Vegas Rants: Is Sin City Determined To Drive You Away?

59 thoughts on “Vegas Rants: Is Sin City Determined To Drive You Away?”

1. Sam, you are so correct! As a 3 or 4 time yearly visitor to LV since 2008 this year marks the first year I have gone 365 without a trip. The reason being is LV now feels like nothing more than an exercise in fleecing tourists. Gone is anything that was an advantage or bargain to the customer. Everything now feels like a one and done. I believe they want the 3 day tourist that spends everything in their bank acct. and doesn’t come back until they forget the burn and recover financially.

   If/when we go again we will stay at a Station Casino, we really enjoyed Sunset Station and only trek to the strip for sight seeing.

2. Vegas Sun happens to have an article today on Skyline Casino – http://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/oct/11/changing-skyline-hotel-wing-coming-to-old-time-cas/. Coin slots and $5.95 prime rib.

   1. Sadly one of the comments, if true, tells a deeper story:

      JaqueKeno1 6 hours ago
      “Because we’re not changing anything,”

      Except they got rid of old time employees. I know. I was there when employees were bemoaning many had gotten the ax. We stopped going there. I don’t like it when employees get the ax so owners can cut labor expenses and make MORE money. The Skyline was never hurting. They just did what many wealthy people and businesses do to increase profits. Give employees the shaft. Welcome to Corporate America, where the rich exploit the poor.

3. Sadly it will take another downturn for “them bean counters” to feel the pain and roll back the money grubbing scams. Great read and so spot on. It certainly seems like legal pickpocketing by soulless corporations. People have multiple gaming options now. I’m as frugal as it gets and have not hit the point of no return but I do my homework before traveling to Vegas and generally only patronize those who offer fair value. It get more difficult every year to find these places. Thanks again for the well written article.

4. Hear! Hear!

   An article worth sharing on FB, VMB, etc.

5. Don’t forget to mention how going to the pool at any property used to be an escape from gouging, but now you cant get a lounger near the pool without paying ridiculous fees like $75 midweek and $150 weekends oh but that includes 1 bottle of water and lousy Wi-Fi

6. Thank you Sam. Although I’m part of the problem I suppose, because I keep going back. But I LOVED Speed, even at $10 it was a great ride and every year we went up to Sahara just for it. We also miss the French phrases with the translations in the Paris bathrooms, they were funny and there’s no reason to have gotten rid of them other that being uptight. Also, we always come early and last year got the room we wanted but had to pay the early check-in fee. Wtf? The room is READY. What’s the fee for? And whoever decided to tear down Bally’s lovely neon-and-water entrance should be ridden out of town on a rail. So many others I could name, it makes you wonder how long Bellagio can afford to keep its iconic fountains, all that acreage devoted to an expensive attraction that they GIVE away, and doesn’t bring any people actually INTO the resort. Enjoy it now, folks.

7. Great comment by Brandon Powers. LOVE LOVE LOVE Golden Tiki, as well as Frankie’s Tiki Room and The Peppermill Lounge. While we do like staying at the Encore, it’s nice to be able to have choices like the above to get a feel for the “old” Vegas. We also prefer to eat at restaurants off the Strip, because for one, the prices are a LOT cheaper (even Raku is cheap, compared to a comparable restaurant on the Strip), and the experience is different (as in better – less douchebags).

8. I’m a 2 to 3 times a year visitor since 1989. Good read here. I can’t imagine anyone in my age group that could disagree with you. We were the ones dropping good money (to us) over a week long vacation, but the clubs n thugs n tits n ass crowd somehow became more appealing. Remember the stage behind the bar on the west side of Four Queens? Basically Frank Dean Sammy Englebert Tom Nat classics. God I prefer that so much to fat girls in pasties on Fremont. Really, I’m not that old, but I am disgusted with most of the changes I’ve seen. Remember when you felt safe walking down LVBD at 3:00 in the morning with your mom? Rant over. I gotta get back to work and save up some money to drive to the Detroit casinos where thete is less casino competion and better hospitality.

