Archive for October, 2007

New Security Effort at Las Vegas Airport-High Tech Security Checkpoints Increase Safety and Efficiency

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

The Las Vegas airport has recently begun studying the possibility of including some new innovations in scanning and detection technology and security in their attempt to cut down on security threats to the area.  Recent incidences involving visitors to the area who have acted out and become troublesome and even violent have prompted a closer look at the possibility of utilizing technology that will allow flyers and passengers to quickly and easily pass through the airport, without having to submit to lengthy and complex detection protocols.  New high tech security devices will perform all manner of scanning features with minimal invasion and allow passengers to move quickly through the security checkpoint, a great improvement over the normal procedure which is so time consuming and invasive overall.  By allowing passengers to move quickly through the security checkpoint, the Las Vegas international Airport can effectively provide security for visitors to the Las Vegas area who are interested in seeing their favorite Las Vegas attractions and Las Vegas shows and visiting the world-famous Las Vegas hotels and casinos and are less than enthusiastic about the lengthy and somewhat invasive security protocols.

This focus on effectiveness as well as convenience and intrusiveness is a good indication of the new implied importance of no to hassle the consumer and giving them a hard time, as well as eliminating potential and lengthy bottlenecks in the departure sequence that requires so much time from the passenger as well as airline staff, a very important consideration.  The security checkout procedure is sometimes long and difficult, and the attempt by airline officials to reduce the amount of time that passengers are required to stand in line and deal with all manner of security considerations is no doubt welcome by anyone who has ever flown and been required to move through these difficult and time-consuming security checkpoints that put so much emphasis on taking up the passengers time and requiring all manner of invasive procedures in order to prove that they are not carrying any type of foreign or illegal objects.

The benefits of automated high tech security checkpoints is immediate, as less employees will be required to provide better security overall for the Las Vegas international Airport, as automated security checkpoints will not require any human intervention at all, other than some one at a remote location to monitor the incoming traffic.

Pepsi Builds Plant in Las Vegas

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

The Pepsi bottling group has confirmed plans to build a new facility in the Las Vegas area for producing Pepsi products.  The move to Las Vegas is a boost to the local area’s economy, as more jobs are always welcome in an area such as Las Vegas, which depends largely on tourism to provide the income that the city so desperately needs.  With the focus on attracting outside businesses and manufacturing firms such as the Pepsi bottling Co. and others, Las Vegas can effectively reduce their dependency on gaming and gambling in Las Vegas hotels and casinos and the income generated by Las Vegas shows and Las Vegas attractions and diversify their economic base in an attempt to reduce the possible difficulties in the future, should the gambling industry become less profitable at some far distant point in the coming years.  While the chances of the tourism industry in Las Vegas falling apart all together are slim, it makes sense to diversify your economic base and provide employment for as wide an assortment of individuals as possible.  With this focus on providing more and more services, employment and a local tax base in the form of incoming manufacturing firms and other businesses, the Las Vegas area can begin to depend on more than just tourism to fuel the local economic engine.

With the addition of the Pepsi bottling Co. and their facility in the Las Vegas area, the additional income to Las Vegas should be significant to say the least.  Pepsi is one of the largest drink makers in the world and can effectively generate many millions of dollars of revenue almost instantaneously in the Las Vegas area, as well as attract employees ready to work.  Providing jobs in the region is a strong and positive note in the overall process of building up the Las Vegas area for a strong economic future and a solid financial base.  With the tendency to rely on tourism as the big money maker for the Las Vegas hotel and casinos as well as Las Vegas shows and Las Vegas attractions, diversification of the incoming tax user base is generally a wise idea.  Diversifying in this way provides a consistent and stable future for the generations to come in the Las Vegas area and the concept of attracting new business to the area is largely encouraged by residents as well as proprietors and business owners, looking for new ways to boost the income in the Las Vegas area overall

Search for Missing Aviator Hindered by the Nevada Desert’s Desolate Nature

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Miles upon endless miles of sun baked sand and heat drenched desert greet searchers and professional law enforcement agents who have been searching for a missing aviator in the Nevada desert.  Because of the barren nature and endless wastelands of the Nevada desert, rescuers are finding it difficult to locate any type of evidence of the aviator’s disappearance.  While many critics would ask how it can be hard to find a crashed airplane in the middle of a desert, where no trees exist to obscure the view, it is easy to see how it could be difficult to locate such wreckage amongst the endless expanse of the Nevada desert.

