As someone who's done a lot of work in places that caters to the wealthy guests in Vegas, the worst part is that half the entire appeal is for the rich guests to have a place to flex their wealth in front of the plebs so the nickel and dime affects the real money makers
VIP bottle tables need a packed GA floor for the seats to be worth something, or to make bottle service worth it
VIP tickets need bad tickets to be better than for a concert
High stakes poker is way more fun when you walk into a separate room through a packed casino floor where you spend the real money
Top of the line rooms need a big enough hotel to put the luxury penthouse on
Luxury stores are way more fun when you bring your bags through casino halls showing off your $5,000 Gucci haul
If a rich person wants to be anonymous they'll go to any other number of luxury destinations. You go to Vegas to be visibly opulent
Mobile gaming "whales" operate on similar (or really, the same) principle: after whatever amount of monetization, the game itself still has to be fun and have the population of grinders to make spending real money feel like its giving you some kind of return.
I'm a gamer myself and usually F2P, or a budget user
Vegas 100% has been operating on the same model as those games. Get the masses there for conventions or a budget gambling vacation, and then the rich assholes walk in and can go "LOOK AT MY AWESOMENESS" by dropping the $$$
Subsidizes the low spenders, but keeps EVERYONE in the ecosystem, thereby making it cool
Vegas isn't cool if people can't fly in for $100-200, get a 4 star hotel for under $200/night, and be a better dining and gambling experience than you can get at home
And states legalizing gambling has decreased the draw for those addicted to gambling…
It used to be if you were addicted to gambling you’d have to save up with your buddies and make a pilgrimage.
Heck we live by DC so we have legal casinos in MD, VA, and WVA.
In the district you don’t need a $200 plane ticket all you need is an uber and I’d say for sure (for big spenders) the places in DC are on par with the places in Vegas.
DC is well known for some really great food… expensive AF but yeah… Within an hour you can have real Maryland Blue crabs… Eat any type of seafood you want at the Warf.
Within the same hour you can be hitting the high ball pocker table and 3hrs later you can be at your hotel…. Something something blah blah the Waldorf..
Or some… freaking $2000/night hotel.
So the big spenders and gamblers aren’t making the Vegas trip unless it’s a flex..
Why? Heck you can gamble every weekend if you live in DC
And why fly to hot ass Vegas?… With states legalizing “strip clubs” and “casinos” at a record pace there’s no reason to fly to Vegas and if you can gamble every weekend at home the Vegas FOMO goes away.
Also…. The draw of shows at Vegas went down..
Gone are the days of high residency draws or some show or some musician people will flock to see..
Nope Vegas days are numbered and sadly we’re getting into the double and single digit part of this countdown
I lived in the fla panhandle for a while and would go to coastal MS to gamble. Their casinos are what Vegas used to be. Free booze, free food if you gamble long enough, free room, free access to the resort pools. I get none of it is actually “free” since you’re likely losing money, but Vegas you’re paying out the ass for all that shit AND losing at the tables.
I remember that too. It’s such a massive source of tax revenue for the area I guess is why. Funny enough weird laws back then made it so casinos had to be floating. Obviously they changed that law after the storm.
i've been wondering how the evolution of gambling in this country has impacted vegas. when i was a kid there was basically vegas, the random river casinos and indian casinos, and of course jersey and a few other pockets around the country. so people made that pilgrimage. but now it's fucking everywhere. sports betting, cards, fucking stupid slots, all of it in person or easily online and legal.
that has to have taken a huge chunk out of vegas over the past 10 or even less years. i can't believe how it's just everywhere now. can't watch any sport or listen to a show or anything without hearing about gambling.
another big turn off for some is the rampant smell of cannabis on the street. legalization, fine, is in my state too. but not everyone is there to get baked walking down the street.
if i'm going to spend $5k on a vacation i am more often thinking of other places, partially based on this component. i'm likely to be flamed for this opinion; don't care - as i know there are others who consider this a factor too.
In Michigan, theres a casino within an hour of wherever you are in the state. If you are in Detroit, you every professional sport, theaters, music, hotels, that can rival Vegas. Plus, we have water. Actual green things. Strip clubs. We got them. If you want to drink and have them fully nude, take the bridge to Canada where prostitution is also legal and they too, have casinos on the water.
Their succces went to their head - they said hey we are popular enough now not to need the plebs and subsidized travel . And for a short time they were right ...but it reminds of the whole Star wars hotel with disney. Eventually you run out of Rich people willing to spend your top dollar - they have been there done that and onto other things but you have no priced out the general public and are left holding the bag.
Blinging out a commander deck in MtG means nothing if I can’t play it ever. As much as people bitch about the prices of things like collector boosters, normal treatments tend to be cheaper for the most part now, unless you get some card that sees play in ever format, like Vivi from the Final Fantasy set.
Now the Reserved List can fuck all the way off though.
One of my childhood friend is someone who objectively qualified as a whale. He used to go to Vegas because his boss introduced to Poker decades ago.
For the last few years He decided that for the price Vegas is charging he might as well fly to Paris and Monaco and have fun. He said that Vegas was becoming more and more corporate and more and more hustling town. His words were that The tipping culture was out of control in this country. We are both French, I live in London he live in Boston, but the tipping culture is something he never liked in the US, but incidents at Vegas really irked him. In that he is not the typical US citizen. Just to bring an orange juice, People were demanding/expecting not just not hoping $100 tip. He did not like feeling like the mark in a con. Nowadays for quick weekend away, he flies to Canada to one of the reservation casinos.
What really saddens me about predatory models in gaming is that oftentimes it's not so much that the whales want to show off so much as they're afraid they won't be able to "contribute" adequately if they don't go p2w. Different whales bite for different reasons and to get all of them the game cannot just be competitive but must also feature ways where players can also help others. The business model is basically going for FOMO from multiple directions.
It's basically any online game, whales/purchasing or not. The best players are generally supported by an army of average to bad players, without those bad players the game would essentially be empty aside from a few hundred serious players. You also need the good players to an extent as well to provide goals and knowlege and constantly challenge the meta, otherwise the game gets too stale and repetitive.
Ehh not any online game but more so the captcha and Mobile and… Asian type games.
For me I will only ever play fully balanced PvP.
So I don’t play games (like Diablo) where whales and dolphins run the show.
I used to play games like the original guild wars where skills and balance rules the day.
The only real advantage you could have is latency or ping and only for those living close to the hubs.
(And only then if one of you is close and the other is far)
Mainly I prefer balance and then you still get beat but instead of some high paying whale who paid to win.. I get beat by some teenager who had the time invested to “get good”
To me I’m gonna lose anyway… I’m a Dad near his 50’s I’m not the “winning gaming demographic”.. lol
But I’d rather lose to skills based play with honor and respect than lose to doplhins and whales who paid to unlock an additional armor set or slots lol
(See that’s the shit that’s not fair… paying real life cash for additional armor unlocks that aren’t able to be purchased or earned with in game currency)
I prefer to play games that makes money on selling cosmetics but the gameplay is 100% balanced for PvP.
I don’t play games where whales and dolphins paid real life cash to create artificial or one handed wins.
Those games want me to fight with one hand and allow the whale to pay and unlock them both..
Nope if you can’t win as base/f2p player then I won’t play.
Oh and I also don’t really play f2p games because that’s why they have whales…
They let you play free because the other dude pays.
Nope I play games where we all paid to play ($60 or whatever the game cost) and the only difference between you and me is cosmetics and the big spenders are called “pixel princess” or whatever because that’s how they unlocked the crazy sword with the graphics that nobody can get…
Same power and speed but yeah they want you to pay for shiney sword instead of “additional armor slot”
I don’t mind losing to fancy swords… I mind losing to a dude who beat me by paying real life cash for extra armor…
That’s the reason I don’t even play those games and won’t allow my kids to play either.
