Classic Las Vegas casino announces it is CLOSING, as Sin City's rip-off prices trigger devastating tourist slump

A mom-and-pop casino in Las Vegas is set to close in the fall, after Sin City's rip-off prices sent tourism into freefall.

Poker Palace, a casino in North Las Vegas situated on the Las Vegas Boulevard, notified its 126 employees on July 29 that layoffs were set for September 30, with a final closing date of October 1, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.

WARN notices are required by federal law to inform employees of closings and mass layoffs at least 60 days in advance.

The casino was sold, impacting all of the employees' jobs, but it's unclear what the future holds for the local spot.

No reason for the closure has been given. Las Vegas saw tourist numbers fall by 11 percent in June compared to the same time last year

Soaring prices and viral complaints about rip-offs have put some prospective visitors off. Canadian tourists - who are particularly important to the local economy - are also shunning Las Vegas and the US after President Trump threatened to turn their country into the 51st state.

And while Poker Palace doesn't sit in a tourist hotspot, the citywide slump has seen many locals losing their jobs and falling behind on mortgage repayments, giving them less to spend at the city's off-the-beaten-track spots.

Poker Palace has served the community of North Las Vegas since 1974, when the casino was simply a blackjack table, eight slot machines, and two pool tables.

The entire casino was the size of a studio apartment at a measly 700 square feet. Poker Palace grew over four decades to a 25,000 square foot casino with over 250 slots, seven table games, eight poker tables, and a bingo room.

“What’s with the periodic “rag on LV” thread? It is America.”

I don’t post the articles, but when we see corporations acting like TOTAL IDIOTS (think resort and parking fees, for starters), acting like the Bud Light of the hospitality industry, we will comment on it.

The not so funny thing about the covid era is how it allowed sellers of anything to test the limits of what the traffic would bear. They did that and, because of a new generation of consumers who did not know the prices were exorbitant, were able to maintain the high prices. Staying at home and still getting paid has a disorienting effect on people that makes them very spendy as well.

PVC pipe and fittings are but one example of usurious prices being maintained. The excuse for soaring prices was the cost of raw material. Well, that went down but the prices remained high. Before covid the price of PVC pipe was almost incidental to the cost of a project. We used to just burn left overs. Not now. You can carry $35 worth of fittings in one small bag now that would not have cost a third of that price before covid.

The same applies to a multitude of products, materials and services. Before covid a good laborer wage was $15 to $17 an hour. The larges of covid’s stay at home pay boosted local wages to $20 an hour at first then $25 and more. I have had to pay semi-skilled labor as much as $80 an hour to get their attention. Half-ass so called carpenters that hardly reach the qualification of nail pounding apes demand $50 and hour. I blame it all on the pay to stay home programs that were continuously extended by bidet and the democraps as they prolonged the covid panic. These tested the boundaries and set new standards.

Tariffs are doing the same and providing new excuses to raise prices even above the level of the tariffs. It still applies that everything government touches goes to crap and it does not matter what party is in power.

People were so desperate to travel after COVID, they could get away with overcharging.

The free money handed out during COVID flooded the Strip with L.A.'s undesirables - the price increases were the only way to deter them without accusations of racism. Casino companies thought focusing on the big Asian whales (one whale is worth more than a hundred middle class Americans) would be their future, but there never were enough of those. China has restricted overseas travel recently, and other Asians prefer nearby Singapore and Macau over distant Las Vegas.

So now Las Vegas is enduring a perfect storm - foreign whales are few and far between, the middle class is repulsed by the price hikes, and the trash is still showing up - although less than a few years ago.

As a former Vegas resident, I still go twice a year for a major trade show. But that's it.

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