Question of the Day - 09 April 2026

Southwest has gone the way of Vegas also.  All under the “maximizing shareholder value,” while spinning it as "enhancing the guest experience.” umbrella.  

 This answer is 100% spot on. As long as visitors continue to pay the rip off, ever esculating add on fees, room rates, parking fees and gambling minimuns, Vegas will continue to gouge. Eventually visitation will, as already seen this past year, drop off, causing some casinos to bring some value back to visitors. The next 2-3 years will see more adjustments being made to entice visitors back to Vegas. Nowadays, so many new visitors are one and done - refusing to get gouged coming and going. Other long time frequent visitors are now cutting back on visits to Vegas, with many choosing to gamble locally where they live. The beancounters have screwed the Golden Goose with all of the never ending gouging. I long for the Vegas of old, as do many long time Vegas visitors.

Derek's blithe cynicism is telling. "Prices are higher. Deal with it." The rest of Vegas dances to that tune as well. I've often wondered, though, if the market has a niche for an old-fashioned bargain-oriented hotel-casino. The former occupiers of that market segment appear to have colluded to boot it out. Maybe no one has tried to revive it because they would find themselves at the bottom of Lake Merde.

it is all about the money and people do not count any more 

I'd love it if South Point would buy the Downtown Grand as a Downtown Outpost, offering the same great games and deals. Maybe grab some business from Derek?

It should be possible to answer this question.  Four Queens has no resort fees.  Are their occupancy numbers better than those of their competitors?  Same question for TI, Circus, and Sahara re free parking.  Someone at the UNLV Gaming Institute should do a study.

I get comped when in Vegas, so the parking, resort fees, etc., do not affect me.  But the costs for everything else is crazy.  My wife and I have breakfast, with coffee, and with tip, its $100.  5 years ago, it was $20 plus tip.  A slice of pizza is $20.  Besides water, everything is $20. Cheap dinner is $150.  Nice dinner for two is $250.  For that you can buy enough beef to feed 20 people.  It is nuts.  I used to go 5 or 6 times a year.  Now, maybe twice.  And the casinos in CA are no better. 

Casinos are a business, and most of them are publicly trading companies. They have responsibility to their shareholders to maximize profits. If they lower prices, will they attract more customers, almost definitely. But that does not necessarily mean that they will be more profitable. Someone that I know that is high up in one of the major casino preparations told me if a table game is not over $15 minimum, they don’t make money. A lot of the casinos made bad deals with VICI corporation, to help pay down some of their debts or finance new ventures. The only way prices are ever gonna come down is if they are able to buy back their properties or renegotiate leases with them. The only other way I see is for the major corporations to abandon in the strip and start building elsewhere. A new “strip “somewhere in Nevada, where their leases will not be crazy high money. That would make the strip properties less desirable, and it would have no choice but to  renegotiate leases.

The fact that Friday and Saturday hotel rates are still much higher than Sunday through Thursday ones seems to show that they don't have any problem filling the rooms on weekends, which is when the money would be made. Is "pool by day, club and/or show at night, and eat at a 'name' restaurant" still the standard operating procedure for the I-15 visitors? Throw in, "We have a few minutes before dinner/our show, so we might as well gamble; I don't care that it's '6-5 blackjack,' since my counting system will still make money" (or, "I have a roulette/baccarat system; every time I lose, I double the bet - Red/Banker won't win 10 times in a row"), while you're at it.

I like the idea of the Southpoint buying the Downtown Grand. If they did I would hope that they also would reestablish ties with the Las Vegas Advisor. I loved the buffet coupon that was available with Member Rewards Online. Maybe Michael Gaughan is too old to do something like this. I do believe this is a market niche that some entrepreneur will figure out and exploit. There is a silent majority out there that still clips coupons and seeks out deals and I for one applaud Anthony Curtis for championing this position.

Your last paragraph is right on the money(no pun intended)

... and it would be folly to say it doesn't exist, but there simply are too many people with Mountain Dew budgets and Dom Perignon tastes. People are simply not willing to make simple concessions that are in line with their budget. Whether that's out of choice or ignorance, I can't say. But the budget play does exist in Las Vegas. You're just not gonna find it on the Strip.

I thought Derek Stevens was the "downtown" man everyone looked up too, but information in this QOD makes it sound otherwise.  What's the real story on DS.  You can be a good businessman and still care about people.  Sounds like it's just all about the $$.  Is it?  How about a QOD on DS?

My response...sorry about the too, to to to to!  Fat fingers

As of late 2025, the top 1% of households in the United States own a record 31.7% of the nation's wealth. The top 10% own over two-thirds of the nation's total wealth, while the bottom 50% hold roughly 2.8%. This extreme inequality is driven by corporate equity and real estate concentration.

If you’re in the 1% you don’t care. If you’re not, they don’t care for you.

We have settled into staying and playing at Four Queens almost exclusively. We’re not interested in clubbing, high-end retail, super expensive cocktails, or luxury accommodations, so the comfortable low-roller Four Queens set up is perfect for us. (For high-end dining, there’s Hugo’s Cellar and a couple of other upscale steakhouses downtown.) The gambling minimums are still reasonable there, too, as are prices at the various restaurants. We love the central location of Four Queens, and a few years back we realized Lyft/Uber was more affordable and convenient than renting a car. I’ve been coming to Vegas since 1980 and the reinvigorated downtown is a much better deal than the Strip. We do still venture to the Strip for the Sphere, Cartzilla, WNBA, Vicki Barbolak comedy at Jimmy Kimmel’s, etc…. But Four Queens is definitely the perfect base now. They are simply not about the gouge. 

In David Mckee's column right here in the LVA, he referred to Derek Stevens' interview as "obnoxious gloating", and I tend to agree. I have a lot of respect for Stevens, but that kind of spoiled rich kid attitude is a turn off.

Not sure why this was such a shocker to people, he's a businessman running a business. Nothing should be earth-shattering about saying that 99c shrimp cocktails are a thing of the past. There are still "value destinations" in Vegas, you just have to search for them and manage expectations. They didn't spend $3-4 billion building Resorts World and FB to sell $17 rooms and $1 hotdogs to value seekers.

Agree completely that his objective is obviously to run a profitable business, but mentioning how negative headlines might be the result of 'somebody who’s just pissed they’re getting squeezed out' was a mis-step - that could have been a great opportunity to tout how budget friendly the GG is, specifically their nightly open bar promotion .