Is Las Vegas the Next Detroit?

We were supposed to read the blurb?

 

They're still free if you're playing, but it is not a good way to get drunk. The drink service can be incredibly slow and cocktail waitresses can be impossible to find, I assume by design. I imagine things work a little more smoothly in the high roller areas.

 

I went a couple weeks ago (Orleans) and will be going again in a week (Bally's). That has become pretty typical for me, couple times a year. It's a four-hour drive.
Drinks at the tables are hit and miss, you can wait and wait sometimes, other times they'll bring it and be back before you've even taken a sip. The Rio used to publicize itself as having the best drink service in Vegas. I can remember that being true, but it probably isn't anymore. I don't do the sportsbooks so I don't know what the drink situations are at those.
If I am going to complain about anything, it probably would be the price of food. I think somebody decided: they don't gotta gamble, but they do gotta eat. Thus, the prices are jacked.
But the real ripoff is if you buy drinks. They are mega-expensive. Get a players card, sit at the bar, put $10 or $20 in video poker, get a free drink, then cash out and go do what you want.

 

Rio was a great spot, until Harrah's took it over, when it of course went directly to shit, and do not collect $200.

Paying directly for liquor in a Vegas casino in a non-restaurant setting is beyond insane.

 

Despite some of the obvious staging and the sustained fixation on ancient weapons, it remains one of the most entertaining shows on cable . . . but if I ever had to pawn something in Vegas and Corey was the only guy at the counter, I'd turn around and walk right out.

 

I think that Reno is cooked as a gambling center is a settled question. Gaming revenue is back to 1991 levels and has declined by a third in the last ten years.

 

. . . another problem being that air service is more problematic -- and expensive -- than previously.

 

I am 27 and have been to Vegas approximately ten times in my life, however, I've only gone once in the past 3 or so years. I only went on my most recent trip because my girlfriend invited me to go with her family.

Vegas is completely and totally overbuilt on the strip, yet the prices seem to remain artificially high. I like to think of myself as a bit of a Vegas guru, but I was shocked when I saw The Cosmopolitan hotel/casino. There's this giant new hotel/casino and I didn't even know that it was being built. Then, you have the albatross that is the MGM City Center. If there's anything that's threatened to take Vegas down, it's City Center.

On my most recent trip, I paid $40 for a cover charge at a Vegas club (would have never done this, but everyone else in our party wanted to), $9 for a Miller Lite once I got in the club, and $20 for a Denny's quality breakfast at MGM Grand the next morning. It's just getting to the point where it's all a huge rip off.

Luckily, I'm not a snob and don't have to be around young people, so I still love the downtown Vegas experience. I will stay downtown for $20 a night and have a blast playing at places like Golden Gate and the Plaza.

 

Dools nailed it for me. I was there last July (first time since 1999, my first trip was in 1989) and couldn't believe how expensive everything was. We stayed at the Monte Carlo, on the advice of a fellow SportsJournalists.commer, and that was a great choice, got a decent rate off Expedia, pools were great for Huggy Jr. and the missus and the location was good.

But the restaurants were overpriced and the booze prices larcenous. They may have moved on from chasing families, but there were loads of people with kids there but precious few people gambling.

It's certainly a place to see once in your lifetime - and for a lot of people a place to be seen - but you better be a comped high roller or a frat boy or hipster type with money and energy to burn to make a regular habit out of it.

Friend of mine goes every January for a week-long construction trade show and he said there are booze bargains to be found. I'll take his word for it, it was never that much work in the old days.

 

This is a pretty good resource:

http://www.cheapovegas.com/

 

As long as male Americans still misunderstand Nevada prostitution law, Vegas will be fine.

 

Has anyone ever used Priceline or Hotwire for Vegas?

I use it one in while, and always look for 4-Star properties. (Stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee on Friday night for $60.)

Last time I went to Vegas, I used it and got the Trump Hotel. The hotel was fine, but there's no casino, the pool was small, and it's a little off the strip.

Has anyone ever gotten a good casino/hotel using them?