LETTER: Las Vegas’ deals have gone away
Las Vegas used to be a place where people would come here for good inexpensive food, free drinks when they gambled and inexpensive entertainment (especially in the lounges). But now that the corporations have taken over, they want to make money on everything. It really started with parking. All the casinos had free parking, and no casino wanted to be the first one to charge for it. But the MGM corporate looked at all the casinos they controlled and decided that they could get away with it. They were the first ones to charge for parking, and they found they could make millions of dollars from charging for it. The other casinos followed suit.
I’m not sure when hotels found they could make more money from other things besides gambling, but a real turning point was when they built the City Center with the Vidara Hotel with no casino. Now gaming is not the main source of income for many casinos. This will not change. The Las Vegas hotels will become more and more unaffordable for many tourists and especially locals.
