Make sure you’ve read Part 1 (here) before
reading this.
I guess some of you are wondering if
charging for parking is that big of a deal.
Well actually, yes it is. But
also, it is just symbolic of how Vegas has changed over the years since I first
started going there. It’s sort of the
last thing they can take away from you.
What’s next? No more free drinks
for players? Charging to use the
restrooms? Maybe they’ll charge for each
square of toilet paper?
So for those of you who never
experienced it (or have forgotten), let me tell you about what Vegas used to be
like.
In the old, old days, they wouldn’t
dream of charging you for parking. They
barely charged you for anything at all.
When the “mob” ran the town, their philosophy was to do anything they
could to get people in the casino. Once there, the suckers—I mean the patrons—would
lose money playing games of chance that were totally rigged against them. If you played long enough, you had to lose
money. Everyone knew you couldn’t beat
the house, but yes, occasionally, you’d get lucky and leave a winner. But they weren’t worried. They knew you’d be back and give it all back
to them. That’s all they wanted, to get
you at that blackjack table, or have you parked in front of the slot
machine. They were willing to lose money
on everything else they did in order to keep people coming in to gamble,
because they knew they’d win so much more from people gambling than they’d “lose”
giving folks cheap (or free) food, drinks, rooms and entertainment.
Eventually corporations took over from
the mob. That reduced the chances of
players getting kneecapped in the back room, but it increased the prices of
everything around town.
Long before I ever visited Vegas—before
I was born even—my Aunt and Uncle used to visit Vegas from L.A. quite
frequently. They had moved to L.A. from
New York in the early 1950’s and discovered Vegas. Back then, it was quite a deal. They didn’t like to gamble at all. But they insisted that they could drive to
Vegas for a weekend, sit by the pool all day, enjoy a show or two starring a
major headliner, eat at the buffet and/or enjoy some fine dining, and it would
cost them less than staying home. Of course, gas was really cheap back
then. Interstate 15 didn’t exist, but
the two lane highway that connected L.A. and Vegas worked almost as well. In
those days, there weren’t that many people in Southern California so traffic
wasn’t an issue. And all of that without them gambling a nickel, except for
whatever free slot pulls or free table game bets they were given for checking
into their hotel (the casinos used to do that).
Many years later, by the time my buddy
Norm and I started making regular trips to Vegas, things had changed, but not
that much. We could still get incredibly
cheap hotel rooms—especially during the week.
Although I bet we’d be happy to pay what we paid for a Saturday night
back then for a weekday night today.
The food was still a tremendous
bargain. I remember the Circus Circus
buffet was like $2,99 for breakfast, $3.99 for lunch and $4.99 for dinner—all
you could eat, of course. And good
quality food. All the buffets were
cheap. When the Rio first opened its
buffet, it was the best in town and still a bargain. After a few years, we noticed the price had gotten
a bit out of control. These days I avoid
the buffets but I could never, ever get my money’s worth at one with what they
charge. In fact, a 350-pound person who
hadn’t eaten in three days couldn’t get their money’s worth now at most
buffets.
There were also great food bargains
around town. Someone mentioned in a
comment here not long ago the deal at the Dunes (where Bellagio now resides). You could get a hot dog and a beer (or a soft
drink) for a buck. Yeah. Try finding that deal now. We would ride around town and see signs on
the marquees offering great meal deals, sometimes during limited hours,
sometimes 24/7. I remember one was at a place called the Ambassador. Not sure where it was—it’s long gone—but it
was off the Strip. I don’t recall the
price, but they had a fantastic deal on a full steak meal we’d always take
advantage of every trip. It wasn’t the
best steak we’d ever had, but it was at least as good as half the steaks you’d
find in a quality steakhouse. It
probably cost just a few bucks more than I recently paid just for pickles and
onions. There were more great deals like
that than we could get to on a single trip.
We rarely ordered drinks at a Vegas
bar, but I know back in the day those were cheap too. I’m sure I remember paying no more than a
buck or two for a beer at a bar. It was
cheaper than sitting at a blackjack table, blowing $20 waiting for your beer,
that’s for sure.
Since I rarely drank at a bar, I
actually remember when I first realized the price of drinks had gone up
dramatically. I was visiting during
August, this time alone. For reasons I
can’t recall, I had done a lot of walking around the south end of the
Strip. And it was hot. Really, really hot. I later learned that it was the hottest day
in Vegas recorded history for that particular date. Since it was August, you can imagine how hot
that was—117°, 118°, something like that.
I finally staggered into Mandalay
Bay, and I was about to pass out. I made
it into a bar. I was going to order my
first drink in Vegas bar in years. A
beer sounded real good. I ordered one
from the comely cocktail waitress, and when she told me the price, I was
floored. Now honestly, I don’t recall
how much it was, but I was expecting a buck or two and it was a ton more than
that. It was more than a six-pack of
beer cost at the local super-market, for sure.
I paid her and all I could think of was, for that price, she should have
poured it on her tits and let me lick it off her.
