degenerate gamblers and young parents pushing strollers around a big mall drunk was just depressing. I got a vibe of Dollarama Epstein Island.
You know what 1000x better than The Venetian? Venice.
I've only been to Venice out of the two and I very much disliked Venice. So Vegas must be pretty bad.
Hundreds of years of history, beautiful museums, best restaurants in the world, going to dinner in a vaporetto, horrible.
Maybe Vegas is for you.
I'm not really a gambler. Glad you like Venice. I'll give a list to counter:
Claustrophobic, terrible smell, rarely air conditioned, hard to find food that isnt just carbs and fat.
The museums are cool though.
Sounds like you shouldnt leave the US.
Oof homie
Go to Italy, complain about the food and air conditioning. That's why Rome has a McDonalds.
Meh let the idiots idiot
I mean... Yea. But we also have a POTUS and cabinet that invite journalist to their signal groups accidentally. I guess I don't have issue with making a platform to bet on anything, I have issue on people with highly classified information betting on them, getting caught, and then zero consequences.
Probably, but I'm a purponent of you do you until it becomes my problem
Good talk. It's nice having a online conversation that doesn't turn into garbage. I think the Internet may have jaded me 😂
you're not gonna convince me that the shows aren't cool.
lol, Vegas, shows, right buddy, is that where all the bodies on the desert came from? It’s called Sin City, not Sing City
Don't Penn and Teller regularly perform in Las Vegas? I'm not a gambler, but I'd totally go to Vegas just to see those two.
Penn and Teller and Weird Al, let’s go
What? you don't want to sleep with a woman whose picture is on the side of truck?
Canadians boycotting travel to the U.S. doesn't help, either.
Canadians are only 10% at best, Vegas was dying because they were tuned only for one Boomer demographic, and Boomers are dying.
big money is now in nursing homes and funeral parlours.
I disagree. I think it’s helping punish the USA, which is exactly what it deserves for threatening not only much of the world, but also Canada directly. It seems like the perfect response that they boycott Las Vegas, and the entire country and its products.
I think you've misunderstood me. I'm Canadian, and I'm boycotting travel to the United States. I'm currently on vacation in Portugal, and I love it. I can't wait to visit more non-US destinations.
All good. Just thought the “doesn’t help” might mean you didn’t appreciate the boycott. Good work on your own boycott.
Boycotts and a general strike by US citizens are the only things that might get through to the White House.
As a Nevada resident you can see this all over the state. The state voted Trump and it’s now gonna pay the price for it. I do feel bad for employees in the housekeeping and food service department. But I do know most of them also voted for trump including a friend of mine who drives taxi in Vegas and complains about everything being expensive. So in that case fuck them, but to the few good ones in the silver state, you have my respect.
Nevada voted Trump. They gambled and lost. Time to learn the hard way.
This is how the rest of us feel about the US.
It's okay, the Dow is over 50k.
They want to cater to the 1%, they're only going to get traffic from the 1%
The problem is they are competing with the entire world then. The 1% would rather go to Macau.
Exactly. The top 10% of the US population is currently responsible for 50% of spending, which is propping up the economy. But places like Vegas don't cater to the top 10%. Oh sure, there are high-roller areas; but for the most part, Vegas caters to the lower-middle class. Shockingly, rich people don't like hanging around smokey casinos and a bunch of drunk gambling addicts. It's no surprise that it's suffering.
Hmm yes. That's the only thing contributing to its visitor drop. Nothing else
Looks at costs of a flight to Amsterdam. Looks at costs to domestic US.
Gee I wonder why.
I bet Amsterdam won't arrest you for shady Vance memes on your phone.
True, but you'll get fisted by customs when you return to the US.
For some people, that's a perk!
Everyone is holding onto what little cash they have due to great uncertainty. Doesn't matter which party or which country you belong to. I think history will show us that trump was not a good money man at all. Nothing more than an evil little shit stumbling upward because of dad's money. From that point on it was all grifting schemes and tween dreams.
There's way better drugs available these days.
It’s always been obvious he’s shitty with money
You can milk a cow many times, but you can only slaughter it once.
As someone that loves gambling and always wanted to go to Vegas, I'd rather just go somewhere local if I wanna go to a casino. Vegas is as expensive as any other destination vacation (if not more expensive) but that's not why most people want to go there no matter how much they try to change their image. If you're not someone that likes gambling it's probably cheaper and more worthwhile to go to Disney Land. And if you're someone that likes gambling it's cheaper to go to literally any other casino in the country.