In the state of Nevada, 2.3 million out of the 2.6 million residents that inhabit the state live in just the two counties that Reno and Las Vegas are located inside of, leaving the rest of the state virtually empty and unchanged, looking much as it did centuries ago, when the very first settlers began to arrive in the area and attempted to cross the California Trail through Las Vegas, home to future Las Vegas shows and Las Vegas attractions.  The world famous California Trail was the method of locating the path to the mountains that allowed travelers to move from the east to the west, although it was fraught with hardship and peril.  This California Trail extends through an area of the search location that is home to the bulk of the volunteer search effort.  Existing in this barren wasteland, it is easy to see how entire families and wagon trains could be wiped out by exposure to the elements in a primitive and bygone day.  In the modern day, it is easy to overlook these types of harsh elements and difficulties that are associated with exposure to wilderness and climate conditions due to the extensive climate control and conditioned air technologies that currently exist.  But in the case of the pioneers, there were no such comforts and venturing into the desert was a deadly proposition.

It is these harsh realities that missing aviator Fossett has to look forward to, providing that he is somehow still alive and surviving in the remote Nevada desert.  The chances of survival for the missing aviator are very slim, and most experts agree that his chances of making it out of the desert alive are almost nonexistent at this point.  Despite this information, searchers and rescuers have refused to give up in the attempt to locate any sign of the missing aviator or his aircraft.

Talking and Driving-Las Vegas May Ban Cell Phones While Operating Motor Vehicles

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

You have very likely seen erratic drivers, swerving all over the road and causing all manner of dangerous situations while driving in heavy traffic.  Upon pulling up beside them, you discover that they are talking on the phone and possibly also applying makeup.  These hazardous Las Vegas drivers have given talking on the phone while driving a bad name.  While it is true that some drivers are perfectly capable of talking and driving at the same time, there is a small percentage who go from safe driver or at least not a deadly driver to a ticking time bomb and a disaster waiting to happen as soon as they receive or make a phone call on their cutting edge, latest model, cute as a button customized cell phone with custom ring tones.  It is easy to see why such drivers are so dangerous while driving and talking at the same time.  Most states already have a law enacted that requires that drivers not be distracted by the driving, including eating, playing with the radio or any other type of distraction, such as the age-old tradition of turning around to smack the kids in the back seat.

The new focus by Las Vegas authorities on banning talking on cell phones while driving is a smart move and is in line with many laws in other large cities that allow police to ticket drivers for talking while distracted on the cell phone.  Lawmakers believe that the ban on talking on cell phones while driving has literally saved thousands of lives in many large cities the size of Las Vegas where such laws have been enacted in the past.  This focus on the positive aspects of banning talking while driving has overshadowed much of the outcry by critics of the measure, who claimed that it is some type of civil liberty or constitutional right to talk on the phone while driving.

Many proponents of the new regulation have pointed out that drivers drove for many many years before the existence of cell phones or even telephones, in the case of horses and buggies, and were none the worse for the experience.  The reliance on cell phones in the modern day likely has more to do with the individual’s fascination with the latest technology, more so than any actual need for constant communications.  In any case, the potential for saving lives far outweighs the inconvenience of having to pull over to make a phone call.

The Platinum Hotel and Spa Offers Poolside Movies in Las Vegas

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Las Vegas has a reputation for providing over the top Las Vegas attractions and Las Vegas shows at Las Vegas hotels and casinos, but a recent addition is even more innovative and draws even more of a crowd then usual.  Grab a lounge chair and pull up a seat at the pool at the Platinum Las Vegas Hotel and Spa, where movies begin at 6:30 in the evening and play all night.  Right next to the pool, the restaurant provides a four course menu for hotel guests and moviegoers to enjoy.  Some of the favorite movies are kid oriented and family-friendly, but that has not stopped the activities from drawing huge crowds from all over the Vegas area.  By projecting a tremendous image on the side of the hotel wall, the Platinum Hotel and Spa provides one of the largest movie screens in the nation for hotel guests, exclusively in the pool area, where swimmers can leisurely float about and watch their favorite movies in larger than life detail.

This focus on innovative and original offerings for Las Vegas visitors to enjoy on a regular basis is a large part of the attraction that keeps bringing new and existing tourists and vacationing families to the Las Vegas area.  More and more hotels are offering these types of new and different entertainment features that bring in family oriented crowds, rather than the traditional adult gambling focus of many hotels and casinos.  Considering how many Las Vegas hotels cater strictly to adults with the Las Vegas attractions that they present, it is certainly good to see a family oriented location such as the Platinum Hotel and Spa offering family-friendly entertainment throughout the evening for everyone to enjoy.  Taking the focus off of casinos and gambling can be a great boon to the Las Vegas area, and one of the most popular alternatives to gambling is the wealth of amazingly designed and constructed Las Vegas pools.  With the heat in the Las Vegas area, a pool is almost absolutely necessary for comfort and hotels maximize the user’s ability to enjoy interacting with water features and available pools by providing all manner of amenities at poolside, such as gambling, food service and, naturally, alcoholic beverages.

