Nevada conventions healthy, Nevadans not so much

Tourism to Las Vegas in May was 12% higher than April and June should continue the climb, even if long-awaited World of Concrete was a flop (one-sixth of the expected attendance). Next up was the Nightclub & Bar Show, which drew 9,000 attendees. “I have goosebumps,” said one conventioneer of the back-to-almost-normal atmosphere. Despite the pounding techno music, amenities ran toward such mundane finger foods as Cheetos and tater tots. Portable bowling alleys and karaoke machines were among the items of interest. Evidently attendance was a last-minute decision for some, judging from the on-site registrations spotted by the Wall Street Journal. Most of the products on display were rather humble, such as a new drinking game (patent pending?) and a green-colored schnapps called Nuke Waste—how apt for Nevada.

It wasn’t quite the Nightclub & Bar Show of years past, being significantly chastened by Covid concerns. Where the expo had once been synonymous with six nights of clubbing, this year there were but two. Panels and (the more important) happy hours were also curtailed. Attendance was down 15%, exhibitors by 20%, which is still a lot better than World of Concrete managed. “Most of my sales from 1980 until today are still in-person,” said game entrepreneur Bobby Earp. “There’s no substitute for the contacts we make here.” Attendees were more worried about rising labor costs and flagging social-media presences than about Coronavirus. Even if the event was rather muted, the expo floor was awash with booze, which was freely sampled, one of the great bonuses of almost any Vegas convention. With 35 large-scale events booked between now and the end of the year, the Sin City convention calendar looks surprisingly healthy.

Speaking off which … the fiscal health of Nevada hinges on the physical health of Nevadans and it’s not looking so good. Las Vegas is fourth in the U.S. per capita for cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19 and is flirting with first place. “The variants that we’re facing, which essentially dominate the field now, are your Olympian viruses,” Dr. Mark Pandori, chief of the Nevada State Public Health Lab, told the Nevada Independent. “These are the ones that have competed and competed and competed and are now the most proficient at infecting people.”

What makes Clark County virus-centric? Combine a low vaccination rate with millions of tourists streaming through and you’ve got a veritable Covid cocktail. It’s looking as though Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) was premature in dispersing his Coronavirus task force and is now having to ramp back up. Still, even as FEMA is brought onto the scene to combat the crisis, Sisolak literally whistles past the graveyard, saying, “I don’t want to take steps backwards.” Yes, death is a downer for business, isn’t it, Steve?

More sober heads, ones who expected Covid-19 to worsen in Nevada after all restrictions were lifted on June 1, are surprised by how bad the situation has become, with the Delta variant representing 60% of new cases. Said Nevada Hospital Association Executive Director Chris Lake, “That increased transmission, along with the plateau in vaccinations, is really what is driving this rapid increase in hospitalizations.” It’s not just a Sin City thing: Reno and Carson City are seeing spikes in caseloads. But Clark County has the most dismal vaccination rate: a disgraceful 38%. At the risk of sounding callous, it would be a shame if the Las Vegas economic recovery were blunted (or worse) because of a second public-health calamity. But until people at large grasp the seriousness of the situation, optimism is difficult to maintain.

Closer to Covid home turf, surges in the disease in China have put paid to a plan to reopen Macao to travelers from Hong Kong. This raises questions about, among other things, Las Vegas Sands‘ decision to put all but one of its eggs in the Macanese basket. The Motley Fool queried the strategy, noting that LVS was cashing out of the U.S. at a time when its gaming markets were the strongest. Macao represents 65% of Sands’ revenue and 41% of its cash flow (Singapore now must carry the rest of the load.) Says The Fool of Macao, “it’s unclear if the region will ever fully recover to its former heyday.” It’s certainly taking a long time to even begin to do that. Casino revenues in the enclave were $817 million in May—hardly chump change but a shadow of what they normally are. Beijing is keeping a tight rein on tourism and analyst speculation that mass-market players will make up for absent VIPs sounds like so much wishful thinking.

The central government is also throttling all-important junket operations, whose numbers have dwindled from 235 to 85 over the past eight years. Would that Chinese Covid-19 vaccines were as prophylactic (they aren’t): “New outbreaks could sink whatever nascent recovery may be under way.” It’s understandable that Sands management was dazzled by the $6.25 billion that Venelazzo‘s buyers dangled before them but that may have been as decision taken in haste only to be repented at leisure. Or, as The Fool puts it, “Sands exhibited poor timing in choosing to leave Las Vegas when it did.” Sands shareholders seem to agree: While MGM Resorts International is 32% higher this year, LVS was trended 14% downward. Texas was a bust and New York State will happen much later than hoped, if at all. CEO Rob Goldstein can do little but twiddle his thumbs and wait for all-important Macanese concession renewal next year. His company’s and the city’s fates are now hopelessly intertwined.

That controversial Seminole Tribe compact is starting to make headlines in Washington, D.C., which may not bode well for it. The Washington Post felt moved to do an in-depth feature on the tribe’s ginormous money machine, which is certainly a case of success being the best revenge, especially for a band that was persecuted nearly to extinction by the U.S. government back in the 19th century. Tribal Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. must have sensed something not so good about the WaPo’s attention, for he extended on the scantest cooperation.

In a preemptive strike, Rep. Lou Correa (D) introduced a bill, with bipartisan support, to codify the new Seminole compact’s creative interpretation of ‘tribal lands’ into settled law. Per Correa’s somewhat topsy-turvy logic, reservation boundaries extend well into cyberspace and so long as a mobile wager is run through a server on tribal ground, it’s hunky-dory. In his own defense, Correa says this is what the authors of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act would have done, had there been an Internet in 1988. Unfortunately, we cannot ring up John McCain and ask him if that was the case. An attempt in the previous Congress to do what Correa is doing got precisely nowhere, so we don’t have high expectations this time around.

An outbreak of Bieber Fever occurred in the dining room of Delilah in Wynncore, the newest must-see spot on the Las Vegas Strip (yes, even more than Resorts World Las Vegas). Attendees to date are a who’s-who of celebrity, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, comedian Dave Chappelle, Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, celeb anti-Semite Mel Gibson, footballer Odell Beckham Jr., Oscar winner Jared Leto, and where-are-they-nows Kourtney Kardashian and Megan Fox (and many, many more). We’d run out of cyber ink listing all the names and printing the photos—although Gibson ducked the cameras—but we imagine it must be pretty hard to get a table at Delilah these days.

Jottings: Spotted at the latest UFC carnage, successful casino owner Phil Ruffin and sometime business partner Donald Trump. In a superhuman display of restraint, Trump refrained from saying anything inflammatory … Wisconsin‘s Oneida Tribe has inked a compact with Gov. Tony Evers (D) to take bets on pro sports games and drafts as well as award shows (think Oscars). College-sports betting is banned … Remember the days when Las Vegas was synonymous with quickie divorces? You can re-live them at Tule Springs Ranch, in Floyd Lamb State Park, an oasis in the desert. For those looking to untie the knot, Tule Springs was a cottage industry complete with cottages. Park namesake Lamb was convicted of bribery back in 1983 but that hasn’t kept his name off this picturesque byway … On a final Covid-19 note, MGM Resorts International’s Strip placards hawking “Free vaccines! FREE BEER!” kind of say it all about the current desperation: