Why Las Vegas Locals Hate The Strip (2024)

Hey, Jacob, I really enjoy your channel, and this topic, in particular, is something to which I feel I can add.
I pretty much grew-up in Vegas ( been here since '72), and have worked at the same Strip property since 1990. The reason I stay away from the Strip in my off-time is simple: it has ceased having any kind of soul, and has become nothing more than a huge greed monster moneypit. Obviously, Vegas has always been about taking some of that tourist dollar, otherwise we'd be no more than a big dusty hole in the desert; tourist money and dreams of hitting it big built Las Vegas, not agriculture and industry. Up until the advent of Steve Wynn, gambling was the primary focus for bringing in those out-of-state dollars, while providing the possibility for those dreams to become reality. That is no longer the case. Now, the Strip resorts - they don't think of themselves as mere casinos or, even, casino-hotels - see gambling as a side-hustle for the rubes. Gaming is just something they are expected to offer out of tradition, and so they are forced to have it. If the corporations that own these "resorts" had their d'ruthers, there'd only be over-priced hotel rooms, over-priced food, over-priced entertainment options, and exhorbitant fees from which they could draw their profits. Gaming is problematic for them, as even though the odds are always in the House's favor, there is still a small chance that a player can come out even, win his vacation money back, or, God forbid, genuinely hit it big. The old mob bosses that used to control this town accepted this as the cost of doing business and generating good word-of-mouth and return visits. They understood that you sometimes had to give a little to get a bigger return. Today's corporate mentality can't comprehend such thinking. To them it's about squeezing every last penny out of their customer's bank accounts, never mind they may have killed any future custom from that source. Whereas you used to be able to go up to a pit boss or casino host and get a comp for your's and your wife's anniversary to eat dinner in a nice restaurant, now you have to put a zillion points on your players card to get $10 off at Gordon Ramsay's greasy fish 'n' chips. It's why when you used to be able to cash in whatever winnings you had up at the cage in a relatively short amount of time, now you have to cash your TICKET at a machine that is probably broken, and if it does work, doesn't even pay the small change; a lot of people just give-up if it's anything less than a couple dollars, or, say 87-cents. It's why the odds have gotten worse and worse, the machines tighter and more complicated, the fees higher and more numerous, and the basic services of checking into the hotel or getting change (getting a bar drink, in some places) taken over by kiosks. New Vegas is Corporate Vegas, not Las Vegas, and the Strip is the absolute epicenter for this vampirish greed. At least the off-Strip and locals CASINOS still retain a bit of the old Vegas about them, though I don't think that will last much longer. The Strip doesn't even try to pretend, anymore. Laughlin is more Vegas than Vegas! Lol.
Also, for all the money the Strip resorts generate from fleecing the sheep, you'd think they could keep the escalators working on the sky-bridges, and keep the elevators from being used as sleeping accomodations and toilets. Not a good look (or smell).
I could go on, but that's enough explanation as to why I avoid the Strip. Again, really dig your channel.