When was the last time You heard a group of 35 year old’s heading to Vegas saying “We cannot wait to get on those blackjack tables!”. It has been a decade in the making but gambling is officially doomed all over Vegas. Shows, dining, nightclubs and shopping are far more important to tourist now than is gambling. There is only one segment of the Las Vegas visitor that still comes for the gambling. That is the over 50 male and that category is fading as years go by. Within 15 years those gamblers will be only a few percent of the total visitors to Vegas. The 50 year old visitor in 15 years are unlikely to suddenly find gambling appealing.
Increased competition:The more and more Casinos that pop up throughout the USA are already taking gamblers from Vegas and once Miami gets gambling (just a matter of years), Vegas gambling will be the stepchild of the Vegas economy.
What can Las Vegas Casino’s do to get the gambling back?
Gambling has been fading away for 10 years or more, it didn’t happen over night and it cannot be regained overnight. The way gambling was number one in Las Vegas was when the gambler was number one, the gambler is treated like number 5 right now, right where the accounting department says they should be. The only way to get the gambling revenue to return to number one is to return to the practices that were used in the 1990’s. When was the last time You got a really good offer from a Casino in the mail or by email? Casino’s used to offer free rooms, food and other perks for very little gambling sessions and it worked. They would get the gambler back and sometimes the gambler would become a bigger gambler, sometimes that gambler would spend money elsewhere in the Hotel. That formula worked, it will always work but it takes time. If the Casino’s started this practice now, They could recover and regain the gambling revenue but if They act in 4 years when they realize what is happening it will be too late. Gambling is doomed all over Vegas.