No Recession In ‘Sin City’ aka Las Vegas

As I mentioned on Monday, my wife and I headed for Las Vegas to celebrate our wedding anniversary. After a uneventful flight we landed at the Las Vegas airport at about 3:00 PM PST, and immediately joined in the mass of folks trying to find their shuttle to their hotel [ we stayed at the Stratosphere]. If you are not familiar with what is called ‘The Strip’, it is basically a 5 mile stretch of road [Las Vegas Blvd.] that is home to most of the well recognized gambling, hotel and resorts located in the area.

One soon learns that in 95 + degree weather it is not advisable to try and walk between hotels.  We tried a short walk over to the Sahara, which is one of the few remaining ‘old’ casino’s left in the area, but soon found it was like the Bataan Death March. Our shuttle driver had warned us that in the desert things appear closer than they actually are. He was right. We soon discovered, like everyone else had, that one could take what is called ‘The Deuce’ bus system. With a fare friendly $5 a day to travel  between the casino’s, hotels and resorts it was one of the few inexpensive things offered to the tourist.

We did most of the tourist stuff visiting Treasure Island for the pirate battle, that has been changed, with woman on one ship and men on the other. The woman lure the pirate men over to their ship for a party. The water show at the Bellagio was worth seeing at night, as well as seeing the hotel itself. This was one of the first $1 Billion dollar resorts built. One word description - impressive.

Leaving ‘The Strip’ we went to the downtown area to see the light show on Fremont St. It was worth the effort to fight our way through the crowds to view this light spectacular. However, it was also sad to see the number of homeless that hang out in the area. It makes one wonder how we can spend $10 Billion a month on a war while our own citizens need assistance, but that is another story.

The one stand out experience of our trip was seeing David Copperfield’s act at the MGM Grand. He is not only a great magician but also a very fine showman as well. As with with this, and every where else we went, this show was packed. The streets in the evening were very crowded  as were the casino’s. Which makes one wonder where the recession is? Though Forbes had mentioned that gambling revenues were down, it did not appear that the tourists were staying home. I should also mention that the majority of tourists in Las Vegas were from Europe and Asia.

Overall we had a very nice time and enjoyed our trip.

Comments welcome.

Source.