Let the double dip begin:
Gambling winnings on the Las Vegas Strip fell in May by 6.3 percent with Baccarat and sports books taking the biggest hits. The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported today that the 41 casinos on the Strip won $450.1 million before taxes and expenses and it was the second month of a decline after two months of increases in gaming revenue. The 6.3 percent drop compares to a soft May 2009, when revenues were down 6.4 percent on the Strip.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jul/07/casino-winnings-decrease-47-percent-may/
Yet, ironically.
The number of visitors to Las Vegas was up 2 percent in May compared to the same month last year, according to numbers released today from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. In May, the Las Vegas area had 3,262,831 visitors, the LVCVA said. In May 2009, the region had 3,199,719 visitors. May was the ninth consecutive month of increased visitors compared to a year earlier, according to the LVCVA.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jul/07/las-vegas-sees-2-percent-increase-may-visitors
To summarize, Tourism is up 2% while gaming win is down 6%. 
It looks like we are queuing up for round 2 of the recession.
Of paramount concern is the Baccarat numbers. This is a game overwhelmingly played by moneyed Asian tourists, and for the past year, it has propped the city up when every other form of betting was falling down around us. It now looks like even this demographic is starting to show cracks.
While the city continues to pack people in with ultra-low room rates, those same people continue to gamble much less once they get here. This is not a pattern I see reversing anytime soon. 10,000 has acted like gravity for the Dow, and it's almost unconscionable to realize that money invested in the market exactly 10 years ago has provided absolutely no return. Not only has it provided no return, but the value of the underlying cash in a basket of indices has been significantly reduced by inflation. If the market doesn't go up by at least 3% per year, you actually lose purchasing power.
Obviously, the winner in the current paradigm is the casual Vegas visitor who just wants to get away for awhile without spending a ton of money on airfare and hotels. The city is a goddamn bargain if you know what you are doing.
Room rates are getting to a point where I want to be a tourist again. While researching airfare to Seattle this past weekend, I found round-trip, non-stop fares as low as $250. This, combined with sub-$100 hotel rooms means that it could be less expensive to blog about Las Vegas from a less oppressive city. Hell, my electric bill this month is going to be $400, and that alone could now pay for a weekend vacation here.
Part of me feels like a broken record. I feel as if I have said everything there is to say about living here, and now I am simply repeating myself. I've taken goddamn near every picture there is to be taken, and I now just leave my camera behind when I go out.
After 5+ years of living here, I find myself once again craving the tourist perspective. I miss the process. Flying in, hailing a cab, checking-in, negotiating a better room (without some dumbass "$20 trick"), watching in-room porn and then later disputing it as a mistaken button press, getting comped meals and discounted specials in the mail ... I used to love this town. Part of me can't help but wonder if I might be able to love it again. If it wasn't in my face every day, financially raping me at every turn, telling me to go fuck myself with every human encounter, I could probably see this valley as something other than the soul-draining hellhole that it is.
I think I could actually blog about it better by flying in a couple of times each month. Perhaps it would even be more relatable to the average reader ... most of whom also fly in. I could once again go down the list, staying in every hotel, reviewing each and every one of them with complete honesty. Let's face it, nobody wants to hear about the latest pizza joint opening in Rexville, they want to read about the Vegas visiting process, from beginning to end.
I've gotten several pieces of contact in the last few weeks with people unhappy that I am complaining about Las Vegas so much. They want more pictures. They want more boobs. They want more happy happy joy joy.
The problem is ... I'm not your fucking dancing monkey. I can't fake it. There are ten thousand faux-blogs that do the cheerleader thing, but my stuff is literally from the gut. If I'm feeling it, I'm feeling it, if I'm not, I'm not. This is the VegasRex show, and that includes the good, bad, and the ugly. During the months of July, August, and September, I suffer a great deal of apathy and depression, and I can no longer pretend to be happy just because some chick walks by in a barely-there bikini. It used to be enough, but it's not anymore. I'm jaded to everything in this town. Because of this, I have finally made a decision.
I will not spend another summer in Las Vegas. I cannot, and I will not.
I would like to once again experience Vegas without hatred, throw up live photos throughout the trip, and write the article later in a room less than 85 degrees in temperature. I could probably pay for the entire trip in the Mandalay Bay poker room, barring a hideous run of cards or a string of bad beats.