9. Great article

10. I total agree with you. My husband and I only go once a year. I can shop at the mall and see a CVS or Walgreens on every corner here in Oklahoma. I want shows, entertainment and more bang for the buck. What Vegas use to be. Glitz and glamour of the strip and downtown, not someone trying to ring another dollar out of my wallet for nothing. How long before the casinos are more like the beggars on the street that have a bucket or cup pushed in front of you before you can walk in.

11. Las Vegas executives believe that I travel to Las Vegas to spend lots of money. They’re close, but the reason I go is to HAVE FUN spending money. All of the various fees and bad odds mean I have less fun. So I spend less money in Las Vegas, and I explore other vacation destinations that want me to have a good time instead of trying to squeeze every dime out of my wallet as fast as possible.

12. Awesome article! We were just having this conversation on my board! Oh how I miss some of those “old things!”

13. Great article. I come to Vegas for a getaway. But soon there will be nothing to draw me there. I have like most people a casino within a half hours drive. Actually I have 3. My money goes further in each of these casinos than in Vegas. My last two trips to Vegas did not win a thing. The machines just take and take. It gets discouraging fast and then you stop feeding the machine. So they try to get the money out of you another way. I say make the odds better than at the local casino.

14. Thanks, Sam. The de-theming is a real disappointment over the years. Not to mention the resort fees which are then taxed–soon to be higher with the football stadium. Agree with Matt about Bellagio fountains. Throw in the Bellagio conservatory?

15. They keep making all these changes and adding charges. They keep removing the things that always made Vegas exciting and fun. They keep removing the flavor from Las Vegas and it is truly sad. What I don’t understand is why they keep doing it? Is it profitable to keep turning Las Vegas into the beige, flavorless capital of the world? Eventually aren’t people going to get tired of ….beige? I realize rich people will probably always go no matter what changes are made but I always thought it was the average guy, girl, couple that went, that really kept Vegas going. I hate all the changes I mean, do they really need a Walgreens/CVS on every corner? Makes me sad.

16. Long gone are the days of the $99 RT airfare as well. I couldn’t find a flight 6 months out for dates in October for under $500 for a nonstop. If all of the above doesn’t deter the vacationer, the flights will be the straw that broke the camel’s back (pun intended).

    1. Where are you coming from? I found airfare was decent this year.

       If you can stomach it, frontier and others often have some really cheap flights. Allegiant from St. Louis offers plenty of round trips for under $250 (incl. a bag) and SW has had plenty of round trips for under $300.

       Flying to LV, relative to flying to LA, Seattle, Phoenix, NYC, etc. from St. Louis is pretty fair.

17. We used to visit every year since 2002 from Michigan, got married at Flamingo in 05 cuz we loved it so much. we haven’t been since ’14 and are planning a June ’17 trip for a 50th bday celebration. We LOVED the themes, miss the bargains, and HATE the pan handlers! June could very well be our last trip!

18. Great article. I MISS the themes! I MISS the free attractions, cheap eats and FUN! My Speakeasy Swingers play at the Italian American club, built in 1960 and never blown up, and it’s true vintage Vegas! No cover in the lounge, $10 to dance to a 7-piece swing band the first Thursday of every month. Add us to your off-strip locations to check out.

19. Great article, and so unfortunately true, Vegas isn’t as much fun anymore. And I totally agree with the early check in fee… REALLY? Not all of us can make airline arrangements to comply with checking in at the hotel… is it just me or the sooner you check in, you can be out in the casino ?

    1. Why are you paying the early check in fee? Just go check your bags at the bell desk.

20. It’s definitely changing. The cost is challenging to where we are thoughtful about when we go.

    The change from casual quick dining at good cost to expensive fine dining all over is the toughest change for me. I can find the gambling that I want, and I’m not at the age where I want to stay in a flophouse room anymore. It just sucks that you can’t grab a halfway decent sandwich, bag of chips, and a soda in somewhere like Harrahs for $8.

    I’m with you about de-theming of Paris…What Caesar’s has done to that property in the last decade years is criminal. They let the rooms go to hell. They took out the fountains. They put in that god awful club that no one went to. They downgraded the buffet into being worthless. They put in those horrendous restaurants in front. Etc.

