There’s no secret to downtown’s revival

I read with interest the Review-Journal’s recent story reporting that the downtown area had the biggest percentage increase in gaming win of any region in the state, dwarfing the Strip tenfold. What I found even more interesting was some of the reasons downtown hotel execs gave for the increase:

— Downtown Grand: We have eSports.

— Plaza: We upgraded our pool and added bingo.

— Fremont: We added a new bar.

— The D/Golden Gate: We’re building more slot space.

This gave me a pretty good chuckle. It is almost like they all got together ahead of time to figure out how to keep the cat in the bag and mislead their Strip contemporaries as to the reasons for success.

As someone with more than two decades of Las Vegas tourism promotion, I can tell you what they are doing right: Lower limits, more favorable game rules, looser slots, freeflowing liquor comps, and more affordable food and beverage. They know they are going to get your money eventually. Not only isn’t it a sin to let you play longer, but even after you’ve lost that first $100 bill, you are more likely to pull out the next one because you got your entertainment value out of it. Elise Yost @EliseYost not buying that money grab: Translation: No one is donating to my campaign. So everyone should be forced to contribute.

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The mantra of Strip casinos has been “people aren’t gambling as much, so we want to focus on other revenue sources.” The reality is that people aren’t gambling on the Strip as much in recent years because those casinos decided to choke the golden goose some time ago. Slots were tightened, limits were raised, house-favorable rules like lower-pay blackjack were instituted, and people simply lost their money more quickly.

Oh, and could downtown’s lower (or non-existent) resort fees, free guest parking and lower-priced dining (both fine and casual) be leaving people more money to gamble with? Food for thought. The writer is CEO and managing editor of Access Vegas, a tourist-oriented website. the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters are like every other group of protesters in this country: They are hypocrites.

Their cause was to stop the pipeline over fears of oil contamination of the Missouri River. I guess they were not so concerned about the 2,500 pickup trucks of trash — which includes human waste — left behind at their camp and its potential to contaminate the water (“At pipeline protest site, time to take out the garbage,” Thursday Review-Journal).

It has become chic in this country to join a protest for the camaraderie of fellow protesters and to destroy property.

Take, for instance, the protests at Cal-Berkeley that led to a guest speaker canceling his engagement because of rioting and vandalism. The same hypocrisy applies here. The college students want free speech as long as they agree with what you have to say. Most of those rioting at Berkeley didn’t even know what they rioting for. To them, it was just a fun night out throwing rocks, breaking windows and starting fires.

The ultimate hypocrisy is that they cover their faces for fear of being identified, yet they want to be taken seriously. Sad.