A problem with charging for parking, adding resort fees, lowering comps, tightening the slots, etc. is they make Vegas look less attractive compared to the competition (even locals casinos in Vegas look much more attractive once the Strip adds parking fees). For a lot of people staying home and playing in casinos there is going to look like an even more attractive option once MGM starts charging for parking.

2016 will have record numbers of visitors to Las Vegas. Just like 2015 did.

We still don't even know how they're going to do this, and if CET and others will follow in 2016. There are ways that they can do this that actually wouldn't bother me that much.

I thought you said you were looking forward to parking in the MGM garages because you thought they would be less crowded and you said you could get a good parking spot that is close to the casino. Or did you mean people would park in other garages and walk over to the MGM properties?

Maybe they'll give us tier credits for every dollar that we pay for parking. Lol yeah right.

How quickly everyone forgets how bad things were starting back in 2007.

This is from an article in the LVRJ from December of 2010.

The article goes on to say that two-thirds of home owners were upside down on their mortgages. The city led the country in bank owned real estate and unemployment was among the highest in the nation.

Throw in the Fountainebleau, City Center and other planned development that came to a screeching halt or were never started.

In October of 2007, MGM's stock traded for ~$100 per share. By March of 2009, it traded below ~$2.00 per share.

So yeah, let the good times roll. It looks like the casinos are trying to capitalize on the record number of visitors coming to Vegas, and I really don't fault them for that. But, when you have an economy that is almost solely based on tourism, it's not a question of IF, but WHEN the next economic downturn hits.

If they continue to find new and exciting ways to nickel and dime customers/gamblers that were once the back bone of the economy, they are in for another rude awakening when the next downturn hits. By alienating the old school gambler, locals and regional patrons with these fees, I think they may be severely underestimating how important that is to their bottom line. And many may not come back when they come begging during the next downturn.

Vegas crashes EVERY time there is an economic downturn. It booms EVERY time the economy is doing well.

This isn't because of the free parking. Las Vegas needs the budget-conscious visitor like I need another hole in my head.

This last recession was the first time it became apparent that gambling was not recession-proof. Vegas does not crash every time there's an economic downturn.

I specifically only meant what I said: Vegas had a record number of visitors last year and I predict that this record will be broken again in 2016. 6-5 blackjack, higher buffet prices, $8 for a bottle of water, etc. aren't causing people to stay away and neither will paid parking.

I doubt that people will walk over to hang around getting in the way in the MGM garages.

I have an outside hope that it will reduce the looky-loos in the MGM casinos that will be charging for parking, but I doubt that will actually happen.

Remember folks, even MGM isn't going to charge at all garages. They are effectively just letting you know which ones are appropriate for you given the state of your wallet.

We didn't have a recession. We had an economic meltdown. I should have said downturn and downturn instead of crash and downturn. It doesn't crash and burn every time there is a mild recession, which is what I made it sound like.

The idea that casino revenue on the Strip isn't related to economic data was due to poorly done research. Revenue has a correlation of 0.73 with GDP and -0.73 with unemployment when you look YoY by quarter rather than QoQ.*

*seasonal effects mask the relationship.

Five Las Vegas hotels are raising resort fees, starting now

http://www.latimes.com/travel/califo...229-story.html

"A Caesars executive confirmed Monday that, effective Tuesday, the resort fee will climb to $32 per room per day at Caesars Palace, and at Nobu, the Cromwell, Paris and Planet Hollywood.

The fee will remain at $29 at the company’s other Las Vegas hotels. Adding insult to injury, a 12% tax is added to the fees too."

Pay for park kiosks have been spotted being installed at NYNY.

I guess this is for real now, Hope there is validation for people who gamble

Yea, sure, because SLS is real close to what everyone calls "the Strip." You might as well include South Point and M Resort, which are also both on Las Vegas Blvd.

Of course there will be

He has no need to worry that he will be proven wrong. A year from now, MGM's income statement will have a brand new line item "Revenue: Parking," likely with between 10 and 30 million dollars attached to it. There will not be any line item for "lost customers" or "pissed off guests" or "gambling budget reduction due to parking fee."

The revenue gain will be unchallenged since nobody can *prove* the negative revenue impact from customers who rejected an MGM property or a trip to Las Vegas altogether. Inside the boardroom (which is all Murren cares about), this is a guaranteed win.

What makes you so sure? If you reached Platinum, then yeah I'm sure they will help those people out. But for everyone who doesn't have one of those cards, how can we know? This isn't downtown. They think they are better than those places.

If you have a player's card you'll be validated parking unless it's the one time in the history of casinos that it isn't

This is what they told me when I complained to them:

There is nothing about validation for people who gamble unless they gamble so much that it gets them a high status card.

Wat? In AC you need a card level above the bottom tier to get validated (ex: Platinum or higher for Caesars).

The majority of people will have to pay, card or not. Remember, they are planning on making substantial money from this.

Until they provide more details everything is just speculation at this point.

No, because if the parking revenue doesn't meet New York analysts' expectations, the stock will fall. And given the negative publicity around such a move, it can't fly under the radar and apoear without expectation.

That and some low level exec who came up with the idea for this new source of revenue is going to get a big fat promotion.

It's far more likely a high level exec gets a fat bonus.

Low level execs have the luxury of turf warring. Free parking is good because it makes poker players happy and the poker room manager benefits. Paid parking sucks because the poker room gets punished and the revenue doesn't even go to the poker room. So things like comps which sometimes come out of a casino's promotion budget (rather than the poker room budget) are awesome for both players and poker room managers.

It's only high enough up when someone oversees total revenue that a wildly unpopular idea like charging for parking would come up. I bet low level execs are just as pissed off as the consumers.

SLS isn't "real close" to what everyone calls the Strip; it is on the Strip. Your comparison to South Point and M is completely idiotic.