Of course, one of the things that
changed were the table limits. This was
long before I started playing poker.
Back then, Norm and I played mostly blackjack and craps. And since we knew the odds were stacked
against us, and we thus wanted to make our precious gambling dollars last as
long as possible, we always looked for the lowest minimum bets we could
find. It was actually possible to find
$2 blackjack and $2 craps. We just
refused to play higher stakes than that.
There were some “classy” casinos we therefore couldn’t play in (Caesars,
Desert Inn, for example) but we could usually find what we wanted. These days $5 blackjack is virtually
non-existent (I think casinos start at $15). And craps? Forget about it. Good luck finding a $5 craps table. It’s $10 if you’re lucky. And who only puts a single bet down on a
craps table? I would love to still play
craps, but the way I like to play, I’d go through $200 in about four minutes
unless I started winning right away.
They’ve totally priced me out.
That was actually one of the reasons
we started playing a lot of Pai Gow when it started popping up all over
town. Although it generally cost more to
start, the nature of the game meant you lost at a much slower rate, and your
gambling dollar bought a lot more time than a similar buy-in at BJ or craps.
Although it never was important to me,
in those days the cocktail waitress would just give you a pack of cigarettes if
you asked for one. These days, they
sometimes have a cigarette lady walking around charging you some ridiculous
amount for smokes. I never smoked, I
hate the smell, so I’m fine with that change, I just want to point it out. And I think the change there may have had
more to do with how our society views smoking than it being about Vegas making
a buck. But perhaps I’m being naïve.
Also, back then, if you were sitting
at a blackjack table and you had a headache, you could ask the waitress to
bring you some aspirin. She’d bring you
a couple, no charge. Now you have to go
the gift shop and pay more for a little package of aspirin than a 500-count box
from Wal-Mart costs. However, I suspect
that this change has more to do with our corrupt legal system than anything
else. If casinos gave people aspirin for
free, they could be sued if the person getting the free aspirin came down with
any kind of illness—or, more likely, pretended to. Lawyers, huh?
And then there were the shows. The shows used to be a real bargain. Again, they were loss leaders to get you to
come to a particular casino. Before and
after the show, they figured you’d lose plenty of money in the casino to more
than cover the deal you were getting for first class entertainment. Norm and I saw all the big stage productions
around town, in addition to plenty of comedy headliners of the day. We saw Don
Rickles, Buddy Hackett, George Carlin, Bill Cosby (before he became a sad
punchline himself), people like that. And
for not a lot of money.
But now….you bet they make tons of
money on the shows. My friends recently
saw the Michael Jackson / Cirque de Soleil show at Mandalay Bay and paid like $450
for the two of them. Yes,, they didn’t get the cheapest seats but still, not
quite a bargain. I told them for that
kind of money, they should bring him back to life for the finale.
I don’t travel a lot to other vacation
destinations, but I do get the sense that hotel rates in Vegas are still a
bargain—not compared to the old days but compared to other places people like
to vacation. And then there are the
resort fees. Here, I may surprise
you. I am not going to rant about them.
It’s not that I don’t think they
stink—they do. It’s just that they are
more of a one-time gotcha. Once you’ve
been burned by them the first time, you sure as hell better be smart enough to
make sure you factor them in when comparing the cost of one hotel to another.
You know the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Well, once you know to look for them, problem
solved. Sure, it’s a pain in the ass to
have to calculate the real room rate, but it’s manageable.
But you say they are charging for this
“resort fee” for nothing, or for stuff that you don’t want, or that they should
give you for free. Well, maybe, but
here’s the thing. Suppose they passed a
law outlawing resort fees. Would you get
your room for less? Not a chance. They’d just have to be honest about the real
rate, and no longer make the room seem like more of a bargain than it is. They would just add the resort fee onto the
daily room rate they quote and make just as much money as they do now. They’re not really charging you any more by
calling it a resort fee, they’re just trying to fool you about the real
cost. As I said, once you get burned the
first time (if you do), you know to factor it in. I understand this, and that’s why you’ve
never seen me rail against resort fees.
One of my pals likes to call them “ripoff fees” but I think they’re more
like “gotcha this first time fees.”
As I mentioned in part 1, they do
charge for parking in downtown Vegas. In
fact, they were charging for parking a zillion years ago when Norm and I first
travelled there. We always used to park
in the garage at the Las Vegas Club (recently closed down). It was five hours free with validation. And there was no problem getting a
validation. There was a machine right by
the cashier, and you were able to stamp the ticket yourself. You had five hours
to enjoy any casino downtown without having to pay. We figured if we needed more than five hours,
it would mean we were winning way more than it would cost us for the parking
(probably less than a buck an hour over the free period). However, we never ever had to pay for parking,
sadly.
We’d go downtown for three
reasons. One, we thought the buffet at
the Golden Nugget was the best in town.
