Broken Vegas Math
I once had a great excuse to visit Las Vegas. I had a terrific time, and have often thought it would be fun to go back. Among other things, I'm waiting for them to finish the monorail expansion. Actually, that's almost done. Hmm . . .
Anyway, I have my TiVo set to record any documentaries mentioning "VEGAS". Tonight I saw a program on finding deals, including comps earned while gambling. The narrator breathlessly announced that Vegas takes in thirty-five billion travel dollars a year. He then segued to an anonymous casino executive who declared that casinos give away one billion dollars worth of comps in a year. The narrator returned to say "You'd think the casinos were in business to lose money!" No, I don't think I would ever think that. Spending hours a day playing $50-per-hand blackjack strikes me as a spectacularly bad way to get comped for a room whose rack rate is less then two hands of that gambling. Of course, if I was really into the gambling aspect and willing to flush money down the toilet, I'd take the comps as consolation. In the meantime, I'll be the guy hanging out in front of Bellagio waiting for the fountains to get started.
Anyway, I have my TiVo set to record any documentaries mentioning "VEGAS". Tonight I saw a program on finding deals, including comps earned while gambling. The narrator breathlessly announced that Vegas takes in thirty-five billion travel dollars a year. He then segued to an anonymous casino executive who declared that casinos give away one billion dollars worth of comps in a year. The narrator returned to say "You'd think the casinos were in business to lose money!" No, I don't think I would ever think that. Spending hours a day playing $50-per-hand blackjack strikes me as a spectacularly bad way to get comped for a room whose rack rate is less then two hands of that gambling. Of course, if I was really into the gambling aspect and willing to flush money down the toilet, I'd take the comps as consolation. In the meantime, I'll be the guy hanging out in front of Bellagio waiting for the fountains to get started.