Fair and Balanced Fred wrote on June 05, 2009 06:49 PM: The article writer states: "Luck, not the economy, sunk Nevada’s gaming industry in April."

Is the writer high on Oxycontin?

casinocon wrote on June 05, 2009 06:22 PM: Norbert, I live in Las Vegas and I agree with you, the resort fee is total B.S. You should file a class action lawsuit, it worked for getting Casino/Resort to stop charging energy surcharges (yep, I got stuck with one of those, and I told the desk clerk that I would pay it if the Sahara turned off their neon signs from 3-8am. I mean really, charging a customer for the Casino's excessive signage use is ridiculous. Just up the price of the room slightly, don't charge a "resort fee" for an icky hotel like Palace Station (maybe, charge an O.J. fee and let folks tour the scene of the crime). It is a total joke.

Norbert wrote on June 05, 2009 05:40 PM: As a former out-of-state visitor, I rarely come to Vegas anymore. The thing that bugs me the most is the hidden "resort fee". When you book online, you think you have paid in full for your hotel stay. However, when you check out, you find resort fees due in the neighbor of $25, $19.95, and even $5, at the M, Station, and Coast casinos. This is a ripoff and leaves a very bad taste in the mouth of the visitors. Sure, we can afford it, but it seems they are playing dishonest with us, no matter how they try to justify it with free local phone calls, etc. If we can't trust them to quote a honest price when we make a reservation, how can we trust them when they say the have fair games of chance in their casinos. As always, it seems they are trying to nickle and dime us to death, from the moment we arrive at the airport and rent a car until we board the plane to depart. Are all Vegas residents of this mind set?

Bill wrote on June 05, 2009 04:47 PM: I agree with Whatever. The casinos hold may be down but from my experience I found high table limits and very poor pay tables om the video poker machines. I enjoy playing blackjack but I can't afford the high table limits. I have found some of the VR blackjack tables with low limits but they seem to be few and far between. I will not play video poker with a poor pay table. Therefore my visits have been less numerous and I don't gamble as much as I have in the past. No one in my group had much luck and we didn't see anyone around us hitting much of anything. I think the casinos are hurting themselves with tighter machines, higher limits and fewer comps. The bean counters are ruining the casinos and I don't think they realize the cost cutting is hurting them more than higher payouts ever would. I also think they have no idea how badly they've hurt themselves and will continue down the same road and there will be no recovery, it's really sad.

Greg wrote on June 05, 2009 03:51 PM: Here' the bigger picture.

President Obama is showing in Office he can effectively lead, both at home and abroad, in getting things done with Congress, banks, industry and other nations.

As such, big money will get behind him, and make the necessary strategic adjustments as he nudges the country towards a more progressive-center, less "everything goes-hands off anything", public policy nation.

The second term is when it is more likely he will be able to nudge things more favorably. Change is slow when it effects 300 million people, like manually pushing a barge down the muddy Mississippi.

The nation's current spending and debt levels, despite all the rhetoric, can be paid down with small federal tax increases, just nobody is talking about it that as an option, certainly in this economy for banks and business.

Bush created that mess, with lots of help, i.e. deregulation, greedy investors, brokers and corporate executives, and heavy spending at all levels of society.

National debt can also be reduced by higher interest rates, perhaps even to 10 percent in 6-7 years.

And don't think gaming companies with massive debt from binge and purge spending will not look to higher interest rates for help, if they cannot get returns and rewards from heavy, effective marketing creating bloated revpar and cash flow, as in recent years. They will.

Higher interest rates bring the net present value of their debt down, and create opportunities for them to cash in from resale-reversion proceeds when resort properties are sold in the future, still having lower interest debt attached to them.

Things have to change for people to make money, how it works, up and down. It's the big, huge swings, ala the last few years, that hurt lower and middle class families the most. That has to stop with better Congress performance.

fred wrote on June 05, 2009 02:14 PM: If the greedy casinos can’t keep customers we need to raise the tax in order to stabilize our revenue from them.

jeff wrote on June 05, 2009 01:45 PM: Let me help u out to save a couple articles. May will be a really good month for visitors, but revenues will still be down... but June is gonna be a disaster with a huge visitor drop and there will be doom and gloom reports everywhere.

David wrote on June 05, 2009 01:22 PM: Online gambling is for the true degenerate gamblers. I think most people enjoy the interaction in a brick and mortar casino. You can't get that online. Besides, I wouldn't trust any online casino. Below is on an article alleging a dishonest online gaming site.

http://thedealerslounge.yuku.com/topic/4377

VegasSmitty wrote on June 05, 2009 12:49 PM: Less comps = less play. Its almost immpossible to get a drink, no cocktail waitresses. I'll stay home till they put things back the way they were.

IMBO wrote on June 05, 2009 12:26 PM: Sounds like the economy is changing and stabilizing at about 10-15% lower than it was, and all companies should get used to this level.

Also, this new level is based on the deals that people are given now, not the previous pricing.

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