QQ, my favorite hand!

True dat. Nothing’s perfect, but the reason people follow Las Vegas news is they love the town. There’s room for improvement, but you make a great point. In pointing out the faults, sometimes those start to dominate the conversation. I’m careful to try and balance the news with the overall message that Las Vegas is awesome, otherwise I wouldn’t do what I do and people wouldn’t visit Las Vegas in droves.

Other blogs report record profits on the strip in the last year; and twenty-mile traffic jams on I-15 both going and coming, even with $5.00 gasoline.
Doesn’t look good for us old-timers.

Your list of grievances is a long, oft-repeated list. I don’t disagree with any of it.

It leaves me to wonder, are we a fraction of a fraction of a percent? Are we that easily replaced? From the gouge for food and beverage, to the lack of attractions to the casinos themselves, I, too, have been a ghost on the strip for a decade. And when I make a rare strip cameo, there’s little that makes me want to return. So who is replacing us? Prior to the pandemic, they had no problem filling rooms during major conventions and sporting events. That makes sense. But you never read that occupancy has taken a serious hint prior to the pandemic. Are the overpriced pool experiences really bringing in that many kids with cash to burn? I get some folks are there on comps and continue to gamble, despite the casinos taking a larger cut any way they can, but when does the departure of folks like us actually make an impact? Perhaps it never does, and we just continue the cycle of complaining about the old days.

The desktop platform is fine. Yes, there’s a menu at the top that doesn’t go away, but it doesn’t interfere with the viewing experience. Or the snark.

But it was interesting to learn that Caesars loses such huge amounts on their all-you-can-eat-for-$75-buffets. You’d think that if they could stand that, they could tolerate some marginal-profit-poker-rooms to get people in the door. But then (fortunately) I’m not a corporate bean-counter.

And in closing, here’s another poker cliche’, possibly somewhat dated now: what poker hand used to be called “Siegfried and Roy”?

Cheers.