When I go to LV I do NOT gamble on the Strip, and many out-of-town visitors are seeing that the LOCALS properties, the Boyd Gaming and the Cannery family of properties, are the best value. Not as crowded, not as "cheesy" and a better chance to win something. The only reason the Strip is hanging on is because most out-of-town folks and first-timers still don't know any better. BTW, save some money, find a good non-gaming hotel and stay there, just drive or take the RTC buses to your casino of choice.

I tried to live in Las Vegas for a few months in 2004. Everyone was saying it was a fast-growing, high flying city, so I left Dallas to move to Las Vegas. I left Las Vegas, in part because I thought I was a problem gambler, but more because I had a hard time finding a professional, reasonably well-paying ***non-gaming*** office-based job that wasn't bellhop, construction worker, line cook or slot tech. Phoenix had at the time a few more opportunities in my field (graphic design).

Had I stayed in Las Vegas and earned the salary there that I do here in Phoenix, I actually don't think I would be a problem gambler. I would be very picky about where I would spend my gaming dollars, focus on places that give me a chance to leave with some of my money, maybe a bit more, and I would just not go to those casinos that have a track record of tight slots. And after a while, I would probably only go to these few casinos once, maybe twice a month as opposed to 2-3 times a week or even every weekend, and make a mini-vacation of it with the hotel stay and the rental car (I don't own a car and use the bus for daily commuting).

My feeling is, I am in a casino to win, even if I'm only $20 ahead of what I brought with me. If I'm winning, I'm more apt to use the other ancillary facilities such as the restaurants, bowling, movies - and add to the casino's revenue stream. If I'm losing, I will just go back home. Now that I am not living in Las Vegas - but a morning drive away - I enjoy Las Vegas more because 1) Las Vegas gives me more and better value and more and better options and choice, than the tribal casinos here in town and 2) I am learning how to be a smart slot player (and people say it's not really possible to play slots in a smart way).

When problem gamblers are a cash cow for the casinos, and casinos put amenities in their gambling halls that would just be in regular shopping malls in other cities, like McDonalds and movie theaters, this problem will not be addressed.

I suppose I could call myself a problem gambler - I tend to lose more than I can afford. I live in Phoenix, where we have Indian casinos that have very poor payback on slots. Every time I go to these places I end up losing more than I intended. When I make the 5-hour trip to LV, and I have done this four times in the last year, I have always, ALWAYS, each trip, come back home with the same or MORE money I went with. WHY? The casinos in LV KNOW there has to be some value for the gambler in order to keep their business. If I lose at Suncoast I will just go to Cannery and probably win back a good portion of what I lost.

I also have not gambled on the Strip since 2004. I know the locals' places are the ONLY option as they cater to 1) the local people they depend upon as they are part of their labor pool and 2) tourist who are DONE with being ripped off on the Strip.

People say that in the recession the casinos are tightening up the slots. That may be true, and on my last trip there were places where I won a lot and places that were just a waste of my time, but in Las Vegas I had a CHOICE. I took advantage of that choice and came out ahead. As I see it, as much as I support tribal gaming, if I can't win in their house, because they are the only players in town and can afford to take what they can and enjoy their monopoly (the tribes will still not allow for the horse/dog tracks to become "racinos"), I will just make the drive over the Hoover Dam and play slots in a town where I have the best chance to win. Since I can't afford to drive to Vegas each week, only a few times each year, it becomes a special vacation time for me that I save up money for instead of an impluse decision that leaves me broke, and that cuts down on my "problem gambling" losses right there.

Cool! Good looking pies! the next time I come over the Hoover Dam from Phoenix I might check this place out.

Good to see any kind of non-gaming business do well in Las Vegas.

Obama is not running the show.
Obama is not liberal enough.
Obama is not responsible for the national economy's problems.
Obama is not responsible for Las Vegas' problems.

Here's what needs to happen:

Steve Wynn can say whatever he wants. Opinions are worth what you want to make them worth.

Here's the facts:

The middle class feels Las Vegas has spent too much time going after the luxury market and is too expensive and not a value destination any more. This at a time when discretionary incomes are smaller and smaller, and also when other states have more gaming and entertainment options that are in closer proximity to their hometowns.

Here's how to fix Las Vegas: and I am speaking as a Phoenix resident who lived in LV for four months in 2004 but left because Phoenix had more opportunities for employment in my industry:

1. Lower prices across the board. Be the low-price leader in vacation destinations.
2. Lower prices for the upscale stuff.
3. Stop the unnecessary extra fees.
4. Better return/odds on gaming.
5. Encourage the serious and comprehensive development of non-gaming industry and non-gaming business. Become a high-tech, biotech mecca. Light manufacturing. Logistics.
6. Beef up the educational system. Make UNLV a world-class academic school. Establish a "Research Triangle" in Southern Nevada.
7. Build a comprehensive light rail system. Phoenix waited 20 years but they have light rail now and it's great.
8. Build an Interstate between Phoenix and Las Vegas. Two lane roads ain't gonna cut it.
9. Seriously improve Amtrak service to Las Vegas from SoCal and Phoenix.
10. Figure out the water usage/Colorado River situation.

Any story that touches on any aspect of gaming, that is posted on this website, is fair game for general comments from Las Vegas locals and visitors alike, and, in fact, is a primary information source for me as I plan occasional Las Vegas trips.

And I do hope the gaming industry folks read these comments and take heed to the general feeling of lack of value for the gaming fan.

All the new social media "fad" is showing us, and believe me, the industry sees this as a fad, Las Vegas needs to get back to being Las Vegas: fun, friendly, and a great entertainment/dining/lodging value for the middle class. If you build it - and not necessarily a 73-story luxury box that's too expensive to finish - they will come.

Suncoast is probably my favorite place to play slot machines in all of Las Vegas. The place is spacious and at least as friendly as the tribal casinos here in Phoenix. Good location and security that's there but not staring you down when you start winning. Machines vary in tightness and at different times, but I have had the best luck on the Suncoast machines of them all.

However, I won't stay in their hotel any more, because they have the "service fee" for amenities that should be included in the room rate, like wireless Internet, which I can't live without when I'm traveling.

I tried Gold Coast but couldn't win anything (this was 4am which is probably a bad time to play slots anywhere).

One thing I didn't like about the Fiesta Ghetto is the "service fee" added to the room price. The wireless internet, which was supposedly covered in this fee, didn't work (I called the tech support which was someone at Cox who wanted to actually send an engineer up to my room - no thanks), and I used wireless internet in several hotels in Phoenix seamlessly.

I also got a teeny, tiny, measly "fun book" which was nothing more than 2 for 1 offers I could have gotten from the Entertainment coupon book or just clipping coupons from the paper.

Once last year, when I was in LV, I stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott on Rainbow. Non-gaming hotel. Excellent, clean, nicely furnished room - it's Marriott, what do you expect. Close driving distance to Suncoast and Rampart. No extra charge for wireless Internet that I can recall. $40/night on Priceline. If I could get THAT kind of deal again I will come back this coming month.

"Why gamble at all? You don't lose and you won't feel like you lost."

What is the point of coming to Las Vegas if you don't gamble?

Las Vegas without gambling is nothing more than a cooler-temperature version of Tucson. Boring.

Las Vegas needs light rail. Period. End of story.
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