That is actually a global disease...unfortunately

Yup, Vegas has changed. It's big business now. It has changed a lot even from 1990 to now. There used to be lots of buffet deals. Not now. It still has good entertainment, but you will pay for that. Pins used to be relatively cheap too.

Vegas sucks ass. I don't see the appeal.

Well I do see the appeal - it's a theme park for grownups who live in the suburbs. It also appeals to gamblers.

But certainly, it's not for cheapskates anymore. I do wish I could have seen it during the $4 buffet heyday of yesteryear.

Sounds like Di$ney World!

i love it but seems the drinks were more around the table games, consistently.

I saw a waitress with a gigantic tray of drinks

seems if your gonna get a free one u better be prepared to wait a hour for one as they fulfill them all at once lol

the tables were frequented much more rapidly, at least from what i saw

I probably spent more on shows then flight and hotel stay together lol

great shows but man they run heavy

I prefer the pinball hall of fame

where 5 bucks can last for hours !!!

Disney world gives you free bus service to and from the airport.

I went to Vegas many times between 2000-2008. It was a paradise. Sounds like a giant rip off now. What the hell?

Aside from the Resort Fee crap, Reno still treats you right.

Is Rent-a-Wreck still in operation? If not, I'm out too

Food and Beverage has become big business. The fact is, the casinos make more off of the hotels, shows, and F&B than they do on the gambling anymore. You can blame the "family friendly" atmosphere that started the ball rolling downhill, which is why they have started a campaign to bring back Sin City. The vast majority of folks travelling there anymore are not gamblers...they are family vacationers, and people attending trade shows. The city and industry are a victim of their own success.

Accountants. The FBI and the local police like to take credit for running the Mob out of Vegas. It is my opinion that it was the accountants that ran them out.

My wife and I used to go to Vegas back in the Mob days. It was a great cheap vacation. I worked for an airline and February was airline appreciation month. We got rooms at the Tropicana for $7.77 a night. One time we got a suite a Caesar's for $11.77 a night.

Buffets were $1.77 for breakfast, $3.77 for lunch and $5.77 (sometimes $7.77) for dinner. There was always the $1.77 T-bone and 2 egg breakfast from The Sands from 2am to 5am.

Show tickets were usually under $10 and most casinos had a spin the wheel or a giant slot machine out front and you could win tickets.

So for about $60 we could spend a nice weekend out, gamble a little and have some nice meals and a show or two. Last month I spent 5 days there for a conference and it cost over $1000 for just myself (company money, not mine thankfully) and that didn't count any dinners (sponsor "wined and dined" us).

It's cheaper now to go to an all-inclusive in Cancun than it is to go to Vegas. Such a shame.

ken

Are you saying it doesn't look like this anymore?

LasVegas1960s_900 (resized).jpg

Free drinks and affordable buffets in Black Hawk, Co..

Vegas is now a destination for global travelers, many of whom are wealthy.
The Strip no longer caters to Americans.
I hear soo many other languages besides English, 10 or 15 years ago it wasn't that way.

Downtown Vegas is where it's at.

Stay downtown, the Golden Nugget is great since they redid it a few year ago and there are a few other places where they've redone all the rooms recently. The food is cheaper, the gambling minimums are lower, and drinks are much more free flowing... or if you buy them, they are way cheaper. Plus there is a lot of free music, street entertainers, and it's easy to walk from casino to bar to restaurant, everything is close together. I stopped staying on the strip about 5 years ago, and even when I was staying on the strip, I was doing more of my drinking and gambling downtown.

If you gamble on the strip, go to a place like Casino Royale, where they have lower min bets and you still get decent drink service, but you will get free drinks all day long at most of the casinos downtown.

Downtown used to be where it's at until most of the cool places folded--Fitzgerald's, Las Vegas Club, Union Plaza, Lucky Strike, etc. and the remaining casinos "modernized"--Four Queens, Nugget. The Fremont Experience blows and ruined what is left of old downtown.

Sadly,this is true!!I also saw the early Vegas,as I was stationed at Nellis A.F.B.During Vietnam! Vegas is admittidly dyeing!! The same thing is happing in Reno,in the larger "resort" hotels !You should see the older parts of north Vegas,you'd swear your in a south L.A.Ghetto!! They are trying to flip properties there now to try to get some interest,with the Raiders coming in 2 years! Summary: Gambling is for the Indians now!!

$229 to see Rod Stewart? That should be a crime.

I've just been blown away by the cost to do *anything* these days. I sound like a curmudgeon but it seems like the last ten years the cost of EVERYTHING has skyrocketed.

Agree, its bad. LV used to be a slam dunk for at least 2 or 3 trips a year, especially in the summer when it got really cheap. Book a room, jump in the car, and head out, just like in The Hangover. It used to be so much fun, and being as how I was pretty poor in the 70s and 80s it was great to get the free drinks, 99 cent shrimp cocktail, 1.99 steak and eggs, etc. Sit by the pool at the Tropicana all day and watch the scenery.

Now it is just so damn tedious it is painful. The most appalling thing to me are the restaurants in the casinos, from casual on up. They charge so much money and it is usually not very good. And now, charging for parking?? That is absurd. Of course the minimum bets are higher, you are lucky to play for 10$. The shows are ridiculous.

It is hard to believe the shows I got to see back in the day for nothing more than $20 or $30 seats. The big ones of course like Folies Bergere and such, plus Smothers Brothers, Charo, Rich Little, Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles, and who knows how many I forgot about. It was great when you just bought tickets to the show, then you lined up and when you got to the front just slip the guy a 10 and you would sit right up front. I sat 3 feet from Don Rickles for the entire show and yes he nailed me. Now the cheapest shows are $150-200 and that is to sit in the back. As far as Cirque, it was OK the first 5 times I saw one, but that's enough.

