Las Vegas Hots Up?
Roy Katz reports back from the gaming capital of America
t has been said that if you ask a group of economists to form a firing squad, they will get into as circle! Similarly , in reviewing the recent economic data on Las Vegas and Clark County ,Nevada, and trying to square it with my own personal observations, I can’t help but wonder if these economists and academics ever leave their computers and actually walk around the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
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In all fairness, according to The Center for Business and Economic Research (CEBER) at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (
www.cber.unlv.edu) some of the leading economic indicators for Las Vegas, “continue to slide slowly. The Las Vegas unemployment rate increased to 14.5 percent in June and remains one of the highest in the nation.” However, the CBER report also notes some encouraging signs too: “Hotel occupancy also remains fairly strong, though mostly as the result of reduced rates. Gaming revenue has been bouncing along and is up slightly in the latest report,” say the economists at CEBER.
While I am not an economist, as a business journalist living in Las Vegas I do keep my eyes open for subtle economic indicators such as traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip), the time it takes me to find a parking space at a mega resort, length of lines at casino restaurants (reasonable, but not too crowded), players in casinos and of course the temperature of the water in the sinks in restrooms of major casinos. As for the traffic, as usual, it is perpetually gridlock, visitors can probably walk faster between the casinos in the Strip than drive. Likewise, parking at the major Strip casinos, if you want to walk down the endless aisles of parked cars you can find a space almost immediately far from the lifts. However, if you want to park close to the lifts, then it takes some driving up and down the aisles to find an empty space. In other words, the lots are usually pretty full. Recently my wife and I went with an old friend visiting from out of town to eat at Main
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Street Station in Downtown Las Vegas and then a few days later we were at the Freemont also Downtown. I noticed in both casinos that the water in the Men’s Room was warm, not cold. It costs casinos extra money to heat the water for the sinks in the rest rooms, but after several months of very cold water, it was warm again. To my thinking, despite the “official” economic statistics of “doom & gloom”, the casinos are starting to see the light at the end of the dark economic tunnel if they can afford to heat the water in restroom sinks, then surely better times are ahead. Let’s face it, Las Vegas has always been a gamble in the desert and for over a century, every time things look bleak someone rolls the dice and sooner or later comes up a winner.
While the casinos may be filled with visitors, players are not gambling as much as they have in the past. (Full disclosure, I am not much of a gambler, so I am not judging by my own gaming patterns.) However, my point is that while the number of visitors may not be breaking any records, they are still coming to Las Vegas and that is the important thing. I am of the school that if the mega casino resorts in Las Vegas treat our visitors right, they eat a few great meals, see some outstanding shows, and perhaps play some Blackjack or drop cash into some slots, soak up the golden Las Vegas sun, if visitors have fun, they will be back with more money to spend next time. In mid July my wife and I flew to England for a couple of weeks. Granted, summer is prime get away time, but on both flights almost every seat on Virgin Atlantic’s 747’s to London, Gatwick were filled. In the departure lounge in Las Vegas I heard most British accents not American accents, so they were British visitors going home. Likewise, on my flight back to Las Vegas in early August, it appeared that the majority of the passengers were Britons going to Las Vegas for some sun and fun. Sure you can visit casinos in the U.K. and Europe, but it is a lot more fun to do so in Vegas!
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