The Platinum Hotel and Spa focus on family-friendly entertainment pool side will no doubt bring all manner of new business to the venerable Las Vegas hotel as well as provide entertainment for new and existing returning customers.

What Does the Future Hold for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation?

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

With recent efforts by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation to expand into international markets, spending billions on building casinos internationally and expanding online poker room and casino business into Europe, the corporation has made it clear their intentions to bring the Las Vegas attractions and shows as well as Las Vegas hotels and casinos into the international stage.  With the difficulties that all manner of poker room and casino establishments have had in recent years with the United States government and its interference with the gambling establishments ability to earn income through the facilitation of the playing of poker and other games of chance, many companies have been looking to overseas locations and other methods of earning income to replace the income that was generated in the domestic American market.  As the Las Vegas Sands Corporation turns its attention to the international stage, it becomes more and more obvious that the future of gambling and the gambling establishment as an institution in the United States is certainly becoming grim.

But the Las Vegas Sands Corporation has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to come back from all manner of disadvantageous events, including the near catastrophic level of events of economic crises, as well as all manner of nationwide recessions and depression and other types of financial difficulties inherent to any city that is built on the tourism industry.  As the Las Vegas Sands Corporation defiantly continues to expand even in the face of an economic downturn in the United States, the rest of the industry has taken notice and begun to follow its lead, expanding into international markets and focusing on the establishment of poker rooms and casinos on a global scale.  With this copycat attitude many casinos and poker rooms are literally rescuing themselves from financial disaster.  By bringing in foreign dollars to replace the domestic income that has been wiped out, corporations such as the Las Vegas Sands can ensure that the future of their company and its assets is strong, regardless of the performance of the American market.

As more and more companies look overseas to fund their new operations and keep them rolling, it remains to be seen what effect this mass exit this to foreign lands will have on the United States of America and its overall economy.  But it is certain that for every advertising dollar that is spent in a foreign market, one less advertising dollar is spent on the domestic market.

What Does the Las Vegas Sands Have against the United States?

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

The Las Vegas Sands Corporation has spent billions upon billions of dollars expanding into foreign markets.  While the tradition of building upscale and luxurious resorts in areas such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City is common to these types of organizations, the construction of multibillion-dollar super casinos in China and the expansion into the European market and into the online poker room and casino business seems to indicate that the venerable Las Vegas-based hotel operations business has less than optimistic hopes for the local domestic market in the future.  Many industry experts would speculate that by diversifying their revenue generating model in this way, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation can ensure that there is always some method of generating income, regardless of local area economic strife.  It is also interesting to note that the United States government has passed so many restrictive regulations and laws against the online poker rooms and casinos such as Fulltiltpoker.com, that it makes it nearly impossible to generate any new business in the United States market.  Until these restrictive laws and regulations are eliminated, the available expansion areas in the United States are extremely limited.

While it remains to be seen what the United States might have to offer in the future, it certainly seems grim in the present, with laws and regulations aimed at charging gamblers more to gamble, deducting a percentage of their winnings and even withholding certain amounts of large jackpots to ensure that gamblers pay their taxes on time and do not cheat the government.  With the extremely antagonistic view held by the United States government towards any type of gambling, it is easy to see why the Las Vegas Sands Corporation might want to expand into foreign markets.  Without the ability to operate freely, there is no point in considering the United States as a possible expansion area for poker rooms and casinos such as Fulltiltpoker.com that cater to the Texas Hold’em poker tournament player and make it possible to host these types of traditional poker tournaments on a large scale.  As it is, players must choose from traveling across the nation to locations such as Las Vegas or Atlantic City, or attending such humble locations as Indian reservations that feature a far reduced amount of available action.

While it might seem unpatriotic, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation is only responding to basic logic that would indicate that the United States government is less than friendly towards gaming and gambling establishments in general.

What Killed the Las Vegas Real Estate Market?

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Las Vegas real estate used to be a sure bet, as investing in property in the area meant the ability to find renters, attract residents from around the world and even use the house itself as a vacation home for families visiting Las Vegas.  With the overwhelming success and forecast improvements in Las Vegas area real estate values, investors flocked to the area and bought up all the available Las Vegas area homes as quickly as they possibly could.  In the rush to purchase available real estate, many investors were less than careful about what types of loans that they took out in an attempt to control the available real estate in the area.  Some loans were extremely skewed towards raking in tremendous profits over time, with adjustable rates and variable percentages that increased tremendously over time, putting the borrower at a severe disadvantage.