Nowadays we just go over there once every 2-3 years. And every time when we're done we swear we're never going back.

When they covered downtown that to me was the beginning of the end.

Vegas is for SUCKERS !! Who in there right mind thinks there going to go to any casino any where's and win more then they have put in has got LOSER written all over there face and deserve to be taken for all they have in there pockets. Those casino's didn't get that nice by letting people win. And then there's the people that think there getting a "free room and meal" because they spent thousands of dollars there......LOL.
It's as simple as that.

John

Your first mistake was staying at Ceasar's.... jeebus. Stratosphere might be a mile and a half from everything, but we were not treated like that there. We didn't really attempt to get free alcohol, but still...

Even the buffet at Ceasar's is ridiculous...the Bacchanal? It was by far the most expensive buffet we went to in 5 days, and the one we liked the LEAST. Want to say it was like 120 EACH?!? But YOLO, ya know? The best thing they had was a blood orange beer sorbet. Just depressing for the money. Won't be going back in there to gamble or eat, ever. Next time we go, we're definitely going over to Fremont to poke around.

LOL this is so true as well. It was cheaper for us to take an Uber from the airport than it was to take one of the shuttles, because the shuttles charge PER PERSON, and Uber doesn't!

I just got home from Vegas yesterday, I toured a timeshare for 2 hours, and they comped my three nights, gave me free show tickets, and paid us 150 bucks cash. I don't gamble so I played the pins at Fremont arcade, and at NYNY, they were in amazing shape!
Now I don't gamble, but had 30 minutes to burn before we left, I dropped two quarters in Elvis at Excalibur and won 100 bucks. I cashed out.
I guess it's different for each person.

Especially at night. Super especially in front of the drive-up motel rooms in front of Circus Circus.

My favorite part, and this has been true for years, is how every single person that goes there is a winner every time they go. I'm not kidding, I can't even count how many times I've listened to this story. "Every time I go to LV, I win money. Or sometimes I break even." No one EVER comes back and says they lost money!

Always wondered how they built all that fancy stuff when everyone who visits there wins money

Haha not true. My buddies dad bought the most expensive house in town with his Vegas winnings.

Hmm but he lost it a year later and they moved back to the sticks...so maybe you are right

sigma derby is why you need to go!!!!

I go to Vegas every year. My room is always comped for 3 of the 4 nights but the "resort charge" is growing yearly. It's now $39 per night at the Venetian for the charge. It definitely costs some money but if you gamble, do it at the tables and not the slots. Much better odds there. Be prepared to lose what you brought and be happy if you don't. I always have a good time.

Short of our last day there, we had broken even on gambling. Had a bit of a YOLO moment though and decided it was already budgeted to be lost, so we kept playing. Oh well?

Those Aruze slot machines are f---king technological wonders. Reels on steppers so you still have some kind of physical reel even if it's fully computer controlled, that do nuts things...reels spinning backwards, in slow motion, shaking, lining up, and clear LCD displays for bonus rounds. If someone knows how I could get ahold of one (legal to own slots in TX, already checked) I'd be *VERY* interested, as I contacted Aruze and they basically said they only sell through their distributors...which they wouldn't tell me who that was, heh.

Can't tell you how many times we had relatively big wins on their Aztec or "wolf moon" themed games.. think my best one was a 90 buck win on a 20 cent spin...

Stay away from the tourist-trap quagmire and Vegas kicks ass.

Also:
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I've paid for my entire trip before with poker and craps wins, multiple times. I don't plan to win, I budget how much I can gamble each day. It's funny though, the last two times I've been to Vegas has been for a big music festival and I've barely gambled at all.

Vegas hasn't been the same since Moe Greene passed

Yeah that's another thing is that people who do "win" dont' know when to quit and then end up putting it right back in the machine and usually more. If I were to ever play and win anything I'd cash out right then and never go back because the odd's of doing it again are just a little bit against you.

John

I don't agree with you, but I do admit I was very sad to see The Gold Spike turned into a hipster clubhouse and The Western shuttered. At least we still have the El Cortez for that good 'ol shitty, awesome atmosphere.

I disagree 100% John. I go to Vegas to gamble 1 - 2 times a year, but I play poker and bet on football. I am not playing the house on those.

That's not downtown Vegas

I liked Vegas when you actually got paid in quarters when you cashed out your slot. Loved walking around with a bucket of quarters. That stupid piece of paper you get now sucks. I was there last 4 years ago and decided that was it. Seems like a domestic beer averaged about $8. Didn't play any slots or game tables. Just football(that is gambling at its funnest if you ask me). I did see Tears for Fears at the beach and it was one of the best laid back concerts I ever went to. That was probably 6 years ago. But yes, I'm done with Vegas.

We were in Vegas last week. Stayed at the Golden Gate for 30 dollars a night. We were there Monday through Wednesday. All the casinos downtown are within walking distance and they still have 5 dollar Black Jack and Craps tables. Golden Nugget was the only one that said we had to bet a dollar before the drinks were free. Food is pricey but other than that it was pretty cheap vacation. The hotel rooms have been remodeled and are up to date. I don't even go to the big casinos anymore unless I am going to see a show. Its a complete rip off at the newer ones.

The Golden Gate is so excellent, those rooms are so hilariously tiny and awesome. You don't go to Vegas to sit in your hotel room!