I lived in Vegas for 5 years and absolutely loved it, but I almost never went anywhere near the strip unless friends or family were visiting. I spent a lot of time out at Red Rock Canyon hiking the trails.
Exactly this. The attraction to Vegas used to be that it was cheap and you could go there and feel like a big shot. Without that there just isn't any reason to go. Its just a little town the middle of the desert, but now it costs more than Hawaii.
Good.
Fuck vegas.
It's called recession. Soon to be the Second Great Depression.
And the fact that most of the support staff are scared to death of ice throwing them in a concentration camp.
They got what they voted for.
So, it's getting worse. There were videos last summer of how empty the Las Vegas Strip was.
No no, everything is fine. Las Vegas was too crowded before anyway. And last Christmas, people were spending as much if not more than previous years despite what you may have heard. Our economy is absolutely booming. Just look at the stock market, it's the clearest indicator that everyone is doing very well.
The Dow is over $50,000 - that’s what we should be talking about!
You are absolutely correct. And the DOW is over 50,000 Dollars according to some people.
See Peter Santanello's video of Las Vegas. There are communities living in underground garages that even the police are afraid to enter.
Yeah, but aren't the cops afraid to enter classrooms with gunmen?
The best thing that could happen to Las Vegas is to cut off the water and give it back to the scorpions.
Caesars and MGM don't care about your US$5k vacation to Vegas anymore. They just want to deal with the Epstein class that are going to play US$100k hands at their card tables.
That's how it feels.
Work trip was to Vegas a few months ago. It was pretty dead on a Friday afternoon. It was me and my coworkers walking around trying to find something to do. They were charging $8 for water at the bar. And my nachos was $22.
A decade ago, there would at LEAST be two dozen dealers hanging out at empty tables, inviting people. You'd bump into people or try to navigate a crowd. You'd get coupons for food, and courtesy deals for being a member. Not anymore.
It was a casino with a mall, food court and club scene too! My town's mall had more activity than this. Hell, the McDonald's on the highway had more activity than this.
It’s not solely local leisure spending. It’s tourism. Who wants to come to the United States now?
I’ve also been told there’s been a switch up in the way the machines work such that it’s just not fun any more.
That's fine, I'm sure billionaires will pick up the tab when all regular people clear out of the Strip.
Might qualify as a leopards eating face moment considering a narrow majority of Clark county voted for Trump :o
Same thing is happening on Orlando. The parks have decided that they are getting to crowded, so they raised the prices. That keeps out the poors, and makes the park less crowded for the wealthy, who buy more, and have a better guest experience without the crowds.
The parks still get crowded at peak times, but the parks conveniently have expensive passes that wealthy people can purchase to skip the lines.
I got free express passes for a work event, worth normally around $160 each. I got to spend 2.5 hours in line (the express line!) before the ride broke down and we all had to leave. In just over 8 hours in the park, we rode exactly 2 rides and would have spent over $500 each for the privilege had it not been a work trip.
Fuck Universal Epic.
Universal really is the worst on that.
Disney didn't charge extra for fast-pass last time I went there. Anyone could schedule their rides on an app so they didn't have to wait in long lines. The only shitty thing there was that they used to make you schedule day-of, and when they changed to letting you schedule months in advance it meant that when I went on a trip with like a week's notice all the reservations were booked.
You know it's bad when gambling is starting to hurt for business.
Why go to Vegas when you can gamble all your money away on your phone from the comfort of your couch.
Take the money you saved from the airplane fare you didn't buy and gamble it on if Trump will say 6-7 this week.
I guess they’ll have to rent out more illegal Israeli biolabs
I wonder if the wealthy becoming exceedingly more wealthy and wages stagnating has anything to do with this. Prices going up, wages not. Seems like nobody can afford vegas right now.
Hopefully they realise that they need us earning if they want us spending.
Are you saying a 90.00 buffet for one meal once at Ceasars palace isn't going to appeal to normal people?
New Vegas is going Old Vegas.
Old (North) Vegas has always been better...
Like, it's still Vegas. But instead of the capitalism cranked up to 11, it's more like an average city level of exploitation.
I was let down the first time tho, because I was expecting some Uncle Eddie shit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byfewcZsug4
I was similarly let down when I couldn't find that 5$ a plate all you can eat buffet.
Great news. I hope to see less wasteful spending.