Gambling revenue in Las Vegas dropped over 15% in May of 2008, which was the largest monthly drop in ten years.

I don’t care how the casinos and the LVCVA (Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority) will try to polish the turd, but that is just bad.

LVCVA said that despite the drop in revenue, we had an .4% increase in tourism.

However, when the LVCVA presented their numbers, it showed that airline passengers at McCarran dropped 5%, and tourists arriving by vehicle dropped 6%.

You know what that means?

People are now walking to Las Vegas in record numbers. At least according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Perhaps that is why people aren’t gambling as much.

Personally, I always play fewer hands of 6:5 Blackjack after a three day walk across the desert in 115 degree heat.

Seriously, if you weren’t suspicious of the numbers that this acronym agency puts out before, then you should be now.

Travel by every metric is down across the board, yet our public relation’s arm wants you to believe that somehow tourists beam themselves here like some bad episode of Star Trek.

I have been reporting from the streets of this town, and I have been telling folks that I have seen a drastic change for at least the last 6 months. And I have been lambasted for doing so.

“You’re bad for tourism!”, “Stop telling people things are bleak.”, etc, etc.

But the fact is, your ire is misplaced.

I never, ever, advocated shitty odds, rising prices, and diminishing service. I have fought it tooth and nail, so you can hardly blame me for merely exclaiming that the emperor wears no clothes.

When he puts them back on, I will be the first one screaming to the high heavens that the town is back and badder than ever.

But that is not what is happening right now.

The corporations continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

The MGM cancelled a bunch of reservations recently, for no other reason than people got a good deal on the rooms.

And we wonder why people aren’t coming.

We (and by “we” I mean the town) treat the average tourist like complete and utter shit.

If I didn’t live here, I wouldn’t come either.

I hang out on The Strip because I can take the shoe leather express or hop the monorail for $1 … but at this point, my ass would not wait two hours to go through security, hop on an overpriced flight, then get long-hauled by cab to a casino for the privilege of playing Video Poker with stripped-down odds.

Why would anyone?

Sure, there is much more to do here than gamble, but let’s face it, gambling is the main draw … followed by service … followed by value.

The argument can be made that value is coming back (by force), but odds and service still suck.

For crying out loud, we had a party of 30 at the Rio Voodoo lounge last month, and they treated us like utter shit.

You would think they would have shrieked in delight when over two dozen vocal members of a website showed up on their doorstep. That was free advertising dropped squarely in their lap. Actually, it wasn’t free at all. We paid to advertise the place.

How many freaking banner ads could they have bought with the cash that was dropped in the place on that night?

It was a golden opportunity to treat people well, and get some good publicity.

But no, instead, I got repeatedly punched in the back by a short, aging busboy when I would get up and speak to people (apparently I was blocking his way and “excuse me” was insufficient), so I got kidney punched throughout the night. The waiters acted like they were doing us a fat fucking favor by taking our orders, and I was kicked off the silly stripper pole for simply trying to have fun with our guests.

They added a fat gratuity on the check, and one of our people accidentally tipped on top of the pre-added tip.

I guess when you know you are getting a gratuity for large parties, it takes all of the incentive out of it.

Next time we will get individual checks, no more of that “large party pre-tip” shit.

Without exception, everyone in the group has said that they will not return to Voodoo lounge.

How are you going to draw people back like that?

Our group delivered 30 people to the Rio on a silver platter that they could have impressed enough to come back, and they dropped the ball completely.

Now, there is nothing but ill-will, and those 30 people know at least 30 other people. Bad news travels fast.

Las Vegas is simply making very little effort to correct its shortcomings, and in my opinion, the entire wound is self-inflicted.

I have never seen a tourist town bend over backward to fuck their bread and butter like this town has, and now they (or rather the shareholders and employees) are being made to lie in the bed they made.

It’s not my fault. I would have done it differently.

So all of you out of town pundits, prognosticators, and self-appointed “Vegasphiles” can kiss my hairy beanbag.

The majority of you simply aren’t here 24/7 to see what is going on , and reading the Review Journal all damn day, and cruising casino websites ad-nauseum doesn’t make you any more “in the know” than anyone else with a web browser.

I don’t care what all of the commercial websites tell you, the vibe of the town has changed. There are obviously fewer people, and the atmosphere is obviously more subdued than last year.

I never publish long reader emails, but I got one about a month ago from a fellow local. I don’t know the guy, and never got around to responding to him, but it’s actually fairly insightful, so I will strip the identifying info from it and post it.

Whether or not you agree with it, the quality and detail of the email really does deserve a wider audience than my own personal inbox.

I don’t know that I agree with 100% of it, but it I think many legitimate points are made.

And since I am stripping his identifying information, it means that I will get the hate mail for someone else.

What can I say, I’m a glutton for punishment.

XXX wrote:

Hey Rex…..I am an RSS subscriber through Google Reader. I read every post and
the vast majority of them make my day. Your wit, humor and yes even the
construction photos are much appreciated. You see I live in far West Las
Vegas. I might go down to the strip once or twice a year. I avoid highways
except the 215 between W. Flamingo and Charleston to go to Red Rock. I venture
out to Silverton and South Point via Rainbow and Blue Diamond and even hit the
Hilton for the buffet via cross streets.

