COVID-19 has all but decimated the economy of Las Vegas. The once vibrant, strong tourism industry is a mere shadow of what was heretofore a great game. So what does the future hold. There will no doubt be a resurgence once the pandemic has subsided. But the larger question remains what will Vegas be. It will not be the same as it was and in some ways that’s to be expected . But inevitably people will suffer.

Already the trend is to shrink the casinos. The philosophy of bigger is better has reached its apogee. It will be gradual in some cases and quite abrupt in others.

Take for example Bally’s Las Vegas. A once grand, sprawling cutting edge casino, has been reduced to a sawdust joint. The blackjack odds are 6:5. The high limit room is history. The outer pits now have a $500 max bet on blackjack. It’s a grind in more ways than one. And it all happened overnight.

Along with the brave new vision has gone jobs. The table games dealers suffer the greatest indignity. Their once well paying livelihoods are gone. They are union represented and still they are forced into reduced working hours. These are full time employees now told the most they can hope for is 16-24 hours/ week. The only true full time employees are the dice dealers. The pits have been condensed and combined to favor dice employees, both dealer and supervisor.

I mention this to remind our government leaders that with all this rustling comes two outcomes: reduced tax revenues and increased unemployment. Attrition will abet the process, but that will require a generation of time. The pain and suffering will be immediate.

So? The shame here is that Eldorado-Caesars owns a few joints. And rather than afford Bally’s employees shifts at sister property Paris, they are shut out. Historically casinos are not labor friendly and are legally protected and favored. They own the politicians and the courts. Democracy and justice stop at the front door of the casino.

Vegas and her casinos are all about reinventing. The fevered drive to constantly change the landscape is reactionary and is directly attributable to the “J curve”. Always interested in what makes the gambler tick and part with their money, corporate casino owners rely on statistics. The “J curve” as it relates to legalized gambling, charts the predictable excitement gamblers have for a new game, with increasing revenues, followed by a sharp decline as gamblers become bored or wise to the game. So there is a practical reason Vegas has no flair for nostalgia.

Well just find another job, right? Here’s the rub with our economy…there are no other jobs. When we talk about diversification, the talk lasts about as long as the economic downturns and is then forgotten. Change is so hard. And lest we forget, public education in Nevada is like a migrant at the border. Underfunded and unwelcome. And with all this neglect comes an undereducated work force making us unattractive to anyone other than an Amazon looking to build a warehouse. You don’t need schooling to stack and pack merchandise. And those of us who have been employed in casinos for years are not desirable to prospective employers…we too old.

Business in Vegas will remain unchanged, at least in one respect. It will still be cruel, misogynistic and ruthless.