Caroline wrote on February 21, 2008 06:00 PM: I was just in Vegas for a training session for my company. I found the slots to be very tight and th gaming tables to be very costly. The food is so pricey that the average working stiff can not afford Vegas.Everyone is to greedy. All the slots are high tech and if you do not play the max bet you never win,even if you play max you never win.Greed is not good.

Get Real wrote on February 15, 2008 02:09 AM: STEVE -- By the way -- how do you explain Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, Pala, the Seminole Hard Rock and the multiple other Indian Casinos that have turned into huge mega-resorts? Steve, Kirk and Sheldon had nothing to do with those. In other words, if they did not do it in Las Vegas, somebody else would have.

You should get out more.

Get Real wrote on February 15, 2008 02:04 AM: Great Journalism! Our school system is doing surveys on where the budget cuts should go --- http://ccsd.net/budgetSurvey.php?s=3 and you write up a sob story on guys who have more shares then what is spent on improving the schools to get them out of the gutter.

"Spokesmen for Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands did not return calls for comment. Gordon Absher, a spokesman for MGM Mirage, said the company doesn't discuss the holdings of its shareholders."

Are you kidding me? Why don't you write about something that would mandate a comment? Are you afraid that advertising would be pulled?

And for anybody who says that they do plenty for Las Vegas by providing "jobs" -- well duh! You have to hire people to operate a casino to make billions. The favor is being done for them by having the lowest taxes on the earnings then any state I know of.

David B. wrote on February 07, 2008 08:36 PM: Maybe Wayne Newton can host a telethon to help out the three billionaires. I hear they have to shop at Target now!

David Johann wrote on February 07, 2008 08:21 PM: In response to Steve below, thanks. Most people do not, and are not, capable of making difficult decisions like the ultra-privileged owners of ultra-privileged gaming licenses. Boy, that is so-o-o-o hard.

But we know even idiots can run casinos and make a ton of money. Look at the former Barbary Coast (now Bill's).

I remember what I heard about a young Mr. Wynn at the Golden Nugget in the early 80's. He was constantly running across the street to pick Jack's (Binion's) brain.

So a privileged elite have learned how to market gambling (Benny B. taught Jack, Jack taught Steve) and the rest of us are "whiners."

Wanna know who whined the most. Steevarino when the Wynn dealers recently unionized.

Steve wrote on February 07, 2008 07:25 PM: J - You are wasting your time, bud. Most of the people that respond to these can't see beyond the tip of their own noses. If it wasn't for Steve, Sheldon or Terry there probably wouldn't be the modern Las Vegas that we see today. We could through Bennett (RIP) and Boyd in the mix and we would have 5 pillars of the Las Vegas community. The amount of wealth outside of their own that these men have created not only for themselves, but the city and their employees goes forgotten... It is easier to whine than to take risks and make difficult decisions. Therefore, the whiners will always scrape bottom and those who take risks build wealth and employ the whiners...

David Johann wrote on February 07, 2008 07:04 PM: Juxtaposing these greedhead's net worth with the non-elite's 401k's achieves what the RJ must do: sell papers by generating controversy.

If the RJ were truly libertarian, instead of libertarian for Sherman Frederick's rich friends, then they'd be chiming-in for the opportunity for EVERYONE to be able to have a gaming license, not just the elites.

Wynn, Adelson, and Kevorkian have licenses to steal. Why? Because the vast majority of gamblers have ZERO knowledge of the law of averages, believing that luck, and luck alone, determines their fate. At the same time the casinos offer every seduction in the book: "free" booze, flashy lights, naked women, to short circuit rational thinking.

And they whine about paying more for public education.

J wrote on February 07, 2008 07:00 PM: And regarding the "tip issue": Tips are considered wages by the Federal Government. Many tip earners steal from their fellow Americans by underreporting their tips.

So, what about the honest tip earners? Because tips = wages, the business must then pay a share of taxes on income that NEVER CROSSES their cash drawer. Mitigation of this tip issue is one of the biggest costs associated operating a tip-based service business.

Wynn has done more with almost nothing than most of the people in America, let alone the crybabies here.

Times have been tough since OCTOBER. Wow ... six whole months of "tough times." You folks are S-O-F-T.

J wrote on February 07, 2008 06:52 PM: PS - I drive a 25 year old car that I bought eight years ago for $5000. Let's take a look at the fiscal choices of the "struggling" spoiled masses.

J wrote on February 07, 2008 06:45 PM: The world I live in: I worked two jobs to put myself through college. My wife did the same. I took care of my finances. I ate noodles from a cup to buy my first house. I leveraged my time to launch a business while I was working 50 hours a week somewhere else. I launched that business with a $1500 loan from my then-boss.

I leveraged that loan, my business, my good fiscal management, and my hard work into an SBA loan to open a second storefront, and I employ people who wouldn't work anywhere else. I train them well, work my a$$ off, pay them well, they get good benefits, and half of them bought their first house before 25 -- seven years before me.

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