Can't somebody do this??

Seems to me that some big casino conglomerate could open up a strip hotel/casino that charged no resort fee and had looser slots than the average and good bj rules and did not have to have high end shopping, restaurants, décor, etc. and could make a killing. People would flock to it. They could throw in some good free lounge entertainment too. I guess I am longing for the good old days. I hear many complaints about too many shopping areas, which most visitors can't afford or don't want to shop, food which is too expensive, etc. I know downtown meets some of that criteria, but for how long? Give us good gambling again!

I don't claim to be an expert, but I'll throw in my two cents.
Your suggestion would seem to be a good answer to combat the "Resort fee ripoffs." The good old days would be great, except you have to base your business on today's costs. Going back 20 years, you still had a large number of casinos that had been built on "old" dollars. This alone translates into far lower monthly overhead. As time went along, casino companies progressively built more and more expensive palaces, not to mention inflationary strip land costs. All of this translated into escalated overhead which has to be covered as it does in any business. The resort fees are a way of bundling all of the extra services at a good rate. The question is whether or not you use these services. If you do, the resort fee is probably a good deal. If not, as in my case, it's a good deal as I would not use these extras.
All in all, these extra dollars are here to stay. You can build a new joint, but you have to do it on today's dollars and charge a certain amount or your bottom line will be covered in scarlet.

Good Luck!
Ric at Joes

If there was true competition whereby two corporations didn't own 80% of the major strip properties, then I think it would happen.

You say "everyone would flock to it" but I believe the only ones who would even notice are the LVA, penny pinching types. We are a very small minority of the Las Vegas visiting demographic. It is much more profitable to ignore us and go after the rest and take their pennies, which add up to dollars. Lots of them.

I agree with Cowboy. There's a reason we don't see many trip reports from the Riviera, why the Sahara failed and is morphing into SLS, why the Frontier's a dust devil ranch, and why Barbary Coast is becoming whatever it's becoming.

The accountants know: with the inexplicable exception of Casino Royale, the low-roller approach to gambling hasn't worked on the Strip for some time.

I wonder why the monorail doesn't go to the airport. I mean, c'mon it's right there at MGM and it's pointed straight at the airport. Why couldn't they just make it go to the airport?

Agreed. While those of us on the board would recognize a great deal like that and give them our business a vast majority of Vegas visitors don't give a damn. Hell, it takes just a few minutes to learn basic strategy in BJ and the casinos even sell strategy cards in the gift shop. And yet the average table has a hold of 15-20% because most gamblers don't want to bother. They're in VEGAS BABY and just want to have a great time. That's why 6/5 blackjack is all over the place. Look at the number of bad payout VP machines there are and people play them all the time. The number of people making craps bets with a house edge over 10%.

I guess I agree with the original poster, maybe because I am the LVA, penny-pinching type. One of the reasons I enjoy staying at the Orleans Hotel when in Las Vegas is that it feels so "middle of the road". The strip has gotten so high end, yet downtown still gives you a dumpy ghetto feeling with all the panhandlers, etc. There is no middle ground it seems. I have not been to Las Vegas since 2011 because I get more and more of what I want from nice, middle of the road casinos closer to home in Minnesota and Iowa. I think a lot more people would flock to a casino such as Lizzyjoe suggests because it would get a lot of people like me back to Las Vegas who have had no particular reason to go back.

I think Riviera is trying this to some extent with low limit roller blackjack - but they have a long way to go.

The problem is people always want the latest slot machine and these are not cheap. For me, I get value at places like Long Horn and Silver Nugget. They are Vegas of old and treat a $5 blackjack player like a high roller.

Too bad there is nothing like this near the strip.......the closest thing in walking distance to the strip is Ellis Island!

In theory, the LizzyJoe Casino sounds great. In reality, it attracts too many people that I don't want to hang out with. Guess I'm getting snobbier as I get older. I'm trapped between my snobbery and penny-pinching ways. I love the Palazzo but it's expensive. Their VP bar only has 2 quarter machines; the rest are $1. I don't want to play $1. That's too high rolling for me. The rooms at Palazzo are really nice but it's about $100 a night more than what I can get at Paris.

I've pretty much settled on Paris in Vegas as the best for me. Lesser places on the strip attract too much riff raff and better places cost a lot more.

Orleans and Gold Coast are pretty nice and meet my needs. Good enough gambling, fun places and nothing to attract the riff raff. My wife and I were all set to go to an afternoon party at Gold Coast with a live band and dancing. Everyone there was at least 70 years old and better dancers than us. We passed.