If rates stay as cheap as they are now, and I have every reason to believe that they will stay at this level ... if not go lower ... then I almost feel as if living here is a waste. My cost basis is going up, and I am not having nearly as much fun here as I used to.
Rekindling my relationship with this town by once again seeing it for what it is, a tourist destination instead of an actual city, is something that I am going to do.
In the meantime, I will still endeavor to make the best of it. Just like our local penny-pinching tourists who have found that all that glitters is not gold at the 6:5 crap jack tables.
Vegas, Baby.
It's a nice place to visit, but you don't want to live here.
Comments
AaronC
I think the only way to get rex to stay in Vegas is to put him in charge of a property. How awesome would the blog be then!
Anybody got a place with a gaming license?
iMan
You need to take a vacation Rex. Head the S. America for the summer/winter whatever it is now.
Jill
Like "H.S.T." wrote above, the purpose of my daily visit on this blog is the writing talent of Rex. He can go to Hawai, Moscow, Beijing or Paris Texas, he can write about cooking or BDSM, it's a must reading for me. Beside, I think he's less and less enthusiast about Vegas, so obviously it's maybe time to move on.
Herk115
No recovery in Vegas? Well maybe, maybe not. Every entrepeneur for the last 30 years who has had visions of opening a hotel and casino has been warned that tourist volume is insufficient to fill the number of rooms they wish to add on to a town drowning in rooms. And for the last 30 years every one of those warnings has been wrong. Tourists have continued to arrive, stay, and play.
However, it is my opinion that Vegas has finally reached the point where those warnings have come true. It's my opinion that nationwide at least, some kind of recovery however small and slow is happening. But the problem is that Vegas has finally outdone itself. Finally, there are too many rooms. With the cost of building a hotel casino now in the billions, you have to put in 10,000 rooms and fill them every night just to get your creditors paid in your lifetime. That's just preposterous. The best thing Vegas could do is take a wrecking ball to City Center, FountainBlew, and the other office park-like eyesores clogging what was once a great strip, put some water parks on those properties (which, given the weather Rex is putting up with, will generate revenue nine months out of the year), make gambling affordable for Joe Average like Bill Bennett did (a move that made him filthy rich), and you'll see a recovery. I for one love Vegas as a tourist and will continue to come there several times a year to donate my paycheck to Steve Wynn, but I'll stay at Buffalo Bill's before I'll stay in some goddam office park lookalike, particularly because City Center happens to look just like the office building I spend five tedious days every week inside. If it looks like a casino, quacks like a casino, has rooms I can afford, and a game I stand a chance of winning sooner or later, I'll be there.
The Fonz
Last fall I spent six nights in Vegas, by myself. I loved it, it was an escape after working another season at my Minnesota haunted house. The airfare was cheap, the off-strip time share was cheap. It worked out pretty well, although I didn't get picked for Let's Make a Deal, dammit.
I'm hearing airfare is up this year. Perhaps so, but rooms are ridiculously cheap. I spent a few hours at the Orleans last fall and they keep offering me two free weeknights. That's not great, but I didn't spend much money there, or many hours. I spent as much time watching minor league hockey as I did at the blackjack table, mostly because I had no luck whatsoever when I sat down.
I'm going to make my first ever summer appearance in Vegas next week. My girlfriend scored us another free trip to Laughlin, and we're renting a car and spending two nights in Vegas. She also got us two free nights at Sam's Town. Again, not great, but she got those mostly for staying there on business last fall.
In preparation for my trip, and three days of decadence (buffets and booze) that I will indulge in, I've been hitting the bike extra ambitiously every night during the two-week run up to departure. During the past 12 days I have biked 11 of them, and with the exception of one tough 28-mile night, I've been logging 30 miles per night.
I once thought I wanted to live in Vegas. I have no use for winter. I tolerate it, I've put up with plenty of subzero days. I lived in Canada for a few winters, the coldest day I experienced was -40F. No wind chill, just cold. I use to run a lot back then. I'd run 3 miles after work that week, when it was -15 to -20F each night.