And I am not alone. I have many associates who never go east of the strip.
And Nellis, which should be renamed “Street of Death” is avoided at all cost!

So thanks to you, I can watch the new projects in Vegas rise in air conditioned
comfort without the danger of being taken out by some lunatic driving while
liquored up with coke and meth on board while walking the strip.

Your blog has great value to locals and tourists alike.

As a retired hotel salesman and hotel market analyst, there is no doubt that
very hard times are ahead for the employees of the existing hotels as well as
the companies which operate them.

City Center is the biggest blunder yet. When it opens MGM Grand will be a
tomb. It was never an attractive place anyway. Most of their clientèle will
gravitate to the new property. Everyone I know in Las Vegas avoids MGM Grand.

Boyd Gaming is currently in the process of committing suicide with Echelon
Place. Do you know how many office complexes across this country are called
Echelon Place or Echelon Center, I have been in dozens, there is one in very
major city. Ho hum……did they pay a marketing company to develop that
name? Five hotels rather than a central casino with five towers is a marketing
disaster. When you give people who are unfamiliar with the project that many
choices, they are going to opt for something they know about. Their reservation
agents will hear, “I’ll call you back” more than anything else. And Boyd does
not have the marketing muscle to compete with Harrahs and MGM Mirage. And they
are doing this on $4 billion line of credit? So that means the interest will be
nearly $400 million per year plus all of the operating expenses. Do they have a
short memory or what? South Coast (South Point) nearly bankrupted them until
they unloaded it, a fraction of the size of Echelon.

And on it goes, this town cannot absorb 32,000 new rooms with even more planned
beyond that.

So consider what is going to happen. The new hotels are not going to hire the
older experienced employees primarily because it will run up their health care
plan expense. And tourists want to see a hot youthful staff.

So these new properties will staff up with young people that will move in from
other states and the older properties will continue scaling down as they lose
business to the newer hotels and many will close. Unemployment in Las Vegas
will be at staggering levels after 2010.

The gas crises is not going away and with the airline industry losing $12
billion last year and losses mounting daily, many more carriers will be
shutting down.

My younger brother has been with Southwest Airlines for 29 years. He is a
Senior Financial officer and he told me two months ago that Southwest had cut
15% of its Las Vegas service with more to follow. Their load factors on Vegas
flights just keep dropping, especially night flights. That is a signal that
visitors who come here to gamble for 18 - 24 hours and never get a room is
dropping rapidly.

How many people can afford to drive here on a three day weekend lark? This
town operates on volume, taking a little over $330 in gaming revenue from the
average visitor.

Look at the high rise condo market. If you saw the market report issued last
week, an average of 20 units per month were sold for the past three months.
With 4,800 units vacant and ready for occupancy, that is a 31.5 year supply!
Now add the 12,750 units that are in various stages of construction and you
have a total disaster. Buyers who have been under contract prior to projects
breaking ground must get an appraisal of the unit to get a mortgage. $4
million units are now appraising at less than $700,000 on the average.

Trump Tower has only closed 15% of the units, with buyers dropping out or in a
standstill because they units will not appraise for anything near the contract
price. Buyers under contract are demanding renegotiation or they are suing to
break the contract. Cash buyers are rare at best.

Everything you said about Trump Tower was dead on. It is one of the most ill
conceived projects in Las Vegas in a horrible location. Nice, but boring. You
might as well stay at a similar hotel on the Pacific Ocean for less money.

So, some high rise condos which are not owned by public companies will file
bankruptcy after completion and be shuttered. Who is going to pay the
utilities and operating costs? Who is going to pay the debt service on the
unsold units? When the developer goes belly up, the hand full of condo owners
who occupy the building can either split the bills or just split. When they
find out their share will be $40,00 - $50,000 per month, they will be gone in a
flash.

Sorry to be so negative but this is the big picture and the facts are in to
support this projection. I would love to be a fly on the wall in these hotel
management company board rooms. They should put a diving board off The
Stratosphere and sell tickets.

And finally there is the decimation of slot payouts. The slots on the strip
have always been bad, and now they are getting worse. The hotels which cater
to locals have tightened the machines to the point that it is virtually
impossible to win any money. Been to The Palms after 9 p.m. lately? It is a
ghost town unless there is a major event in the hotel. I used to play there
all night and take home cash. I quit going not only because the machines have
become a one way street, but you can’t find a cocktail waitress for love or
tips. I resorted to bringing a large bottle of water or getting a large drink
from McDonalds. Pitiful!

I could write for hours about how much has changed in this town just over the
past 24 months and very little of it is good. Don’t get me started on the
buffets, dear GOD!

The hotels are soon going to learn that raping the people who frequent their
establishments to make up for the drop off in customers will send them into a
death spiral. It seems everyone has forgotten the golden rule and most
importantly the principle of volume takes care of everything.

Please write me anytime. I wish there were more bloggers with your creative
writing skills.

All the best,
XXX

Come to think of it, I need to write this guy back.

He just wrote half of my article today.