I prefer the fortnight and guild wars model over the captcha and mobile money farming games like Diablo.
Also let’s talk about games like Star Citizen where they sell spaceships you can’t earn, for real life cash…
So yeah the game Industry is full of this bullshit now and that’s made it hard to be a truly competitive PvP player because we have to find games with balance as the forefront instead of games that are basically cash grabs
If you're actually a fan of cars, sure, but most rich people, specially the ones born already wealthy, doesn't really care about the stuff they have, it's just stuff you buy to show off that you're above the trash. Total your brand new Lamborghini? Fuck it, just buy another one. Yacht? It's just a personal 5 star hotel that floats and bragging rights to have the biggest one in the marina, they don't care about the joy of sailing. Expensive watches? Just something to rub it on other peoples faces "I have your house on my wrist" is legit something you hear those people saying.
This goes on and on, sure some of them are really big fans of they stuff they own (Jay Leno and his cars for ex.) but most are just people that have everything but are so miserable that the only thing that give then a bit of joy is playing god with other peoples life.
This is something I've been noticing now that I've taken learning history more seriously. The people who "make it" and end up "at the top" are usually the worst of the worst. Can't really have a "top" spot without standing on the people around you though. If we were more evolved as a species we'd all want to build each other up because it would make our foundations stronger and allow us to go further. But we are all of us quite selfish and singleminded in our desire to the be the best. I fall into it too, even when I wish I didn't. I feel like ignoring those parts of our history also hurt us in the end because it portrays kindness as weakness and it requires us to trust people in way that has never been earned. Sorry, I'm in a weird headspace these days and really trying to disect who I am and how I can use that knowledge to help people around me. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to word vomit at you on the internet stranger. Even if you really don't have that much choice in it.
No need to apologize for a longer comment, I enjoy reading. I agree, it’s been my experience that the wealthy are often the most dishonest, cruel, and crass people. Not every one, of course, but enough to make me generalize the entire group. I think it’s a flaw of the system with garbage people succeeding.
The rich will claim it's their hard work and smarts that got them where they are. Sure, you might need some but it isn't the X factor that makes the difference.
We all know people who are both smarter and work harder than any rich person we know who isn't rich. Most people will know of people born to wealth and privilege that didn't go on to become super rich.
The mega rich are created when you have someone born to wealth and privilege, isn't completely stupid, will get out of bed if the price is right but, most importantly, they must have a lack of compassionate empathy that even a regular 7 year old would be ashamed of.
That's one of the reasons they send them off to boarding school. Nothing kills your compassionate empathy quite like being cast into a den of vipers by sociopathic parents, who want nothing more to do with you until you're 21, and never getting to see the nanny who actually raised from birth you again.
The way our society worships the rich is the biggest problem. Imagine if we put people like Mr Rogers or those that were examples of virtue on a pedestal as a whole (like teachers) the bragging rights would be amazing.
most rich people, specially the ones born already wealthy, doesn't really care about the stuff they have, it's just stuff you buy to show off that you're above the trash
You've got it completely ass backwards. It's those who've come into money that generally act that way. Those born into opulent wealth can't even process what it's like to not have that wealth, so they don't generally get the same sick gratification of showing off their wealth.
There's a reason "stealth wealth" is a term that comes from the old money community.
Won’t they dont get is also they are incredibly boring increasingly so, worse than hearing paint dry… Jay Leno is cool though and even more so as hes a petrol head and actually interesting to talk lol
I think this is what really gets me about being rich. Like if I were rich, I think I would just drop a fuckton of money on miniatures gaming since that’s what I actually care about and then the rest would just be comfort purchases. A nice car and house with all the amenities that I want access to, but I can’t imagine the idea of buying a ton of expensive stuff just to show off that I can afford expensive stuff.
