Everyone is holding onto what little cash they have due to great uncertainty. Doesn't matter which party or which country you belong to. I think history will show us that trump was not a good money man at all. Nothing more than an evil little shit stumbling upward because of dad's money. From that point on it was all grifting schemes and tween dreams.

So, it's getting worse. There were videos last summer of how empty the Las Vegas Strip was.

True, but you'll get fisted by customs when you return to the US.

No no, everything is fine. Las Vegas was too crowded before anyway. And last Christmas, people were spending as much if not more than previous years despite what you may have heard. Our economy is absolutely booming. Just look at the stock market, it's the clearest indicator that everyone is doing very well.

Hundreds of years of history, beautiful museums, best restaurants in the world, going to dinner in a vaporetto, horrible.

Maybe Vegas is for you.

See Peter Santanello's video of Las Vegas. There are communities living in underground garages that even the police are afraid to enter.

That was driven by Vegas companies, I remember seeing Bally's and MGM logos on a bunch of online gambling sites/apps when it was first getting started. I don't think they realized just how viral the internet is, and how fast another entity can spin up and eat their lunch.

Last time I went to Vegas was 2023 and free drinks on the casino floor was still a thing at least, though not nearly as frequent as the time I went prior to Covid.

For some people, that's a perk!

It's called recession. Soon to be the Second Great Depression.

I'm not really a gambler. Glad you like Venice. I'll give a list to counter:

Claustrophobic, terrible smell, rarely air conditioned, hard to find food that isnt just carbs and fat.

The museums are cool though.

Yeah, my company could offer me a fully covered trip with extra free time to explore or have fun in the US and my answer would still be no.

This is how I've been feeling about tourist places in general. So many shallow attractions trying to get easy money mixed in with the real interesting stuff, and everyone is competing for a spot with the good stuff, which drives prices to ridiculous levels and still there's a large line and crowd.

I much prefer places tuned to attract locals because they have to at least be good enough to be worth future visits.

Sounds like you shouldnt leave the US.

Oof homie

The Dow is over $50,000 - that’s what we should be talking about!

it’s a tacky nightmare

What? you don't want to sleep with a woman whose picture is on the side of truck?

Go to Italy, complain about the food and air conditioning. That's why Rome has a McDonalds.

Canadians are only 10% at best, Vegas was dying because they were tuned only for one Boomer demographic, and Boomers are dying.

big money is now in nursing homes and funeral parlours.

I enjoyed Rome and rural Italy. I just didn't mesh with Venice. Idk what to tell you. It was a bad experience for me.

Also we're both on Lemmy so we likely both have our reasons for avoiding companies like McDonald's.

I guess they’ll have to rent out more illegal Israeli biolabs

It’s always been obvious he’s shitty with money

Went to Italy for the first time last year and had a similar experience with Venice. The food was much better in rural Tuscany. Venice was crazy packed with tourists compared to Florence and Rome.

I was surprised there weren't more people in Rome for jubilee, especially with the events going on that week. Though admittedly, I stayed away from the Vatican for that reason.

Caesars and MGM don't care about your US$5k vacation to Vegas anymore. They just want to deal with the Epstein class that are going to play US$100k hands at their card tables.

Exactly. They make Joe the HVAC guy feel like James Bond for a weekend. Now it's just a regular vacation but without an attraction.

The best thing that could happen to Las Vegas is to cut off the water and give it back to the scorpions.

no only that but they got rid of the physical machines and replaced them with screens that you play the same phone gambling game on. the magic is dead. every casino looks the same and has the same 2 machines playing the same exact games on screens.

Also, at least in my area, there are these skeezy little gaming parlors that have popped up in every strip mall where the Curves used to be.

Back in my day you had to drive over state lines to legally ruin your life.

You are absolutely correct. And the DOW is over 50,000 Dollars according to some people.

Same thing is happening on Orlando. The parks have decided that they are getting to crowded, so they raised the prices. That keeps out the poors, and makes the park less crowded for the wealthy, who buy more, and have a better guest experience without the crowds.

The parks still get crowded at peak times, but the parks conveniently have expensive passes that wealthy people can purchase to skip the lines.

I got free express passes for a work event, worth normally around $160 each. I got to spend 2.5 hours in line (the express line!) before the ride broke down and we all had to leave. In just over 8 hours in the park, we rode exactly 2 rides and would have spent over $500 each for the privilege had it not been a work trip.

Fuck Universal Epic.

I disagree. I think it’s helping punish the USA, which is exactly what it deserves for threatening not only much of the world, but also Canada directly. It seems like the perfect response that they boycott Las Vegas, and the entire country and its products.

Yeah, but aren't the cops afraid to enter classrooms with gunmen?

That's how it feels.

Work trip was to Vegas a few months ago. It was pretty dead on a Friday afternoon. It was me and my coworkers walking around trying to find something to do. They were charging $8 for water at the bar. And my nachos was $22.

A decade ago, there would at LEAST be two dozen dealers hanging out at empty tables, inviting people. You'd bump into people or try to navigate a crowd. You'd get coupons for food, and courtesy deals for being a member. Not anymore.

It was a casino with a mall, food court and club scene too! My town's mall had more activity than this. Hell, the McDonald's on the highway had more activity than this.

I think you've misunderstood me. I'm Canadian, and I'm boycotting travel to the United States. I'm currently on vacation in Portugal, and I love it. I can't wait to visit more non-US destinations.

Great news. I hope to see less wasteful spending.

There's way better drugs available these days.

All good. Just thought the “doesn’t help” might mean you didn’t appreciate the boycott. Good work on your own boycott.

Boycotts and a general strike by US citizens are the only things that might get through to the White House.

Universal really is the worst on that.

Disney didn't charge extra for fast-pass last time I went there. Anyone could schedule their rides on an app so they didn't have to wait in long lines. The only shitty thing there was that they used to make you schedule day-of, and when they changed to letting you schedule months in advance it meant that when I went on a trip with like a week's notice all the reservations were booked.

You know it's bad when gambling is starting to hurt for business.

Why go to Vegas when you can gamble all your money away on your phone from the comfort of your couch.

Take the money you saved from the airplane fare you didn't buy and gamble it on if Trump will say 6-7 this week.

I wonder if the wealthy becoming exceedingly more wealthy and wages stagnating has anything to do with this. Prices going up, wages not. Seems like nobody can afford vegas right now.

Hopefully they realise that they need us earning if they want us spending.

Are you saying a 90.00 buffet for one meal once at Ceasars palace isn't going to appeal to normal people?

Penn and Teller and Weird Al, let’s go