Death Of The Casinos

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case
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Death Of The Casinos

Post by case »

People don't need to go to Vegas to gamble any more. They can do that at home. They go to Vegas to eat at some of the best restaurants in the country and the world. Many of the most famous chefs are in Vegas. People also go to Vegas to party.

Is there any city with more and better night clubs? People go to Vegas to see the best entertainment in the world all in one place. Where else can you see this many headline acts in just a few miles?

Gambling has become a secondary industry in Las Vegas and Vegas is able to reinvent it self once again. Where else in the world can you get rooms as cheap and as nice as Vegas? Look at the pools in Vegas and try and find a city with a better collection.

Gambling has just gotten saturated with way to many casinos around the country and more on the way. A casino built years ago had a huge area to draw from and then more and more casinos started to pop up. There are only so many gamblers and so much money to go around. Now places like Atlantic City are paying the price as casinos spring up around them. Same for Tunica and many stand alone casinos.

Casinos that rely on gambling alone for most of their income are walking a fine line. Twenty years ago they could survive just fine but those days are behind them.

The Indian casinos in Florida have maybe done it right by keeping the chain casinos out and not over saturating their market. Business is booming due to just a select few casinos. Pressure continues to mount from the outside as people are knocking on doors but so far Florida has resisted the temptation. This might not be great for the gamblers but the casinos are strong. Plus they have all the snowbirds who come down from gambling states looking for things to do in the winter months.

I remember watching in the early 2000s as casinos started to pop up. It seemed like each month another would open. Greed......they all wanted a piece of the action. People that never gambled in their lives now were introduced as casinos opened in or near their towns. Many got hooked on gambling.

So that brings us to today. Casinos struggling....others closing down.....and still others being built.

Vegas will survive as they had the ability and means to change. Others do not. What happens in the future remains to be seen.

DaBurglar
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Post by DaBurglar »

Nice post, excellent summation of where the "industry" is headed as well as how it ended up in the condition it is in now.....One big problem that you rarely hear anymore discussed but is in fact MORE relevant today as an issue than at any time in the past, and will become worse:Gambling gets labeled as "an industry" but it is really a misnomer and far too grandiose in my opinion....nothing tangible is really produced, with extremely low "utility".....TIME is consumed as is money (which in actuality is simply changed hands....OUT of the many hands and into a VERY VERY VERY small group of few hands.)    It is that aspect, the CONCENTRATIONS of money/wealth into a few hands, that makes casinos a very dubious engine of economic growth and prosperity.   You are 100% correct in identifying that it is Las Vegas' massive diversification that has enabled it to continue to survive and prosper (although not at the breakneck pace and rate of the 1990s, but still, growing albeit at a much slower, yet stable rate today.)   I think I saw a figure that now states Vegas receives something like 35% of its revenue from Gaming, and the rest from a variety of other sources, although a LARGER percentage of the PROFIT still comes from gaming (i.e. THAT 35% of the revenue )......subtle points to remember.Casino Gambling is a dubious activity.....it can be a catalyst for short term growth and prosperity, but unless it develops tangent and associated activities and businesses to generate their own growth, it can boomerang/backfire and actually HURT local economies by simply "sucking" too much wealth too fast out of the consumer pool, giving almost NOTHING in return (i.e. GAMBLING itself produces nothing beyond the momentary experience & memories.....good or bad!   )


wildman49
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Post by wildman49 »

Case I would have to agree. Here in Michigan the Indian casinos have been around a long time. Most if not all are payed for. They are spread far apart as not to beat up on each other. Where I play its only busy when there is a concert to draw people. My buddy and I go many Fridays, at 1-2pm there is no players at the bar tops and 2-3 bar tenders doing nothing. The place is very slow. As you said there is only so much money and the younger crowd don't gamble and the few that do take little money in with them.As the older crowd gets to old to go and or dies off over time these casinos will keep seeing there revenue fall. Vegas has had to change and the ones that waited to long to do night clubs to gain back some lost gaming revenue will suffer. Its a dog eat dog world, when you see Wynn stock and others cut in half there is trouble in sin city.

case
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Post by case »

DaBurglar.....You last paragraph is dead on and I could not agree more. As you know more than me what it did in Atlantic City. Beautiful casinos on the boardwalk and a block west you have closed business and run down neighbor hoods. Casinos take...and take.

