Love the optimism, Mark, but the demand you’re seeing is temporary. It’s a bounce-back following the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, visitation was flat due to increased competition across the country. In many ways, Las Vegas is not indistinguishable from locals casinos across the country, and that “commoditization” should be raising red flags. Vegas isn’t ruined, but it could very well be on the road to ruin.

Well for one people were home with things shut down or heavy restrictions for so long and many people wouldn’t visit until they were vaccinated so pent up demand could be a possibility for the 90% occupancy with room rates in triple digits . Maybe not ,maybe you are correct .But Vital Vegas and other sources have said tourism was down pre- pandemic anyway .
Time as always will tell.
Change can be good or bad and many people having less and less incentive to visit doesn’t sound good . No doomsday trolls .

I love these doomsday trolls! We are at 90% occupancy with room rates in the triple digits and almost every imaginable fee on the tickets… Plus we haven’t even seen the foreign markets hit us yet. Yup, we are surely doomed, I tell you, doomed!!

I’m not a fan of all this change either and I hate all the fees and other crap, but people keep coming because Vegas does the one thing it has always done. Las Vegas evolves. It changes to what the market wants and market needs.

I wish it was that simple, and for a short time it did appear that enough folks were going to get vaccinated to defeat this. Now we are going back to misery, this should have been something we all did together, this notion that vaccinated folks can just chug along like nothing is happening seemed in May of this year to be a possibility…

I for the life of me can’t understand why people are afraid of a vaccine because of potential and unknown side effects or long term effects, but are willing to get a virus that has unknown short term and long term effects (and has killed millions worldwide). It makes no logical sense unless it’s all pure political tribal BS.

I got the vaccine and had nothing more than mild arm soreness for a few hours.

I’m not going to fly to Vegas to play blackjack because they serve free bottles of Bud Light.

But given I have to pay for any beers or cocktails at my home tribal owned casino, which I won’t, Vegas adds value to the experience by serving me comped drinks while playing. That’s not the reason I go to Vegas, but it’s one of the perks of the trip. With plenty of gambling options everywhere I go that’s not a tribal casino (crappy scratch off lottery tickets at every grocery and gas station, and crappy pull tabs at too many bars), Vegas should be reminding me that it’s still the premiere gambling destination in the United States. Instead casinos water down the cocktails to the point that after a night of playing cards, I wonder when they’re going to start serving me a cocktail that has booze in it. Brilliant strategy!

Fun fact! My friend in Iowa was at a casino last night. No problem finding $5 blackjack tables. I get casinos took it in the shorts during the pandemic shut down, as unnecessary as it is. (Wash your hands, everything will be fine.) But expecting everyone to play $25 blackjack isn’t going to pay off in the long run. Perhaps these higher minimums are a result of pent up demand. Once that subsides, casinos will work harder to attract customers. Ha!

If you’re vaccinated, everything is fine. You people act like this thing is still having an impact on most Americans. It’s not. Get a vaccine, live your life.

I agree Mike . I am already having less and less incentive to travel there . Have a lot of nice memories though ! As I can tell you do as well .

Yes ! So true the casinos are bringing the failure upon themselves. My cousin and I were just talking about that the other day.
The virus of course had/has a big part in people staying away and we figure when things get really bad they’ll blame it 100 percent on that when it won’t be entirely true.
It is a sad situation all around .

Very well put, if this is the new normal I will have no incentive to travel to the city I will forever love…