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[–] 168 points 7 months ago (11 children)

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.

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  • [–] 45 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 30 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    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?

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  • [–] 17 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago

    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.

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    [–] 103 points 7 months ago (18 children)

    They hike the prices through the roof and drop quality and it’s the consumers’ fault for not wanting to pay extra for crap

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  • [–] 43 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    They also changed the games to where it was even harder to win and the payout was less.

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  • [–] 27 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    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.

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  • [+] 70 points 7 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (13 children)
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    [–] 62 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    Canadians boycotting travel to the U.S. doesn't help, either.

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    [–] 58 points 7 months ago

    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.

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  • [–] 51 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    Nevada voted Trump. They gambled and lost. Time to learn the hard way.

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  • [–] 40 points 7 months ago

    It's okay, the Dow is over 50k.

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  • [–] 33 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    They want to cater to the 1%, they're only going to get traffic from the 1%

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  • [–] 21 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    The problem is they are competing with the entire world then. The 1% would rather go to Macau.

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

    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.

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  • [–] 30 points 7 months ago

    Hmm yes. That's the only thing contributing to its visitor drop. Nothing else

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  • [–] 28 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Looks at costs of a flight to Amsterdam. Looks at costs to domestic US.

    Gee I wonder why.

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    [–] 24 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 23 points 7 months ago

    You can milk a cow many times, but you can only slaughter it once.

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  • [–] 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 17 points 7 months ago*

    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.

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  • [–] 18 points 6 months ago

    It's called recession. Soon to be the Second Great Depression.

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  • [–] 18 points 7 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago

    And the fact that most of the support staff are scared to death of ice throwing them in a concentration camp.

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  • [–] 14 points 7 months ago

    They got what they voted for.

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  • [+] 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
    [–] 13 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    So, it's getting worse. There were videos last summer of how empty the Las Vegas Strip was.

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  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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    [–] 13 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago

    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.

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago*

    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.

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  • [–] 8 points 7 months ago

    That's fine, I'm sure billionaires will pick up the tab when all regular people clear out of the Strip.

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