FLASHPOINT:

Gaming coming around?

Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 | 2:01 a.m.

Is the gaming industry out of the economic woods? MGM Mirage’s Jim Murren thinks so. As part of a wide-ranging interview with Fox’s Neil Cavuto, Murren criticized President Barack Obama for not focusing more on job creation, derided Gov. Jim Gibbons as “silly” for not greeting the president here, and said this: “I know just from the dialogue that we’re having that there are more people interested in the gaming sector than earlier this year when the future of a lot of these companies in the industry was in doubt and the economy was in worse shape. We’ve turned the corner.” Let’s hope he is being more rationally optimistic based on empirical evidence than on displaying, in Alan Greenspan’s phrasing, “irrational exuberance.”

Discussion: 1 comment so far…

By Vegasvampire

10/25/09 at 4:38 p.m.

Suggest removal

What MGM/Mirage, Harrahs, Boyd, etc. should do is cater to the middle class and not those 20/30-somethings. Bring in the grown-ups that have money all the time and want to come back often because of reasonable prices and great service. Yes, the 20/30-something have some money, but they fade after high prices, long lines, & bad service. If you want people to come back, give them a reason to. It's not doing things on the cheap that made people come back, it was giving people what they wanted but were suprized to get more than they expected at a reasonable cost. Most people will tire of $125 to see Garth Brooks and want more for spending time inside a casino. Lower the minimum to $1 instead of $5 at the tables. Yes people will start at $1 but will increase to more and have more to tip their dealers and cashiers for great service. Stop nickel and diming the public and they will pay you more than a thank you.