1. We walked down to Sahara for $1 Blackjack...I am a rookie so my little $2 bets were a comfort zone for me. The first thing I noticed was the age of the dealers! These poor dealers should be retired long by now! We found our favorite dealer...in fact she works again today so we are heading back. Her name is Connie and she was a teacher to us rookies, helping us understand the game. From her I learn that they make minimum wage at a measley $7.25 an hour!! We tipped her often! Heck, that's the only way for her to score extra. We were sad to see they actually closed the buffet! WOW!! I hope this Connie can stay employed w all the cuts. She really deserves to be employed ina customer service position. She was great!
2. Then we head to Circus Circus where half the Buffet was closed and food was...eh so, so. Not how I remember it for sure! Again dead inside!
3. Then we walk by what is about a 3/4 finished hotel and Casino and learned that it was almost done, but because of all Casinos in a tight spot right now, the bank pulled the financing on this place forcing the stop on the project. We read that they even had just purchased all the fixtures and then had to auction them all off. The place was sold at auction price and will be liquidated! Someone lost their behind on that one! I imagine the banks would probably hold loans on other hurting Casinos that to throw up another one could hurt everyone down to the bank that supports it to come full circle on the bank again is a huge risk!
4. Then we take a cab back to Imperial Palace which has been great to us. The conditions for the price are a bit better than we expected. We chose this place again because they are one of the only hotels to not charge a nightly room fee that can usually run $5 a night which adds up! Travelocity, once again put us in a better room than when we've used Expedia. Anyway, our driver says he has been here 18 years and bought a Condo a few years ago and just makes the Condo payment each month. So sad to hear him say in his strong accent "My wife, we come when good here. Now I don't know what to do. It is like I am renting from myself. We hurt so bad, all of us here...Look"..he points ahead, my husband notices long cab lines of drivers waiting giv e rides all over the place..." we all hurt. We all just can't keep like this sometimes. I get worried, I don' know what to do!" I acehd so bad..you hear stories all the time, but to hear it directly from someone who is servicing you, it just sucks! We tipped him well and you would have thbought we just paid off his mortgage. Poor guy!
I may not be ikn the position to help all...mortgages, people making min. Wage at 70 years old. But I can write about it and encourage all to spread the word about what a great destination this city is. That the deals are great and taking advantage of a great time to come here where the consumer saves money only helps their economy. This is a place where the house prices are now what they were in the late 90's and unemployment has hit as worse of the nations. They need consumers bad and if you are planning a great getaway then now is the time to come. We are already planning our June trip and have encouraged a bunch of family to come. Even the kids...great arcades and shows for them to see!
