Sahara is offering no resort fee until end of Aug.  Too bad they're very "off strip".

Google maps said the walk from Palazzo to Sahara is 20 mins. It took us 45 mins in the afternoon and non F1 traffic.  Mrs. CMO wasn't happy.

Seems like 2 out of 3 videos out there is focused on Vegas diminishing visitor and profit numbers and how Vegas as a once popular world destination is dying.

 

To the greedy corporate bean counters and executives eager to please their shareholders:

What goes around, comes around, maddah fackahs.

My bird's eye view of the situation is that Vegas and Atlantic City shared monopolies on the Eastern & Western regions of the US for legalized gambling.

Now that they no longer have that distinction, they need to reinvent themselves.  Yeah, the cheap food, free drinks and comped rooms and shows still help, but people can get that elsewhere now.

Until they create new, better niches, trying to squeeze tourists for every nickel and dime is just going to keep them afloat a little longer.

Even though Vegas is changing, and for me it's for the worse, I need to change also.

I need to change how I visit Vegas.  Because as much as I grumble and lament for the Vegas of old, I know it will never come back.

But I still like to go, albeit not as much as I used to.

Here are the things I'm thinking of changing on how I do Vegas:

Stay at a Property that has a lot of amenities:  Dining, entertainment, shopping, and gambling.  Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Resort comes to mind.

Play less live craps and more of those machine bubble craps.  Last trip I've become irritated at the availability of live tables (mgt. refuses to open more tables) and the players with under-funded bankrolls taking up space and not really placing bets.

Play more Video Poker, although after a while this game bores me.

Try Video Keno. 

Include some destination type restaurants for dining.  We usually just eat at buffets, cafes, or food courts.  We should add a nice Italian or American Steakhouse in the mix.

See a show or two.  We used to watch shows but lately the shows on the Strip are not interesting for us as we are older and don't even recognize any of the performers.

But the Off-Strip properties have shows of has-been performers and groups with ticket prices less than astronomical prices.  Those should be fun to watch as these has-beens re-live their glory days.

Rent a car for a day or two.  This one I'm still struggling with.  I hate to drive.  More so in Vegas.  But having a car can enhance your visit.  I still like to visit places like Sam's Town on the Boulder Hwy. and the Orleans.  Also wanted to visit the Durango, a small new casino owned by Stations.

Or maybe do all of the above but at Downtown.  The Plaza has some old-fart shows and I think Four Queens and The D also has some shows.  Instead of camping out at the craps table like I usually do we can visit other casinos.  El Cortez is re-vamping some of their casino areas and maybe we can stay at the Downtown Grand.  I see on YouTube they got some great deals.

We'll see.  All of this is moot if wife and I can't get away from watching the grandkids.....

Even though Vegas is changing, and for me it's for the worse, I need to change also.

I need to change how I visit Vegas.  Because as much as I grumble and lament for the Vegas of old, I know it will never come back.

But I still like to go, albeit not as much as I used to.

Here are the things I'm thinking of changing on how I do Vegas:

Stay at a Property that has a lot of amenities:  Dining, entertainment, shopping, and gambling.  Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Resort comes to mind.

Play less live craps and more of those machine bubble craps.  Last trip I've become irritated at the availability of live tables (mgt. refuses to open more tables) and the players with under-funded bankrolls taking up space and not really placing bets.

Play more Video Poker, although after a while this game bores me.

Try Video Keno. 

Include some destination type restaurants for dining.  We usually just eat at buffets, cafes, or food courts.  We should add a nice Italian or American Steakhouse in the mix.

See a show or two.  We used to watch shows but lately the shows on the Strip are not interesting for us as we are older and don't even recognize any of the performers.

But the Off-Strip properties have shows of has-been performers and groups with ticket prices less than astronomical prices.  Those should be fun to watch as these has-beens re-live their glory days.

Rent a car for a day or two.  This one I'm still struggling with.  I hate to drive.  More so in Vegas.  But having a car can enhance your visit.  I still like to visit places like Sam's Town on the Boulder Hwy. and the Orleans.  Also wanted to visit the Durango, a small new casino owned by Stations.

Or maybe do all of the above but at Downtown.  The Plaza has some old-fart shows and I think Four Queens and The D also has some shows.  Instead of camping out at the craps table like I usually do we can visit other casinos.  El Cortez is re-vamping some of their casino areas and maybe we can stay at the Downtown Grand.  I see on YouTube they got some great deals.

We'll see.  All of this is moot if wife and I can't get away from watching the grandkids.....

The last part is funny. We only go when my parents can babysit our daughter since you cannot gamble with a toddler next to you. So I gotta broker a deal for us to go.  Same goes with range days.

We just got a MGM credit card.  What this allows is automatic pearl status and it's main benefit is free pakring at all MGM properties.  We always rent a car and sometimes go a day or 2 without even using it. It's nice to have as we do go off strip a lot and now with the MGM card, we don't have to walk from Palazzo to Cosmo anymore.  But during F1, it would be better to walk.

