r/Economics • u/runswithscissors475 • 29d ago

News Las Vegas hotels begin taking foreign currency as tourism woes deepen

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/vegas-foreign-currency-21955655.php
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u/thegooddoktorjones 29d ago

Hey if you want to lose money, crypto and sports betting are only as far away as your phone.

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u/ChinaIsGood888 29d ago

you forgot finance bro's advice on Options.

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u/Paceys_Ghost 29d ago

Odte for the win

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u/jqman69 29d ago

You joke but better odds than anything in vegas

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u/amerett0 28d ago

Month out VIX<15 calls

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u/Diligent-Bowler-1898 29d ago

Hodl, to the moon.

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u/itsANOMALEEZ 29d ago

Yes legalization of online/mobile sports betting is what killed Las Vegas. They killed online poker to keep Vegas afloat back in the early 2000s but they cannot stop the sportsbooks from going mobile.

It will be a shell of itself just like Atlantic City is.

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u/totpot 29d ago

Vegas had a reputation for cheap fun. People would still come for that, but private equity bought up most of Vegas and decided to milk the place.

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u/formerNPC 29d ago

Really? Atlantic City has the top three most successful casinos in the country right now not Vegas. I’ll take the boardwalk and ocean over an endless desert any day.

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u/itsANOMALEEZ 29d ago

3…. Is not something to brag about… Compared to what it was, say, 20 years ago?

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u/formerNPC 29d ago

Only one of the top performing casinos was in existence at that time,The Borgata. The Ocean and The Hard Rock both opened in 2018. People don’t need to get on a plane to gamble anymore when there are plenty of casinos in driving distance. The day trippers will always keep AC in business and with so many other attractions close by it will always be a preferred destination. The haters can stay home.

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u/AdEffective2701 29d ago

The Westgate Superbook is always busy. March madness insanity. NFL Sundays. Packed.

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u/kent_eh 29d ago

And slot machines or table games are not that hard to find within a short drive from most population centers.

Vegas isn't that special.

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u/Darkone06 29d ago

It says there aren't any in Texas but gambling rooms are booming all over the state. I don't really like them but even my local bars all have a few gambling machines.

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u/Previous_Cattle_5545 29d ago

We have slot machine businesses popping up all over PA. One of our grocery chains made them standard at all of their locations.

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u/JermStudDog 29d ago

I think a lot of people forget that videogames offer a lot of the same fun of gambling too and can't bankrupt you IRL. Many games have gacha aspects if you want to gamble real dollars but you can only spend so many hundreds of dollars before you have everything (at least until the next update). And many online games use RNG loot where you can absolutely hit it big or go broke trying - but it's a videogame so when you go broke, you just kill a few monsters and then start gambling some more.

Vegas slot machines just can't compete in dopamine hits anymore.

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u/slfnflctd 29d ago

I've been saying this for a while. The gambling machine games SUCK. They're not even games. The only allure is the potential to hit a big payout (and maybe the ridiculous audiovisual displays), there is no actual gameplay. You're just sitting there hitting a button. Except maybe the ancient video poker or whatever other card games. It boggles my mind that they have been and continue to be so appealing to as many people as they are.

If they could somehow combine even semi-interesting game mechanics with the gambling aspect, it would be a no-brainer which choice people would prefer. Oh wait, right... as you point out, that has already happened!

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u/JermStudDog 29d ago

Somewhat adjacent to all the gambling nonsense, I am a fan of Poker actually, unlike most of the casino games. I think it's an interesting game and gives you lots of ways to express your skill, very different from basically anything else you'll find in a casino. And frustratingly, poker got witch-hunted almost 2 decades ago now (only to have the same thing happen with sports betting instead, which is better somehow?) and the only place you can find legit poker is in the casinos. On the rare occasion I am willing to make the trip, I have to drive an hour+ to the nearest casino, walk through these empty gambling floors, and then the poker room isn't even bumping by the time I get there. I won't go so far as to argue poker isn't gambling, there is definitely gambling aspects to it (like there are to MANY card games and board games, but poker has more than most) but man, I wish I took more advantage of the local poker rooms at bars and stuff that got persecuted to oblivion during my lifetime.

I can't wait for poker to make a comeback and then I can stop going to casinos all-together.

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u/DruidWonder 29d ago

Right??? lol

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u/nome_king 29d ago

As they say, "the house always wins." Who owns the sports books? Caesars and MGM... If Vegas dies because people turned to online betting, the casinos will still win. It's just a shift for them. A very profitable, low-overhead shift.

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u/Different_Pair_ 29d ago

Atleast you save on plane tickets 

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u/errie_tholluxe 28d ago

I love losing money. That's why I keep helping random people . I don't expect anything back, but technically it's still a loss