Wildman.... I have played in Michigan a few times. I really liked Firekeepers. The rooms in the hotel were excellent. Soaring Eagle had some good pay tables for VP and is large but was not a "warm" place. I agree the casinos in Michigan are not close together but they have built a lot over the years.

notes1
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Post by notes1 »



case, good topic.f/y/i, the state of florida and seminole tribe have a pending agreement. over the next 7 years, the tribe will send the state $3 billion. the money will come directly from the pockets of gamblers. we wonder why we lose. you mention greed and i believe you are talking about the casinos. to the best of my knowledge, no casino can be built (other than an indian in some cases) without government approval. are casinos greedy, of course. but, i would argue it is the state/local governments that are the greedy ones. they all wanted a piece of the action. a quick jobs programs, construction project and added state/local revenues.  just think of the process of deciding who gets the right to build a casino in most areas. does it go to the group who promises the highest payouts to players, no way. it goes to whoever pays the most to the government, typically for exclusive rights to an area. we the gamblers, are screwed from the onset.  you are spot on, there are just too many places to play, especially with a weak economy. i have brought this up before, i wish someone would start a chain a low cost/no frills gambling halls. clean, safe and fair, forget all the other stuff.

DaBurglar
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Post by DaBurglar »




case, good topic. you mention greed and i believe you are talking about the casinos. to the best of my knowledge, no casino can be built (other than an indian in some cases) without government approval. are casinos greedy, of course. but, i would argue it is the state/local governments that are the greedy ones. they all wanted a piece of the action. a quick jobs programs, construction project and added state/local revenues.  just think of the process of deciding who gets the right to build a casino in most areas. does it go to the group who promises the highest payouts to players, no way. it goes to whoever pays the most to the government, typically for exclusive rights to an area. we the gamblers, are screwed from the onset.  you are spot on, there are just too many places to play, especially with a weak economy. i have brought this up before, i wish someone would start a chain a low cost/no frills gambling halls. clean, safe and fair, forget all the other stuff.100% agree with this post notes1 (please try to remember that for future reference.Of course, the reason ANY state or city agrees to have ANY casino in its realm is the potential windfall (usually SHORT TERM $$) such projects promise......case in point is the current fiasco that is ongoing here in my backyard, with MGM-Springfield (MASSACHUSETTS).....the state of Mass approved 3 gaming licenses back in 2011, and MGM was awarded the one for western Massachusetts.   Originally MGM promised to build a 900 Million dollar facility, due to open in 2017....they since DOWNGRADED it (once they got the license sewed up) to a 750 million dollar project and it now has the state and City of Springfield going batshiiite!   All the surrounding communities (about 15 towns surrounding springfield's vast area) petitioned MGM for a slice of the pie as part of a Community impact consortium that could have made MGM's life miserable if MGM did not cough up the dough.   Now, the state is scrambling trying to upgrade and improve the freeway (I-91) which will run right next to the MGM through the city, and the opening is now delayed until 2018.      But that is NOT all....In Connecticut, where Foxwoods & Mohegan Sun have reigned for 20 years,both the state of Connectictu and the two tribes have viewed the three MASSACHUSETTS casinos, and in particular the MGM springfield, as EXISTENTIAL, MORTAL threats......to "protect their jobs, their economy and their WAY OF LIFE", the two tribes have banded together (instead of competing like they have up to now) and with the STATE of Connecticut helping them and egging them on, are planning a "Pre-emptive" move to build a new casino right near the border between the two states opposite the city of Springfield.   They are talking about opening in late 2016 or early 2017 a preliminary "temporary casino" near Bradley International Airport off the I-91, while the real permanent site is built, somewhere nearby!!   Now MGM springfield is crapping bricks as it sees its once big investment already significantly LESS VALUABLE, and there is already grumbling that MGM might reduce the project even more, whereby Springfield threatens to SUE SUE SUE!    what a horrible awful, ridiculously absurd mess this is becoming!

DaBurglar
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Post by DaBurglar »

Vegas has had to change and the ones that
waited to long to do night clubs to gain back some lost gaming revenue
will suffer. Its a dog eat dog world, when you see Wynn stock and others
cut in half there is trouble in sin city.To be fair and accurate, the "slump" in gaming stocks like WYNN and SANDS (adelson's travesty of a company) is almost exclusively due to major trouble in the MACAU gambling market, which had been driving the companies profits for years.

Chicagoan
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Post by Chicagoan »

So many different reasons for the decline that it is difficult to pinpoint just one. But looking at gaming stocks long-term, Wildman49's point about the relative age of casino consumers is a very important one. All you have to do is walk through casinos from coast to coast and 90% of the players are 50-60 years of age and older. What is needed is some research showing whether younger non-gamblers are likely to become gamblers when they move into an older age bracket, if in fact that can be accurately predicted. If younger gamblers as they age do not eventually replace the older gamblers, casino gambling as we know it will gradually die out.

Chicagoan
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Post by Chicagoan »

ADDITION TO ABOVE COMMENT:

If you look at most casino advertising, it is almost always beautiful young women in low cut dresses, but when you actually get to the casino none of the gorgeous young advertising models are to be found. It is the casino industry's attempt to lure in the younger crowd.

Carcounter
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Post by Carcounter »

Agree with just about everything said. Scary thing is what will happen when the next recession hits, could be sooner than we think. Some casinos that are approved, but yet to be built will be happy they never got started. Case study-The Revel.

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