We enjoy the strip as it's a vacation.  RR and GVR are nice but it's main downside is there's no other casino in walking distance. So if the tables are cold, then you have no other optios.  Also, the on property is OK.  But on the strip, you can just walk next door to get diff food.

We enjoy Palazzo/Venetian. They have $15 tables during the day, but at night it's hit or miss at $25.  I haven't been to GVR at night for a while, what are their table mins?

On property has lots of good dining:

Tao
Spicy tuna on crispy rice
Black garlic butter steak
Lobster wonton w/mushroom broth are our favs.

Chipotle at the food court

A new food hall

Sushi Samba has many good dishes.

Also, they're generous on room comps. 

In Sept, Wynn is no longer allowing employees to wear mask, unless they have a doctors note. So returning back to "old Vegas" 1 policy at a time.

Something interesting has been happening.  Many videos show that Vegas isnt' as busy people wise like how it was before the price increases or precovid.  But the casino corporations say that they're doing fine.  This is based of their numbers that are within the margin of less revenue. But yet, they're laying workers off.

Another sign that shows the casinos are out of touch with the people is that they are doing summer specials now. The no resort fees, all inclusive packages, etc...They needed to do this way in advance as people already booked and planned their summer vacations 6 months in advance.  So they're marketing to those who didn't have any summer plans, thus limited their market once again.

With F1 construction starting again in October, they are still behind in executing any plans to bring people in.  The Vegas tourism authority is spending millions on marketing. IMO, this is a scam, people aren't coming because the lack of knowledge that Vegas exist, but the high prices.  So they have to work with all the casinos to limit/reduce prices.

Something interesting has been happening.  Many videos show that Vegas isnt' as busy people wise like how it was before the price increases or precovid.  But the casino corporations say that they're doing fine.  This is based of their numbers that are within the margin of less revenue. But yet, they're laying workers off.

That is interesting.  I wouldn't know squat as to how to run businesses but I guess like you said the numbers they crunched are working.

I do know employees are a business's highest expense.  I did notice more robot things in the restaurants, lol!

And I definitely know those asshats don't open more table games, even though it's obvious there are many patrons waiting to play.  Last trip there were so many people wanting to play craps but mgt. didn't open more tables.  The worst was NYE and the casino was packed but they still only had only one table open.

I think it's really chicken sh*t when patrons travel to Vegas in hopes of enjoying their vacation and they can't do what they went there for.  Whether it is playing in their favorite casino or eating out at restaurants that were once 24/7 but now open only on certain days or hours.

Maybe catering only to the affluent and elite is the way to go.  I guess it keeps out the ghetto people and leaves the mid-tier people with nowhere to go.

A layoff is just one way a business -- any kind of business -- shows they are serious about cutting costs in order to maintain their profit margin.  That helps attract and keep investors.

In March, Amazon announced they were laying off 14,000 managers as a cost-savings move.  They kept almost 92,000 managers, so I'm sure they are fine.  There stock price was on a downward trend Jan-Apr, then before may, it reversed and is almost back where it peaked in early Feb.  Cuts in management were just one category of cost savings.  I guess investors like that.

If you piece together what's happening around the country with the casino/hotels cutting staff, one has to wonder if they can no longer hire a largely Hispanic workforce?  Are the workers afraid to show up?  Is the business trying to avoid penalties for employing so many undocumented workers?  just curious if this factors in at all.  If it were my decision, I'd be careful not to waste company funds on legal fees and fines just to cheap out on labor cost by hiring illegals.

That is interesting.  I wouldn't know squat as to how to run businesses but I guess like you said the numbers they crunched are working.

I do know employees are a business's highest expense.  I did notice more robot things in the restaurants, lol!

And I definitely know those asshats don't open more table games, even though it's obvious there are many patrons waiting to play.  Last trip there were so many people wanting to play craps but mgt. didn't open more tables.  The worst was NYE and the casino was packed but they still only had only one table open.

I think it's really chicken sh*t when patrons travel to Vegas in hopes of enjoying their vacation and they can't do what they went there for.  Whether it is playing in their favorite casino or eating out at restaurants that were once 24/7 but now open only on certain days or hours.

Maybe catering only to the affluent and elite is the way to go.  I guess it keeps out the ghetto people and leaves the mid-tier people with nowhere to go.

Casino business has multiple revenue sides. Gaming, rooms, retail, food, etc...So the numbers I mention reflects gaming only.

I talked to some bartenders at hot clubs and tips precovid would be like $700 a night on average.  $400 for a slow night.  Today, it's like $45 avg.  PRecovid, all tables were sold out, those tables that cost $40K to use.  Now, they cannot give them away and many still sit empty.  And the ones that are comp'd, the people don't tip based of the $40K cost of the table. So the waitresses hate when they have to service a comp'd table to a non-high roller.

Tao Group who was 1 big corp for clubs/bars laid off a lot of people a few months ago.

