As Flynn alluded to in the previous poker post, Flynn and Ollie were in Las Vegas during it’s last operating days. Frankly, it can only be described as surreal, from a regular visitor’s point of view.
F&O were in Las Vegas for 3 nights, 4 full days.
Arrival Wed morning 3/11, Day 1: nothing had changed significantly. There were plenty of signs up begging people to wash, and lots of bragging from casinos about what they were doing to mitigate risk. The visitor population was fairly normal, maybe slightly down ~ attributed to everyone in town going being at the Con/Agg conference. The line at the Welcome Sign was still in place, albeit about half it’s normal length.
Evening 3/11, Day 1: The news that conventions were cancelling in droves began to trickle in. The announcement of MGM shutting down their buffets had made the rounds. A few sports were talking about cancelling games. Poker rooms were still open. Rumors abounded that the off-strip casinos were booming. Strip casinos were not as busy as normal after convention hours. Bravo confirmed this. Yet, the clouds were rolling in.
Thursday 3/12, Day 2: F&O decide to re-book flights out of town 3 days early, the 14th instead of the 17th after rumors on Twitter ran amok about more restaurants and now a few small strip poker rooms closing.
Mid-day while F&O were at the tables, the NBA and the college teams made the cancellation announcements. This was the straw for gambling/tourist Vegas, as the mass-exodus of visitors (aka sports bettors) in town for March Madness began. Watching the sports channel at the tables was repetitive and pointless, as they had nothing to report (queue the dramatic voice and let’s cut-over to.. anyone that can be filler) All other sports with exception of the Iditarod jumped on the ‘let’s be safe’ bandwagon. Flynn was told by a poker dealer that the city would be shut down by next week. More clouds were rolled in.
Friday 3/13, Day 3: The off-strip local casinos were booming, confirmed by Ollie. The strip casinos were hurting. More restaurants closed. Sports-books and more smaller poker rooms closed. All known conventions cancelled events, which was the straw for business Vegas. The big poker rooms were open, but the games were down 50%. Players were taking separation and sterilization very seriously, scolding those who coughed or sneezed, and they passed around bottles of goo.
Saturday 3/14 (pi!) , Day 4: The Wynn announced it’s closure. This was the straw for the whole Strip. Mega corps and independently owned strip casinos felt the pressure, as remaining open would appear negligent. Over the next 24 hours, they fell, one-by-one, until only a few were standing. The off-strip casinos carried on bravely. Flynn and Ollie left town that night. The plane was not quite full.
Two days later, those left standing were government ordered to shut down. The city was closed. The dealer was dead-on right. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
Chin up, Vegas!
Fin
Flynn
Wow – it must have been really bad to experience that in person. We are certainly living in a different world as we begin April. My hope is to make it through this alive and hopefully not get the Coronavirus, reach retirement in mid-July, and catch up with things once the major panic is past and we learn about the new world in which we will live.
I hope to meet up with the pink guy and his friend sometime soon in Las Vegas, or maybe even outside Seattle.