21. There has to be a tipping point somewhere. There just has to be. I will always love Vegas because it is so much different than home, but I really do miss a lot of things that have gone away since my first trip in 2001. It’s too bad downtown is following the Strip’s lead in resort fees (ahem, Freemont Street Experience fee), lack of service and cutback of comps. Now when I go, I have my few things that I MUST do but don’t really bother going off my beaten path because there is nothing new and unique to see. It’s sad.
    While I much prefer the Barbary Coast to the Cromwell, remember it was going to be the Gansevoort. Glad we dodged that one.
    #Viva

22. As a visitor from ‘across the pond’ I applaud this article, moneygrabbing corporations are killing the place with their ‘resort fees’ and fees for just about everything except breathing! I adore Vegas, I’m fascinated with it’s history and love the madness of the place along with the beautiful scenic spots we can escape to less than an hour out of town. We usually come over for 4 or 5 weeks and tour round. This last trip we stayed in San Diego, Yuma, Sierra Vista, Tucson, Cottonwood, Flagstaff, Gallup, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Monument Valley and 9 days in Vegas to finish. Absolutely NOWHERE else on our itinerary charged ‘resort fees’ and every place had free in room wifi as standard and also a pool. 2 years ago we stayed at the Stratosphere, planned to stay there again this time but found out that the fees had DOUBLED in that time! Absolutely crazy, so I found the old but lovely no resort fees Royal Resort and booked in there. Totally the right choice and the Strat missed out on our money. Noticed a lot more homeless people sleeping on the Strip than last time which makes me sad. Food prices have shot up too and I’d like to know why we can get a foot long sub from Subway in Santa Fe for $7.25 but it’s over $12 in Circus Circus? Dennys prices however seem to be the same as elsewhere thankfully. Saw Vegas The Show and was charged $10 for 2 small bottles of water, that’s even higher than at a London West End Theatre! I’ll always love Vegas and will continue to visit provided I can find places to stay that don’t charge resort fees and reasonably priced places to eat. I only have a certain amount of money to spend and I will choose to spend it in establishments that charge fair and reasonable prices. If everyone did the same then those rip off joints would soon get the hint!

23. I can remember a time, and it does not really seem that long ago, where you would actually see slot attendants paying slot machine jackpot hand pays. Players would gather around the winner and offer congratulations.I cannot remember seeing a single hand pay jackpot for at least 2 years. As much as I enjoy going to Vegas, and dream of hitting a jackpot, the idea of actually winning is becoming just that, a dream.

24. This article is spot on! I’ve been coming to Vegas 1-2 times per year since 1995, and used to love cruising up and down the Strip just to see what changes occurred in between my trips. Now it’s rare that I even set foot on the Strip — prices are outrageous and the fees charged are beyond ridiculous, and I fear that Downtown will soon be more of the same. The people will still come (at least for awhile), but, keep going on the path on which Vegas is now headed, and say bye-bye to the tourists. Nobody wants to go to the desert just to be ripped off. Bring back the production shows, the 3:2 blackjack and the cheap eats…that’s what brought many of us out there in the first place!

25. Corporations run it all……..unlike the GOOD FELLAS of the good old days.

26. Sam,

    Great article.   I can’t express how much I agree with your sentiments.   The continued fleecing of the average middle class Vegas visitor has become an increasing annoyance over the years.  

    Throughout my life, Vegas has always been a vacation destination.  As kid, in the 80s, I loved being dumped in the incidental arcade stashed in the back of the casino floor.  During my 20s, Vegas was still in its family friendly mode, which I can appreicate wasn’t some of the hardcores favorite era, but I very much enjoyed it, especially when having a young family.  The evolution to the current “What Happens in Vegas” Era has also been a lot of fun, but over the past few years we have seen it become “How much can we squeeze out of you” Vegas.

    With the introduction of MGM’s resort fees, restaurant consession fees, and paying for parking/valet, I have had enough.  It’s not that I couldn’t afford the nickel and diming, it is the fact I hate that the casinos think so little of their average customers by basically extorting them.  

