As I have family members who have moved to LV, I am contemplating
the future of the gaming industry and LV in particular.
From what I have read, I believe the saturation of gaming will
adversly affect certain existing venues. More particularly, Reno
seems to be adversly affected by the proliferation on tribal gaming
in California. There is little growth and flat profits in Atlantic
City, perhaps due in part from Connecticut competition. With the
development of casinos in NY and perhaps PA, Atlantic city and CT
casinos could be adversly affected. However with the proliferation
of new casinos and venues, the gaming industry seems to have years
of continued growth, albeit with diminishing profits at certain
existing facilities. Continued growth should be good for
manufacturers such as IGA and other suppliers to the gaming industry.
To a certain extent I believe LV to be a special case. With the
overall expansion of gaming, there will be more players who wish to
occasionally visit the "high Mecca" of gaming - LV. This trend will
be amplified by the proliferation of gaming, poker and LV based
televison shows. Thus continued national expansion of venues may
help LV by adding to the base of gamblers more than additional
venues hurts LV by providing established gamblers in under-provided
areas with a regular venue. It should also be considered that LV has
benefited from the prior national gaming explosion, and how much
future growth will result from this phenomenon is open to question.
As a semi-regular gamer in the East, part of what makes LV the "high
Mecca" is the availibility of better VP (and gaming in general) as
well as the mega resorts and glitter. Therfore I consider the
tightening of certain games misguided, as the the diminishing of LV
as the best venue, far outweighs the small profits professionals and
others can rake of these games. Of course one casio or chain must
primarily consider the affect on its bottom line and not the overall
luster of LV, however LV has too much at stake not to protect its
status as the most desirable gambling venue. Atlantic City is an
example of the development of many casinos without improving the
overall ambiance or desireability of the City itself, which is why
it remains deceidedly inferior to LV as a destination. Hopefully LV
planners will continue to protect its overall desireability.
These are just my thoughts and no one should make any investment or
other decsion based thereon. What do the rest of you think regarding
this question?
David