Las Vegas Hasn't Been About Gambling Since 1999

[steve2470]

Last edited Sat Mar 9, 2013, 10:29 PM - Edit history (1)

(headline theirs, not mine)

Las Vegas will always be known for its gambling.

But in more recent years, Vegas has become a hub for high-end shops, amazing restaurants, and incredible shows.

Here's an excerpt from a new research note from Bank of America Merrill Lynch:

Perhaps the most important dynamic overall on the demand front is the changing composition of total Las Vegas Strip revenues over the past decade. As we show in Chart 38, historically, Las Vegas was a gaming-centric market, with 61% of revenues coming from the casino category in 1990. Today, non-gaming revenue comprises around 64% of Las Vegas’ total revenue mix as a result of the market evolving over the past ten years into a more complete tourist destination with hotel, entertainment, retail, and F&B/fine dining becoming increasingly important revenue drivers.
...the Strip now has 150K hotel rooms and room supply has grown +100% over the past 20 years, so the hotel category is arguably the most important within non-gaming revenue.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/las-vegas-gaming-vs-non-gaming-revenue-2013-3#ixzz2N4zWCAJZ

[Drunken Irishman]

1. It might not be entirely about gambling anymore, but it still is about gambling.

That's the maga-driving force behind the city and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. That doesn't mean it's not diversifying, but to say Vegas isn't about gambling anymore is like saying Utah isn't just for skiing anymore.

[steve2470]

2. I agree

I don't know about anyone else, but gambling is the first word I think of when I think of Las Vegas.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. I live in SLC, so Vegas is pretty much our playground (Utah is boring).

Everyone I know goes to Vegas to gamble. The shows are extra, certainly, as is the food - but a lot of the stuff we're starting to see here in Salt Lake. Not gambling, tho. Vegas will always be the gambling center of America.

[DonCoquixote]

3. It used to be the working class playground

Where people could buy food and attend shows they would never be able to afford otherwise. I remember the shock I had when, at the Lady Luck, my borther in law ordered steak and eggs. It was a real steak, the sort of quality steak I would pay a lot for back home. The waitress explained that the steak was the same as in the 200 dollar per plate ruby room, and that many of the kitchens in vegas were the same, regardless of four star status or diner, because of space concerns. Of course, if you paid the 200, you would be dining among dali paintings...but the steak, it was actually cheaper just to use the same quality steakl rather than waste space dsividing up the kitchens. Throw in stuff like ((cent shrimp cocktails, and you had something.

Of course, the current trend is for mega resorts, the sorts built to lure the chinse out of macau and the arbas out of Dubai, as well as for our own American royalty who fell more comfrtable outside theiur native land, who love hearing the europeans complenet them on their French, and who like the fact that their wallet makes them gods.

[zbdent]

5. I know ... do you realize how hard it is to find a slot machine there???

[Drunken Irishman]

6. LOL

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. Fremont Street. Stay away from The Strip, it's just a facade to mesmerize suckers anymore. n/t

[Callmecrazy]

7. I helped build those resorts...

I worked as a union electrician there for over 15 years.
The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace has great high-end boutiques like Versace and Jimmie Choo.
It's just one of hundreds of great shopping areas in the hotels. My favorite is the one at Paris.

[Robb]

8. I used to say, no matter how expensive a show or meal was...

...it was less expensive than spending that hour or two at the tables.

[TeamPooka]

10. 100,000 people a year get married there and it's a billion dollar biz for the city.

[elehhhhna]

11. haha bullshi+

they're underreporting the gambling revenue.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

12. I absolutely hated Vegas when I was younger

I went a couple of times with my parents when it was at its dingiest and hated it, I went a couple times in my early 20's and hated it. I just didn't find all you can eat cafeteria food and a guy with puppets telling jokes about anal sex to have been worth a four hour drive. I wasn't terribly interested in the 'sin' either.

It only really clicked with me over the past number of years when I was working in Canada and my girlfriend was working in Texas and both of us flying to Las Vegas was cheaper than one of us flying to Calgary or Dallas and much cheaper than flying home. We would watch for deals and just take off. It is 99% just about hanging out and doing stuff together. She will gamble a little when we are with another couple, but it barely registers on the list of things to do.

[Egalitarian Thug]

13. And by no coincidence at all, that's when the corporations pushed out the showmen/mobsters

and Vegas started seriously sucking. This is the corporate press reporting on its owner's demolition of what was once the greatest party in the world.

In days gone by, people came here and lost their money, had great time doing it, and got great stories to tell when they went home. So they worked another year, saved up some more money and came back to do it all again. Now it's just a corporate money-sucking machine pissing people off.

We have four huge projects that have been sitting uncompleted for four years (Echelon, Fountain Bleu, Harmon, and the rest of the Mandarin). Deutsche Bank will never get its money out of the Cosmopolitan, City Center is closing down, return visitors are down 40% and the whales are going to Macau because it's just not fun here anymore.

[Mopar151]

15. How does The Secret Airplane Factory figure into this?

We know that Area 51/Groom Lake closed up, I'm guessing after the SR-71's replacement went operational. I'm figuring that that was one branch - Popular Mechanics thinks they moved some of that work to remotest Utah, but McCarron Airport was a major "No Name Airlines" commuter stop.