Complaints about paybacks on the Las Vegas Strip have seemingly been going on since forums existed online to talk about slots. But what or who to blame evolves with the news cycles. Here’s an example:
Since the hacking of the MGM casinos I am seeing more and more posts regarding how tight now the slots are on the main strip in Las Vegas so these hotels can make their lost funds up – is this true?
Anna G.
News reports about the hacking incident played up the amount of money MGM was seemingly losing during the downtime. But those same news reports also referenced insurance policies that MGM and other casinos have for these sorts of incidents. As such, they’d have no reason to make any changes because their insurance policies would have that handled.
Even if not, while the losses are temporary, the ability for casinos on the Las Vegas strip to produce bountiful revenue for MGM hasn’t; the company successfully rode out the Great Recession of 2007-8 while building the City Center project and opening it, so I wouldn’t expect MGM to falter from the hack anyway – news reports stating record November gaming revenue in Las Vegas and Nevada back that up.
As far as payouts are concerned, we’ve already discussed here that payback on the Las Vegas Strip is already below the Nevada average, and below off strip casinos and for the most part the downtown Las Vegas area, so the slots are going to be sufficiently tight in any situation, and there are always plenty of people complaining about said tightness.
MGM doesn’t need to adjust the payouts as the slots are plenty profitable for them as they’re set up. So are the hotels and restaurants, for that matter. Between inflation, relatively busy casinos and newer games that are prone to spin faster and make you bet more, the casinos are doing just fine – they don’t need to recoup anything from the hack and they’re doing just fine as is.
Yes, I was there recently and not one slot played with me. It was very depressing, causing me not to want to return EVER.
Sorry to hear you had a rough go, Dana! Hopefully your next trip will be more successful.
I did not find the item on Casino hacks. Maybe it is just me but I read every single section and did not find the item on havks
Hi Paula – just for clarity, this was not an article about casino hacks, but about the aftermath of the hacking of casinos that was reported in the news last fall. Hope that helps!