But I melt quickly under the heat. I wear wristbands when I bicycle because I'm old school, and I sweat a lot. We don't get dry heat here in Minnesota. If it's hot, it's humid. I can wring a puddle out of my wristbands after a 30-mile ride on a hot day in Minnesota.
I often wait until two hours before sunset to begin biking. Perhaps I'd do better in the waning daylight hours of Vegas than I think. I don't love summer, I'd be fine with it never getting much past 70 degrees in the summer, as long as we got a long fall. The only good thing about summer in Minnesota, besides the fact there area a billion outdoor things going on to compensate for the 6 months its too cold and/or wet to enjoy outdoor activities, is that the sun sets just after 9 p.m. at the start of summer. When sunset creeps back below 8 p.m. at the end of summer, I'm not a happy man.
Next Monday and Tuesday night I'll be in Vegas, not to mention Laughlin on Sunday and Wednesday night, where it's always a few degrees hotter. I'm going to feel what it's like, for the first time ever, to inhale a steady diet of 105-degree weather.
In Minnesota we spend our winter running from our heated cars to heated buildings. Some of us go nuts for skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing or other activities. There's something to be said for enduring a steady diet of subzero temperatures, but I no longer need the street cred.
I've heard it said that summer in the south is like winter in Minnesota. You run from air conditioned cars to air conditioned buildings. I haven't experienced the latter, but I won't give up 9 p.m. sunsets in the summer for crisp January days where the sun sets before 5 p.m.
I have no idea what you do for a living besides blogging, Rex, and it's unclear where you come from, since you've referenced living a few different places. But if you're like me, you need to reap the benefits from summer, not hibernate for three months. That's what winter is for.
Good luck wherever you go. I may never leave Minnesota, but if I do, next week should convince me that Vegas ain't my destination.
Here's hoping they have good air conditioning at the Pinball Hall of Fame. I'll be pumping quarters into those machines for 3 or 4 hours next Monday evening.
ZODDIAC
Rex - I must say you've just convinced me to keep visiting your blog... I was kinda down on you because you had shown such a negative viewpoint of my favorite destination, but now I realize how great Vegas is for a week but I sure as hell wouldn't be able to live there. So thanks again and hope you can regain that tourist perspective again because it really is the best part of Vegas!!!
ManInBlack
As a fellow local, I know how you feel. And I feel the same fucking way
McKnight
No Major Gaming Revenue Increases, No Vegas Recovery Ever.
Partying, drinking, shows, fine dining, cheap rooms, are just side-orders for patrons to gamble more and gamble longer in the resort.
Make no mistake about it, gaming is where the real profit (easy money) is.
Dozens of douchebags partying all night contribute to Vegas much, much less than a couple of Asian whales.
But our focus seems to wrongly aim at the clubbing generation, that tends to shack up in Hard Rock, TI, Rio at discounted rates. (Easily 4 to 5 young guests in 1 room to lower average expense.)
RECOVERY MY ASS.
Ken
Rex, I love reading your comments about life in general.I'll read you no matter where you go. Vegas is like a hooker,looks good at night and ugly in the daylight.
YEAH
Damn Rex, you are becoming a hater! Don't let that happen. Go get drunk in a club, have fun, you are in Vegas Baby!!
LizzieGirl
I got airfare from NYC, round-trip, non-stop, for $140. Free room at MB, Bellagio, Palms, Red Rock, free food all over the damn place, this is why I visit 3-4-5-6 times a year.
Bazzito
Now is the summer of our discontent.....
Rex, we remember well your statement of a short while ago:
"I don’t want to live amongst these people. These are not my people. I do not know them. I do not understand them. I am every bit as much an alien to these creatures as E.T. was to Elliott. I desperately want to go back to my own planet. A planet where it rains and people speak my language. I want to move north, and I want to move near the water.
It is for this reason that I always keep a close eye on the Aberdeen, Washington housing market."
Sound like "Aberdeen Rex" is to be making his debut soon from a bait and tackle shop near no one.
So long, Rex. It's been good to know ya'.
gowhitesox99
Airfare from chicago is barely under $350 no matter when i try t book vegas, what you smokin?? How is that cheap?
Joe in Vegas
I agree with StevenofBaltimore. We're here to hear about the non-touristy side of the town (as much as you may despise it).
Heck, I even dropped by Albo Pizza last week based on your recommendation. Sadly, I was disappointed, but still glad that I tried it.
