Las Vegas is like if enshittification were a city. The whole economic model was to make everything cheap and easy so that people would show up to gamble. Subsidize the flights, the hotels, the food, the entertainment, etc. and just make it up on the other side with people throwing money away on gambling. It worked for decades. Then a bunch of morons went “but what if we also tried to make money on all that stuff, too?” so they started getting rid of the deals and the freebies, they jacked up prices and found ways to upsell, they lowered the already-middling quality on everything, and they presumably made even more money for a few years.
But now there’s no reason to go there in the first place. Almost anything you’d want to do in Las Vegas you could do better and for less money somewhere else. Of course young people aren’t going to show up.
i’ve worked at a few casinos in vegas and my older coworkers would tell me how much better the mob took care of the employees compared to the modern corporations that run everything now. free steak dinners after your shift, bonuses on good nights, good pay, light work. sounded nice.
the only bonus I ever got from a casino was when they lost a class action suit about stealing wages.
I think of the mob vs venture capital sorta like how I think of national bourgeois vs international bourgeois. They were local to Vegas and so had incentive to make sure it kept running smoothly, venture capital that runs it now only cares that money comes in, workers be damned.
I know so many tech bros that go to atlantic city and burn ridiculous amounts of money every couple months.
Also casinos are pretty defunct now. Sports betting is all the craze. If I wanted to spin some slots I could just go to the gas station where a machine is set up.
Every time I go somewhere with legal gambling it blows my mind how many people gamble in the weirdest places. When I was in Illinois people were gambling at the local breakfast spot, like wtf? Here there’s only one city you can do it in and it’s hours away from most of civilization, so if people even bother going it’s typically once or twice a year at most.
The irony is that gaming revenues are strong, but in the local casinos. It’s the strip that’s suffering. People have money to go to a casino, but not for overpriced, mediocre tourism.
Las Vegas is like if enshittification were a city. The whole economic model was to make everything cheap and easy so that people would show up to gamble. Subsidize the flights, the hotels, the food, the entertainment, etc. and just make it up on the other side with people throwing money away on gambling. It worked for decades. Then a bunch of morons went “but what if we also tried to make money on all that stuff, too?” so they started getting rid of the deals and the freebies, they jacked up prices and found ways to upsell, they lowered the already-middling quality on everything, and they presumably made even more money for a few years.
But now there’s no reason to go there in the first place. Almost anything you’d want to do in Las Vegas you could do better and for less money somewhere else. Of course young people aren’t going to show up.
i’ve worked at a few casinos in vegas and my older coworkers would tell me how much better the mob took care of the employees compared to the modern corporations that run everything now. free steak dinners after your shift, bonuses on good nights, good pay, light work. sounded nice.
the only bonus I ever got from a casino was when they lost a class action suit about stealing wages.
I think of the mob vs venture capital sorta like how I think of national bourgeois vs international bourgeois. They were local to Vegas and so had incentive to make sure it kept running smoothly, venture capital that runs it now only cares that money comes in, workers be damned.
Not to mention, NOBODY HAS MONEY TO BURN AT A CASINO
I know so many tech bros that go to atlantic city and burn ridiculous amounts of money every couple months.
Also casinos are pretty defunct now. Sports betting is all the craze. If I wanted to spin some slots I could just go to the gas station where a machine is set up.
Every time I go somewhere with legal gambling it blows my mind how many people gamble in the weirdest places. When I was in Illinois people were gambling at the local breakfast spot, like wtf? Here there’s only one city you can do it in and it’s hours away from most of civilization, so if people even bother going it’s typically once or twice a year at most.
The irony is that gaming revenues are strong, but in the local casinos. It’s the strip that’s suffering. People have money to go to a casino, but not for overpriced, mediocre tourism.
Plus all the compulsive gamblers can do it anytime anywhere on their phones
Way more sanitary and private to boot.
Big Casino needs to pay writers to suddenly feel inspired to write “hey let’s all go to Las Vegas!” episodes ASAP.
young sheldon episode where he makes millions playing poker in vegas