    On average, we would vaction in Vegas 4-6 times a year (exclusively on the Strip).  Over the past couple of years it has become 2-3 times a year.  This year, I have refused to vaction in Vegas.  In the future, if I get the urge, I will only book trips to casios that I feel are trying to buck the current fee driven business model.  I hope more take this approach to remind Vegas that customers make profits not soul-sucking fees.

    I’m sharing this article as much as I can and I hope your readers do also.

    1. Thank you, Scott. Share, shout, and make your friends aware.

27. I miss the mandatory back-off playing smart 3:2 double deck blackjack at the Barbary Coast

    1. Go to El Cortez if you miss it that much – you’ll get it even faster

28. North Las Vegas is the new Vegas… Cannery, Jerry’s Nugget, Silver Nugget… loose machines, cheap eats, cheap rooms at Cannery!

29. we stayed in 3 different hotels in september for a week and didnt see ONE hand pay done on the casino floor…..

30. Great article. So true for me. Used to go to Vegas 4-5 times a year, now it is 2-3. Tired of getting fleeced from the time I got off the plane until I got back on the plane. I go for strictly gambling, and that is not appreciated anymore.

    Really loved the Linq comments “generic exercise in blandness”. I thought I was the only one who felt that way.

31. Stayed at the Mirage last week. Got in late and decided to get a bite at the Carnegie deli. My wife and I each got a half sandwich, small scoop potato salad and a Diet Coke. Bill came to $34.00 plus tip. Not a good first impression.

32. I have a timeshare in Vegas, so I always go once per year. But most years, it’s normally twice. This year was only once. Instead of spending 5 hours in a plane for only a long weekend, I am spending 2 hours in a plane to go to Tampa. When I went to reserve the rental car, I couldn’t believe how few extra fees Alamo charges in Florida compared to those that they charge in Vegas. The fees and taxes only added around 20% to the bill in Florida compared to 50% in Las Vegas.

    For this year’s trip, I probably spent less than 6 hours on the Strip all week. I spent most of my times at places that value me as a customer like Stations, Gold Coast, Orleans, Ellis Island, El Cortez, and California.

33. This will be the first year in 5 years that im not going to LV.

    On my last trip the hotel wanted to charge me when i asked if i could check out an hour late…after i paid full price for my room for 5 days. You want a high floor for your room…thats an added fee. You want a king bed, more fees. You couldnt find any decent blackjack tables for <$50 hand. Wynn has their ridiculous odds at craps. i dont think i even saw anyone get a hand pay at any slot for the full 5 days i was in town. You stick a hundred dollar bill into a slot machine and 5 minutes later its gone. The buffet was $60 per person for mediocre food. I could go on and on and on but you get the picture.

    Im not cheap by any means, but youre just getting ripped off left and right everywhere on the Strip nowadays. No thanks.

34. Thanks Sam……….great article. I, too, have cut way back from my usual 3-4 times yearly trip. I’m REALLY hoping another second time RECESSION in the past 10 years happen so Vegas can fall on it’s knees to, once again, beg customers to patronize the casinos. But that would hurt perhaps, 75% of the customers so maybe not. But you ge the idea.

35. Great article. I used to frequent Vegas with my family when I was a young child. Sure, all I could do was go to Circus Circus, walk around, hit the arcades, but we also watched plenty of free entertainment around the city. I was so amazed with the bright lights and all the city’s “Vegasness.” Now as an adult, I feel like I have missed out on so many things like that Vegas legacy you touched on, the affordable and even free attractions, free parking, and no resort fees. We like to go to Vegas every now and then because it is only 4 hours away and it is an escape; but how I wish Vegas isn’t the overpriced and bland place it has become now.

36. I used to enjoy walking down the strip with my buddies, oggling at all the pretty girls risking a fall or walking into something.
    Now you can’t go 5 feet w/o being accosted by a jagg off dressed like Batman or minion… Or someone trying to sell you their CD… Or night walks w/o stumbling over the bums sleeping on all the transition bridges between the hotels…
    Yeah, um no thanks. I’ll stay local and play at my local Californian Indian casinos for a bit then return to my home ( where the real gouging occurs: property taxes, govt. Taxes, etc)