So the gaming side makes good money, all other areas not so much.  Re-read my F1 and tips and how only the high end gaming casinos made money. All else didn't make squat.

Saw a vid on DanVsWorld and he was on Fremont st at 5pm on a Saturday and it was empty. Usually it's shoulder to shoulder of people.  Even he said Vegas is dead.  This was end of July.

If you piece together what's happening around the country with the casino/hotels cutting staff, one has to wonder if they can no longer hire a largely Hispanic workforce?  Are the workers afraid to show up?  Is the business trying to avoid penalties for employing so many undocumented workers?  just curious if this factors in at all.  If it were my decision, I'd be careful not to waste company funds on legal fees and fines just to cheap out on labor cost by hiring illegals.

I haven't looked in to this, but a few people have said that instead of coming to Vegas to gamble, people are playing at their local casino's instead.  I'm not gonna compare gaming revenue from 2024 to now for this.  But it would show they're correct if revenue did increase by a lot % wise from 2024.

I wonder how Hawaii's people would affect Vegas numbers if we had legalized gambling in Hawaii.

I know they would kill the Boyd properties Downtown.

I wonder how Hawaii's people would affect Vegas numbers if we had legalized gambling in Hawaii.

I know they would kill the Boyd properties Downtown.

All the trips i've been since covid, I have noticed downtown has way less HI people.  In 2021 & 2022, I was the only person at the craps table at Fremont.  I've never seen no one playing craps at Fremont before.  Time of day doesn't matter.

Then I thought about it, it was often the retiree's/grandparents who would go often and I wondered if they're still alive as the old are more high risk once catching covid.  I haven't seen those grandpa craps players who had a chair and stacks of green chips in their rack for a very long time.

So we can imagine this x50 if HI had a casino.

In the 90's, 50% of Vegas tourist came for gambling.  And about 90% of tourist gambled in some way.  The casinos revenue, 75% came from gaming.

In 2024, 7% of tourist came for gambling. 78% gambled in some way. 40% of revenue came from gaming.

I was thinking about how I don't see as many people walking the strip anymore.  I theorized that maybe higher end players don't walk.  Which would make sense as the outfits people wear you see while walking the strip are very different from the ones higher limit gamblers are wearing in the casino.

Despite casino's claiming just a slight loss every month and don't worry, lots of people being laid off from dealers to wait staff.  I can imagine lower end casinos like Excalibur are losing much more every month.

Then there are those who are blaming Trump due to less international people coming. That is 1 market that has gone down, but they're leaving out the outrageous pricing and fees.  I'll bet that these people often don't keep up with what's happenign in Vegas and just read the fake news headlines.

F1 is coming up soon so expect less to go in Oct and December.

Interesting 2A note, NV passed a law a few years ago that any firearm transfer had to go through a FFL, excluding immediate family members.  So if you want to have a friend hold a firearm while you're moving, they have to go through a FFL.  Even if the gun will remain in a locked case that your friend doesn't have the key to.  Some could argue that this isn't a "transfer", but if the gun were to be stolen and used in a active shooting, you can bet the NV AG will come down hard on you.

So any military members leaving for training for a few weeks/months cannot have a friend watch over their guns either, unless a FFL background check is used.  Then when you reclaim your guns, another FFL background check has to be done on you so you can reclaim possession.

You don't need to watch the video.  But try reading the comments below the video.  Seems like they are all blaming Trump because of the tariffs and global squabbling that soured relations.

Seems like most of the commenters are sad because there are no bidens, kamalas, or tim walz's in their lives.

Vegas is dying because of greed.  Fix it and they will come.

You don't need to watch the video.  But try reading the comments below the video.  Seems like they are all blaming Trump because of the tariffs and global squabbling that soured relations.

Seems like most of the commenters are sad because there are no bidens, kamalas, or tim walz's in their lives.

Vegas is dying because of greed.  Fix it and they will come.

I know some who are Canadians and their government put a travel alert to the US. Travel alerts are for stuff like terrorism, natural disasters, war, etc...They're not for 1 cuck disagreeing with Trump.

The Canadians are being used as pawns. IDK if other countries have done the same. 

Then there are a few who are afraid of being arrested by ICE. Again, a fake news fear spread.  If you're here legally on vacation, then you have nothing to worry about.

But anyway, this is another market that Vegas has lost. So lets tally:

Chinese market
Lower income market
Middle income market
Retiree market
International market
Convention market

All but the international market are the Casino's faults.

I like watching this guys video content.  Only because he has that uncanny ability to tune out everything and everybody while doing his content.

Half the fun is watching people watching him while he is oblivious to their stares.

The best is when he is talking while going down the escalator and the lady behind him steps forward to the step right behind him, as if trying to get him to hurry up and walk down the moving escalator.

Yet he stands there and goes yada yada yada, while she can literally suck wind.

He had some decent vids, but his last few were "what ifs". I think hes running out of new content.

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