Las Vegas Sun

I have been visiting and conducting business in Las Vegas since 1950 and it has always had its doomsayers about overbuilding. This time it will take a longer period to absorb the supply of rooms but the operators must realize that they must lower their sights on the room prices in order to keep a 90% occupancy. They are all chasing the big spenders with a $250.00 room rate and Vegas was built on reasonable rates to attract conventions and now they are cutting their own throats. The companies are sending two people to attend in place of ten and this is very short sighted. We need someone to look at the mid range visitor.

Many of the jobs lost to technology should be praised. When ticket in,ticket out was developed the backbreaking job of pulling the heavy buckets of coins out to the coin rooms for counting saved many people hernia operations. The introduction of ergonomic seating for slots gave more players the comfort to enjoy longer periods between chiropractor appointments.
Progress isn't all bad.

I have been visiting Las Vegas since 1950, first as a tourist and since 1957 as a supplier to the casino industry. I became uncomfortable several years ago upon seeing all the casinos pointing to the high end rooms for their future revenue. Las Vegas was built upon fair priced rooms,food and good customer service. All convention cities envied the draw of Las Vegas and what they had to offer convention planners in the way of room availability and price to enable them to send all their employees to a convention. Now many are curtailing the amount of people they are sending and reviewing other options for cities, just read the comments from recent conventions. Now read the bad publicity Las Vegas receives about this type of treatment from clubs. Lots of money is made in the short run from these clubs, but at what cost to the long run for us? Think people,think. Las Vegas thrived from the masses and if we lose sight of that we built our reputation on we will not move forward but just tread water and complain about how business is bad