H.S.T.
Like Hunter S. Thompson's work, it's not the subject matter that's interesting, it's the writer. You Rex, can write about anything from anywhere and I'll read about it. You are a very talented writer.
keith
"I've gotten several pieces of contact in the last few weeks with people unhappy that I am complaining about Las Vegas so much. They want more pictures. They want more boobs. They want more happy happy joy joy."
- do what i would do - tell them to go fuck themselves.
StevenOfBaltimore
"Let's face it, nobody wants to hear about the latest pizza joint opening in Rexville, they want to read about the Vegas visiting process, from beginning to end."
Totally disagree with you on that, Rex. If I wanted to hear the tourist chants, I could get that from no fewer than 100 different locations. It is precisely your underground, realistic, what-you-see-is-what-you-get, coverage is what makes your writing so refreshing. It is also why we all keep coming back (minus your detractors, and I can't figure out why they keep coming back if they don't like it here).
So get out of town when it's hot if you must. But don't change your style. I don't think you would anyway.
Relax...you'll feel better in the Fall.
an observation
I think it's very telling that those who rushed to make their comment first were the most negative. Maybe they want you to leave Rex so their main competition is gone? After reading your response though, they won't be too happy b/c you'll still blog LOL!!!
sage advice
I enjoy your blog as a frequent vegas tourist but you sound like you would be better off in Seattle (at least for the summer months!)
DR
Of course you are sick of Vegas. Move to Green Valley where all the fun is. We have P.F. Chang's, faux black people, and William Sonoma stores.
Rex
Thanks, guys (well, some of you at least). The eulogies are a bit premature, though. I'm still here for now. Even when I go, it is not like I will stop blogging. I'll still blog about Vegas and everything else. Honestly, the Las Vegas years have probably been the least interesting years of my life. I just want to attack it from a different angle at some point.
You'll Be Missed
That sucks if your really going. Single folks I've talked to say work the casino day shift and that cuts their monthly energy bills by staying until things cool down. You could always try some variations of that such as movies, bowling, gambling, etc.
Frank
I like Las Vegas and visit at least once a year but I don't think I'd ever live there. I enjoy it more the less time I spend there. That being said it would be sad to not live vicariously through your adventures. Even if you decide to move please continue writing so people like myself can enjoy your writing. I think reading about your adventures as a tourist would be a great idea, especially from your perspective since you've done the local thing as well.
MrCdnVegas
Rex I can see where you are coming from.
I grew up in a resort town. After moving away from my home town to one of the large city center which supplied many of the tourists to my home town I was always asked "Why would you move away from there? It's great there!"
The probelm is it's great there when your a tourist, and your only there for a week at a time every year. When you live there 24/7 it's very different.
That being said now I do travel back to my home town as a tourist and ya it's great.....for a week at a time, but I know that the "it's great" would wear of very quick if I lived there again.
The only loss I see would be if stop posting about your "adventures" no matter what town your in.
philipj
I enjoyed a week at a time in July or August in Las Vegas. Now I realise that I can no longer take the high heat for very long. It has been fun to live vicariouly through a friend living near the downtown. So you aren't going to try for the mayor's job??
mike_ch
I figured this out two years ago when I stayed at Planet Hollywood for a comped night. As soon as I stepped off the bus and began walking down the strip to head to a registration desk and get into my room, my perspective of the town suddenly changed in that instant.
It feels SO good to stay on the Strip as a person with a room there. As someone in the real city beyond coming in who has to go home when you're done, there's just something horribly oppressive about it all.
tom meny
damn man, that sucks, i look forward to the frequent blogs and pics.
Michelle
I personally will miss Rex's take on Las Vegas if and when he decides to leave, but I hope he will continue to write where ever he is and let's us know so that I can continue reading him. Rex, it would be a waste for you not to write.
Regarding the above comments. It's not like Rex comes to your door and forces you to read his blog. It was your decision not his. If you don't like it then do yourself a favor and stop reading Rex. It's that simple. And now we get to see the (un)intellectual replies of the average Las Vegan. I don't blame Rex for wanting to leave that place.
AP
BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Don't let the door hit you in the azz
Good riddance to your whining & bitching
ChuckReis
Racist