In addition to excellent food overall, they had absolutely the best
brownies in the history of mankind. We’d
always joke that one time we’d go there and skip all the other food and just
pig out on nothing but brownies.
Fortunately, we never actually tried that. We also liked to play
blackjack at the LV Club, which had the “world’s most liberal blackjack.” You could split and resplit Aces, double down
on anything, and I don’t remember what else.
But it was pretty cool. And then
we’d go to Binion’s Horseshoe (now just Binion’s) where they had the most craps
games going of any place in Vegas. Not
only did most of the tables offer a $1 minimum bet, but they offered 10X
odds. It was the best place to throw the
dice in town.
Oh and by the way, yes I know we are
talking years ago and inflation would have brought up many of the costs I’ve
quoted by now. That’s true, but believe
me, the increases on all these things I’ve mentioned way exceed the rate of
inflation.
And now they are going to charge for
parking on the Strip, where there are always plenty of parking spaces, where
they want you to come so you can empty your wallet playing games of chance
where the odds are always against you.
And these days, they don’t even pay you 3-2 for a blackjack. It’s now 6-5.
Why? Because they can get away
with it, that’s why.
What’s left them for them to do to
squeeze one more penny out of the suckers players? Oh I know.
Maybe they’ll start charging you three bucks for pickles and onions on your burger.
Ten bucks to park, (if that’s what is)
every time you come to the strip adds up fast.
For one thing, that’s ten bucks less you have to gamble with every time
you come there. Or ten bucks less you
have to spend on drinks, or dinner.
Yes, as I pointed out in the first
part, free parking will still be available under some circumstances. Slot players or table games players who play
a lot will get free parking. And again, I want to point out that the poker room
managers went to bat for their players to get fee parking for their players.
But….not all their players. Instead of offering parking validations for
the players, you have to earn the free parking over time with your play. The system was designed to keep the local
regs and grinders coming back to MGM poker rooms. Those folks should qualify easily. But tourists? Not so much.
Most non-locals won’t qualify for free
parking (at least from poker). How many visitors play 75 hours in a Vegas poker
room a year? I am an exception to the
rule, because I go to Vegas a lot (partially because of my jobs) and play a lot
of poker when I am there. But I had
already planned on coming to Vegas less often.
And if I decide to play at MGM less often and other non-MGM rooms more
often, will I qualify for the free parking next year?
And as I said, all the Strip casinos
will have no choice but to adapt the same policy. Let’s say the CET rooms use the same
qualification….75 hours a year gets you free parking. Well, maybe I can’t play 75 hours each in MGM
rooms and CET rooms in a year (forgetting about hours at Venetian or TI or Wynn
for a second). I might have to decide to
play all my poker in one chain or another, and thus never be able to park for
free in the other chain’s casinos.
What about people who visit Vegas (for
poker) less often than I do? It will be very
hard for most non-locals to qualify. I
ask my readers who visit Vegas from around the country (or around the
world). Do you play 75 hours of poker in
one poker room a year? Or do you play 40
hours a year in one poker room and 35 hours in another (both owned by MGM) in a
year? Probably not.
Of course if you fly in and don’t rent
a car, it won’t matter. But if you drive
in, or fly in and rent a car, it will definitely matter.
What I’m trying to say is, it’s not
just about me. Usually it’s just about
me, but not this time. This blog is
called Rob’s Vegas and Poker Blog. Vegas
is before poker. That’s because I love
Vegas. Or always used to, anyway. And I think this hurts the city. Don’t believe me? Check out this post from the same Two + Two
thread that originally gave out the the info on the parking arrangement.
Someone posted this a few posts later. I
post without permission or giving credit, but it’s there:
So it looks like just another tourist squeeze. Well, maybe they know
what they're doing, but they've certainly been losing trips from me. I've cut
way back.
Vegas is a desert with casinos and good food. With all the rising fees and
ridiculous prices, lots of nicer destinations are becoming higher value choices.
It's becoming easier and easier to "lose" the Vegas vs. elsewhere
discussion with my wife.
This is from a poker forum so I assume
the guy plays poker. My fear is that the
parking charge will hurt the games in town.
At MGM properties at first, then everywhere when the other rooms have to
charge for parking as well. There will
be fewer tourists in those games.
They’ll come to Vegas less often (if for no other reason than it will
become more expensive and they can afford less trips), and they will not drive
to casinos where they have to pay for park.
These three or four times a year visitors will never qualify for free
parking unless they have a bad slot machine or pit game habit. More and more, the games will more
locals-oriented. It’s tough to win money
from the local nits, regs and grinders.
Much easier to win pots from the plumber from Peoria or the banker from
Bangor who come a few times a year.
So yeah, Vegas ain’t what it used to
be, and it becomes less like what it used to be every year. The corporate suits who run the place are
trying their best to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. They basically have a license to steal called
a gambling license, and it’s just not enough for them. They want to grab you by the feet, turn you
upside down shake every last penny from your pockets.
Shame on you, MGM. Shame on you, Vegas.