    1. Ooh, good point. The CD guys, water vendors, costume people, dancers, etc. It’s a pain to get around.

37. I used to visit Vegas every 3-6 weeks. It was my weekend getaway, home away from home. I loved the progress that was made since I was 12 (now 32). Wynn, Sheldon, Bill, and Kirk provided grandiose places or places of diversity. It seemed as though the sky was the limit.
    I will admit I enjoy some of aria’s restaurants and Cosmo’s secret pizza, but it has all become glaringly sleezy. I don’t mean the drunken cartoon characters or the adult cards being passed out. I just feel like the whole VIP experience has been turned into used car sales. I now go stay with friends who live there or stay in hotels where I am still comp’d. For me, it was all down hill after Wynn sold Bellagio (still his best hotel). Wynn is beautiful, but it has air of pretentiousness that is ubiquitous in Vegas now. I like their beds and Sinatra’s is in my top 5 restaurants, but the service in the hotel is just not the same. It’s as if there is a bitterness between the everyday people running the hotel (bless their hearts) and the clientele. The desire to smile and help has been replaced by a worn down sense of simply needing to pay one’s bills.
    Vegas will prevail, I know she will. I refuse to agree with those who say she doesn’t make sense out there in the desert, and that she will look like a scene from an apocalypse movie one day.

38. I miss the days when actual desert separated properties, .99 cent shrimp cocktails, and you could hit the desert inn at 4 am and run into guys straight out of the movie Casino

39. Lets not even talk about the possibility about limited drinks while gambling. that would end it for me,,,,

40. Sammasseur, first let me thank you for the GREAT editing of my submission to the Vegas Bright web site. You truly made it better than it was. Thanks for that. Secondly, I agree with your broader comments wholeheartedly. I think the underlying change is that the powers at be are substituting short term gains for longevity of product. They will soon find out that this strategy is an overall fail. But then again, the people making these decisions today will be long gone by the time this is a realization. We’re all a victim of the “have it now” mentality of the millennial mind set. It is truly a shame that the entire city of Las Vegas will eventually be a victim of this activity. They will find out that they have turned a city into simply a dog chasing its’ tail.

41. And The Mirage has cut room service. Eliminating 300 jobs and opened a 24hr ‘Pantry’. A tactic I suppose to get people out of their rooms into the casino.

    1. This isn’t an LV thing…room service is dying everywhere because almost everyone loses money at it.

42. Totally agree. Moved here in 1957 and grew up in Las Vegas. What they have done with the Strip and especially downtown is like the Galactic Bar scene in Star Wars…For those of us that have lived here a long time have also seen our school system go from one of the top in the Nation to the worst .. Just had to throw that in..Great article Sam!

43. I love Las Vegas we would go four or five times a year now can only afford once or twice a year. Miss the cheap breakfast everywhere and the 99 cent shrimp cocktails. The last time I was there the room was reasonable but the resort was $28 a day for what. I don’t eat at the buffets anymore it is cheaper to eat at a non casino restaurant. MISS old Las Vegas been going there for over 35 years.

44. I have been saying all these things for years. We have been going to Vegas since the late 80’s when our son’s were in college (one got a full scholarship) and we could afford going (from Detroit). We absolutely loved the atmosphere and low prices of meals. Kids were not allowed in a casino at all before the age of 21, we listened to our oldies music and sang along. The coins being put in the machines took longer but we loved it. Caring our little buckets of coins to be cashed in for rolls of coins to put back in was all part of the fun. The machines were loser which gave us so many more hours of fun. In my opinion, the day they decided to make Vegas a “family destination” was the beginning of the end. Who can really afford to gamble their money after all – the “baby boomers” – the retired people that’s who. Sure, the young people love the clubs but how much do they gamble? I honestly don’t car if I ever go back to Vegas but as long as our son lives there we will visit him and gamble at the “local” casinos only. You go Sam and be our voice of distention about the changes for the worse.

45. This is what you get with America’s beloved publicly held corporations. It’s all about the stock price and keeping the investors(who usually don’t know the first damn thing about the operation of the companies they invest in, and particularly the customers they’re trying to attract/keep)happy. Consequently, things wind up being run by pimply-faced MBA punks who know all about business theory and nothing about the real world of living, breathing customers. I, for one, will never set foot on the strip again when I visit.