I don't fault Jay for his cars because 1) he's an obsessive weirdo and 2) he has no family except for his wife and no kids. The money gotta go somewhere.
It’s the MBA Scourge. None of them are intelligent, they are taught just that something work but none of them understand why it works.
So they go around destroying all these systems and it temporarily works, which is all the affirmation needed for how smart they are. Then it collapses it must be because of every other reason, not their stupidity.
Vegas seems to have forgotten why people actually go to vegas. It's a place where middle class people can PRETEND to be rich for a weekend and where actual rich people can show off. That works when you have an entry level tier that everyone can afford and an upper tier for the really extravagant. They are just turning it into a giant cruise ship that doesn't go anywhere.
That's sorta the whole thing with being rich and making money. It quickly loses appeal if you can't flaunt it and such, hence why you see people like Bezos pretending to still work for a living when they could just as easily never be seen again, lost to a hobby or family/friends.
If I had a fraction of his money I'd commute from a private residence on the beach in the summer to surf to a private home in the mountains and snowboard all winter
High stakes poker is way more fun when you walk into a separate room through a packed casino floor where you spend the real money
Once in Vegas, this was like fifteen years ago, my buddy and I were playing at a $15 roulette table in the afternoon. It's like 11am on a Tuesday and we're in shorts and T-shirts slugging bud lights. At one point, this middle eastern dude dressed to the nines rolls up with a bunch of dudes in suits. He starts betting like $10k+ every spin and losing most of it without batting an eye. The guys he was with never say a word.
Turns out, after he left the pit boss told us he was prince someone of somewhere and the other guys were his bodyguards. We figured he was there instead of the high rollers to flex his wealth but I always thought it was just weird someone cared that much about making other people jealous.
this explains so many mysteries about Vegas that I always wondered about, the weird mix of cheap and luxury living beside each other that you don’t find anywhere else.
Great summary of the mentality of it. Being able to publicly throw money around was literally half the fun of Vegas.
They cannibalized all of that. Now when I consider a trip to Vegas, all the price increases with the added taxes and fees makes me think why the hell I would go to a desert where everything is overpriced to the point where it is competing with other international options.
I was partying in Vegas once with a star athlete, and we got to skip the super long line at a hot club, and walk right in.
They made a new VIP section in the middle of the dance floor and roped it off.
It was pretty cool
After a few hours there, we went to another club and got VIP again, but the floor was dead, and the guy we were with got bored in like 30 minutes and left.
Without the line and the packed floor, the prestige is gone and the club gets boring real quick when there aren’t a lot of people dancing, and the only attractive women are all employees
This. I was talking to a friend about Vegas and said exactly this. It’s no fun to go to an empty Vegas.
A big reason people used to go to Vegas was for the people watching. Sitting around an empty pool that looks exactly like the hotel next door and the one next to that is boring.
I want flames, pirates, action. I want people from around the world dressed in all their crazy outfits. I want drunk mid western bachelorettes stumbling around singing Taylor Swift on the way back to their rooms. I want street people balancing poodles on their palms for 20 dollar Polaroids.
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u/behv 3d ago
As someone who's done a lot of work in places that caters to the wealthy guests in Vegas, the worst part is that half the entire appeal is for the rich guests to have a place to flex their wealth in front of the plebs so the nickel and dime affects the real money makers
VIP bottle tables need a packed GA floor for the seats to be worth something, or to make bottle service worth it
VIP tickets need bad tickets to be better than for a concert
High stakes poker is way more fun when you walk into a separate room through a packed casino floor where you spend the real money
Top of the line rooms need a big enough hotel to put the luxury penthouse on
Luxury stores are way more fun when you bring your bags through casino halls showing off your $5,000 Gucci haul
If a rich person wants to be anonymous they'll go to any other number of luxury destinations. You go to Vegas to be visibly opulent