{"id":27732,"date":"2020-08-13T06:06:13","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T14:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27732"},"modified":"2020-08-13T06:06:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T14:06:14","slug":"vegas-we-have-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/vegas-we-have-a-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas, we have a problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Las Vegas<\/strong> lives and breathes corporate travel and, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, the post-Coronavirus<\/strong> picture “looks scary … While tourism is making a timid comeback, business travelers are still nowhere to be seen. In the last week of July, itineraries purchased by corporations were down 97% from a year earlier.” No wonder American Gaming Association<\/strong> President Bill Miller<\/strong> is lobbying so hard for a taxpayer bailout of the three-martini lunch. The Global Business Travel Association<\/strong> has crunched the data and reckoned that we’re looking at $2 trillion in lost business<\/a> worldwide, with little evidence of a comeback in 2021. Meanwhile, Zoom<\/strong> and other online-meeting technologies are making some aspects of business travel redundant, if not obsolete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably a permanent 10%-to-15% impact in the medium- to longer-term,\u201d S\u00e9bastien Bazin<\/strong>, CEO of Accor<\/strong> hotel group said. But, as the WSJ<\/em> notes, business travelers are the high-profit ones for both hotels and airlines: “Corporate fliers make up only 15% of passengers, but 40% of revenues and as much as three-quarters of airline profits in some flights.” And Bazin is, if anything, an optimist. Others are predicting an even deeper falloff in business travel. “In the past three months, 81 earnings calls have referenced a fall in travel expenses and none mentioned an increase, according to transcripts compiled by FactSet<\/strong>.” And, as the conventioneer and trade showman goes, so goes Las Vegas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Bemoaning a phantom “onslaught of frivolous lawsuits,” the AGA’s Miller is mounting a second charge up Capitol Hill, calling for corporate immunity from Covid-19 litigation. Citing Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s recent capitulation to the Nevada Resort Association, Miller proclaims, \u201cAs the gaming industry responsibly reopens across the country, it continues to adapt in incredible ways to protect the health and safety of workers and customers. Gaming properties, led by our deep-rooted culture of compliance, continue to follow, and often exceed, government reopening guidelines nationwide.” In the main he is right but we’ve certainly some bad actors and not just along the fringes. Calling the casino industry’s plight “a national crisis,” Miller continues, “Capacity restrictions and significant safety expenditures are already taking their toll. This bill helps to mitigate the costs of burdensome litigation that will ultimately affect state and local taxes and jobs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller promises the indemnity will be “temporary” (hey, we weren’t born yesterday) and is only meant for “frivolous lawsuits.” But is not frivolity a matter for the courts inherently to decide, on a case-by-case basis? In closing, Miller notes that 10% of commercial casinos remain closed, as do 17.5% of tribal ones. Some of those are in New York State, where four casinos built on a mixture of hope and hype (mostly hype) fear that their continued closure by the government will be the final nail in their coffins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s Harris<\/strong> … As you may have heard, California<\/strong> Sen. Kamala Harris<\/strong> (D), seen above with Unite-Here<\/strong> prexy D. Taylor<\/strong>, has won Joe Biden<\/strong>‘s veepstakes. She led wire to wire on the futures markets, for those who cared to bet, and the Biden campaign is hoping she can do the same for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas lives and breathes corporate travel and, according to the Wall Street Journal, the post-Coronavirus picture “looks scary … While tourism is making a timid comeback, business travelers are still nowhere to be seen. In the last week of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27732"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27744,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27732\/revisions\/27744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}