46. Great article Sam!

    As a longtime visitor (over a decade), and now Las Vegas local I too am disheartened by the many changes for the worse the citys movers and shakers have implemented. Mark my words the next step will be charging an admission fee just to get into the casino. It’s coming folks. No longer will vegas be the place where the hotels ARE the attractions. Because everyone of them will have dethemed, and charged a ridiculous fee to just to enter.

    Having lived here for almost 3 years now I have seen the place I used to love turn into something I can’t even stomach. If I did not live here I wouldn’t visit the city anymore due tot heir outrageous fees for everything they can think of. Downtown USED to be excempt from this but has started to follow the strips lead. This is why I frequently use the phrase “Dpwntown has been stripified” in regular conversations with my fellow Las Vegas lovers.

    My feeling is that the city won’t be happy until they’ve run every last customer off. The only ones still coming will be the ones who say “it’s only money and I’ve got millions to spend” crowd.

47. It’s all gonna go tits up soon, and as much as I love the place and hate to see it, the money men will only have themselves to blame for driving us out.

48. What’s important to appreciate is that most of Vegas’ 40M+ yearly visitors are not Vegas obsessives like us, but are conventioneers and casual travelers. Catering only to us theme junkies may not be in the resorts’ or Vegas’ best interest. Bemoaning the loss of some of our favorite Vegas activities and eateries is understandable, but businesses tend to act on consumer consumption. I’m not saying the suits in charge haven’t made serious flaws in their corporate planning, but people are still buying what they’re selling.

    Further, the loss of these $5 food specials is understandable. One, inflation is a real thing. Two, those frequent specials were essentially subsidized by gambling revenue. As that declined, so does your free meals. I get the argument that poor gaming odds is what is driving gamblers away, which is leading to the decline in the casinos’ hold. But there’s not enough evidence right now to make that claim with 100% certainty. It may be a combination of that and societal sentiment towards gambling in general.

    So, yeah, I’ll be that guy. Vegas is changing. It always has, it always will. From a gambler’s paradise to a family destination to the clubbing capital. We’ll see what happens next. What we know for sure is that some won’t be happy.

49. Wow you are absolutely correct! I miss all those things throw to the curb. I think from now on when I go out Vegas way I will also steer clear of the strip. It is awful what they have done. I miss the tiger pool at the Mirage and corny as they were the Caesars fountain statues. I have been a regular for many years but now I am thinking really? I think it may be time to see the rest of the world. I believe my last trip will be Nov 6th. Thanks for waking me up.. If I go back it will be Sam’s town or the Stations. I am sure there are many places that appreciate my dollars more than MGM or Caesars.

50. And I just thought of something else that is pretty crappy. The Mirage can’t even afford to run the damn Volcano anymore? They cut that way back. I brought my son and daughter in law in February and we never even saw the volcano spew. hmph. yeah pretty disgusted now. For a good example look what has happened to AC. Ghost town.

51. This article sums things up quite nicely and I thank the writer for validating what I have been thinking since 2012. Vegas’ contempt for the gambler, demonstrated by changes to table game rules and tighter slots, has turned off those who provided the town with its easiest revenue. People started gambling less because of the negative gaming changes and that led to spending more money on other things. I started going to LV years ago because of the huge variety of casinos, freebies and gaming options. But now I see most of The Strip as a tourist trap. There are restaurants and a gigantic shopping mall in my town (Destiny USA) and several casinos within 40 miles of home. Most show tours stop close to here, as well. So there’s no compelling reason for me to visit Las Vegas as it currently exists. It’s now an expensive money pit.

52. Great Article!

    Exactly sums up what all of us are thinking.

    For me personally, Vegas started to turn me off after a few things,

    Ridiculous prices for food; lack of friendly customer service: Poor run hotel rooms: Resort fees: and finally the tipping point was MGM parking fees. If your going to increase costs, the overall quality of what you are paying for should increase as well. I don’t care if prices increase but the overall value of what I am receiving should increase as well.

    For most of us, its takes time, effort and planning to get to Vegas, whether if you are driving or flying. These fees and extra costs are more barriers or reasons not to visit but go somewhere else instead.

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