{"id":32679,"date":"2023-05-31T07:55:49","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T15:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=32679"},"modified":"2023-06-09T07:12:34","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T15:12:34","slug":"las-vegas-strip-up-locals-down-god-comes-to-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/las-vegas-strip-up-locals-down-god-comes-to-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas: Strip up, locals down; God comes to Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-rounded\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Harrahs-Linq-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Harrahs-Linq-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Harrahs-Linq-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Harrahs-Linq-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Harrahs-Linq.jpg 1512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Gambling revenue from<strong> Nevada<\/strong> locals players dipped 2% last month. Now, before anyone shrieks &#8220;Recession!&#8221; or looks for the sky to fall, be it noted that we&#8217;re still streets ahead of 2019, which was the go-go &#8216;new normal.&#8217; If, as <strong>Deutsche Bank<\/strong> analyst <strong>Carlo Santarelli <\/strong>predicts, <strong>Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> revenues drop over the summer, that will be cause for a reappraisal. For now it&#8217;s blue skies for the Strip, which was up 5% from April of last year. Strip casinos grossed $625 million, driven in part by 8% greater slot win (on a commensurately larger amount of coin-in) and 4% more table game revenue, despite slightly lower wagering. Baccarat cleaned out the house again, with win falling 11% in spite of 12% more di\u00f1ero wagered. <strong>Downtown<\/strong> enjoyed an even better April up 10.5% to $74.5 million, so bully for Glitter Gulch. With a newly revamped <strong>Plaza Hotel<\/strong> joining newish <strong>Circa<\/strong> and the renovated <strong>Fremont Hotel<\/strong>, reinvesting in Downtown continues to pay dividends for owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The only locals jurisdiction that was really off was miscellaneous <strong>Clark County<\/strong>, down 6% to $131 million. <strong>North Las Vegas <\/strong>was flat at $24.5 million and the <strong>Boulder Strip<\/strong> jumped 6% to $76.5 million. <strong>Laughlin <\/strong>was up 2% to $47 million and <strong>Mesquite <\/strong>was flat at $16.5 million. Reliable economic barometer <strong>Wendover<\/strong> was down 3% to $22.5 million. Hmmm. Better keep an eye on that. <strong>Reno<\/strong> gained a percentage point to $63 million, <strong>Sparks <\/strong>leapt 11% to $15 million but <strong>Lake Tahoe<\/strong> plunged 26% to $13.5 million. That&#8217;s not a market for the faint of heart, as far as operators are concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Guardian_Angel_Cathedral_interior_-_Las_Vegas_18.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Guardian_Angel_Cathedral_interior_-_Las_Vegas_18.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Guardian_Angel_Cathedral_interior_-_Las_Vegas_18-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Guardian_Angel_Cathedral_interior_-_Las_Vegas_18-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Get used to saying &#8220;the Catholic archdiocese of Las Vegas.&#8221; That&#8217;s Sin City&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/cruxnow.com\/church-in-the-usa\/2023\/05\/in-vegas-a-longshot-pays-off-sin-city-becomes-catholic-archdiocese\">newest honorific<\/a>, a signal honor for a city whose ratio of residents to eateries is 666:1. Reno was elevated to a Suffragan Diocese, by the way. <strong>Pope Francis<\/strong>\u2014the first real pope since <strong>John XXIII<\/strong>\u2014named <strong>George Leo Thomas<\/strong> archbishop of Las Vegas, a move that is due if not overdue. If mother church is looking for sinners to convert, where better than the Strip? Archbishop Thomas will minister to some 620,000 catholics, including the <strong>Las Vegas Valley<\/strong>&#8216;s significant but largely unsung Filipino-American community. The archbishop will mind his flock from <strong>Guardian Angel Cathedral<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Guardian_Angel_Cathedral\">right along the Strip<\/a>. And to think that <strong>Steve Wynn<\/strong> wanted to tear it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Miller-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Miller-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Miller-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Miller-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Miller-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Miller-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Miller-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Speaking of preaching, <strong>American Gaming Association <\/strong>prexy <strong>Bill Miller<\/strong> was in <strong>Singapore<\/strong> this week for <strong>Global Gaming Expo Asia<\/strong>. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asgam.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/31\/aga-boss-bill-miller-warns-asia-against-dangers-of-illegal-gambling-industry\/\" class=\"broken_link\">trotted out his sermon<\/a> on the dangers of illegal gambling, seeking international cooperation toward stamping out this scourge of casino executives. Miller told conventioneers that \u201cissues that hurt one of us, hurt all of us and the issues that help one of us, help all of us as well.\u201d Miller argued that unregulated gambling sites are a multilateral threat and that which saps one country, saps all. But is it &#8220;our industry&#8217;s greatest threat&#8221;? Some would contend that Big Gaming <a href=\"https:\/\/sportshandle.com\/risky-wager-new-york-times\/\">has been its own worst enemy<\/a>, especially in recent overreaches. If the AGA&#8217;s figure of $511 billion spent on unregulated gambling is correct, that&#8217;s 511,000,000,000 reasons Miller&#8217;s constituents would like to see the hammer dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Christine-Wechsler.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32681\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Christine-Wechsler.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Christine-Wechsler-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Christine-Wechsler-120x150.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption>Christine Wechsler joins global lottery company Scientific Games as Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Some companies give a damn about diversity in their C-suites. One such is <strong>Scientific Games<\/strong>. Kudos to it for tapping <strong>Christine Wechsler<\/strong> as its new lead lobbyist. She comes to Scientific by way of both private practice and the <strong>Pennsylvania<\/strong> governor&#8217;s office. It sounds like the lottery maker has selected well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gambling revenue from Nevada locals players dipped 2% last month. Now, before anyone shrieks &#8220;Recession!&#8221; or looks for the sky to fall, be it noted that we&#8217;re still streets ahead of 2019, which was the go-go &#8216;new normal.&#8217; If, as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/las-vegas-strip-up-locals-down-god-comes-to-vegas\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[249,88,60,155,268,51,104,140,22,76,49,126,78,79,160,108,32,47,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32679"}],"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=32679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32682,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32679\/revisions\/32682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}