With these insanely unbalanced loans and predatory lending practices, lending institutions caused an extremely volatile problem with the United States housing market in general, and the Las Vegas area housing market in particular.  While the Las Vegas area has a better chance of bouncing back than some, due to its reliance on Las Vegas attractions such as the Las Vegas shows and world-famous Las Vegas hotels and casinos that populate the internationally renowned Las Vegas strip, it is still a severe blow to the housing market that will take some time to recover from, even in the Las Vegas area, which has historically been somewhat insulated from economic and fiscal crises such as depressions and recessions that affect the nation or world on a global level.  Even in the worst of times, Las Vegas has experienced less hardship and difficulty than the rest of the nation in general.

While the government looks for answers and seeks solutions, the truth of the matter is that lending institutions simply have a practice of taking advantage of borrowers at every possible opportunity.  This is, in fact, the very method in which lending institutions come to profit.  By loaning money and charging interest rates, banks can earn money on the money that they already possess.  But by loaning money at a low introductory rate, and then raising the rate later on, banks can take advantage of desperate borrowers who are less than savvy about such matters, enabling them to make virtual slaves of homeowners.

Las Vegas-Still Number One with Americans

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

With the tremendous amounts of profit being generated in the super casinos in China, outpacing the profits generated in the venerable Las Vegas area, there is no end of negative predictions about the future of Las Vegas.  While it is only natural for international travelers to visit those casinos that are closer to them in areas convene at to the international community, Las Vegas still does more domestic business than any other area around the world.  United States gamers and gamblers choose the Las Vegas hotels and casinos over other, internationally-based entertainment venues, just as those travelers from other remote regions of the world community do the same.  This is simply a normal procedure in most cases, as there are very few people who would travel three times the distance for the same basic entertainment experience.

As more and more international casinos around the world mimic the winning Las Vegas formula and enjoy a strong level of incoming traffic for their efforts, the city that originated all of this type of tremendous revenue from gaming and gambling including poker rooms and casinos sees a reduced amount of return from the international community in general.  This is largely due to the fact that many of these international travelers have a new outlet for their gaming and gambling desires, easier to locate and far closer to travel to.  This reduction in travel time and ease-of-use simply makes sense on many different levels for the poker room and casino enthusiast from all walks of life.  In the case of local travelers, Las Vegas is the obvious choice.  In the case of foreign travelers, whatever casino is closest to them is going to be the most popular.  This is simply following the logic which dictates that users will generally go after the easiest and most suitable alternative that is available to them.

Despite all this, Las Vegas is still the venue of choice for Americans for gaming, gambling and even for the memorable world-famous Las Vegas weddings.  More and more American citizens or into the Las Vegas area on a daily basis than any other area around the world, indicating that there is still a strong amount of entertainment value for local residents who enjoy Las Vegas regardless of the competing offerings around the world from casinos that are basically copying the Las Vegas atmosphere and style.

Las Vegas-It Is Still the Entertainment Capital of the World?

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

With the tremendous amounts of revenue being generated in the international community at new hotels such as those built by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation in areas such as China, the record-setting amounts of revenue generated by Las Vegas in the past has been eclipsed by these new locations that cater to the entire world throughout the international community.  With the new record for revenue generated set by the super casino complex in China, it seems as though the Las Vegas crown has been taken by a foreign competitor.  To retake this level of notoriety and position of fame around the world, the Las Vegas area and its world-famous Las Vegas hotels and casinos must make every possible effort to compete on this increased level against the international based hotels and casinos which have basically mimicked the Las Vegas style and atmosphere.  With the effort to renew the promotional and advertising materials that are focused on blanketing the world in Las Vegas information, the Las Vegas hotel and casino proprietors have already taken steps to regain their crown as leader of the entertainment world.

In the past, much of Las Vegas fame has come from its over-the-top and unique experience for vacationing visitors and couples.  With the emphasis on the wealth of Las Vegas wedding chapels, shows and all manner of features and attractions, Las Vegas is dependent on its image as a unique and extremely forward thinking and cutting edge gaming capital of the world.  But with the competition from so many areas, including most recently, the United Arab Emirates and a casino that has begun construction there, the traditional Las Vegas hotels and casinos are beginning to look less and less exotic and more mundane as time passes and the competition catches up.  This reflects the attitude of many that the foreign competition has made a tremendous dent in the revenue and income of Las Vegas on a large scale, a dent that needs repair in order for the Las Vegas economic engine to continue competing with the tremendous amount of competition from around the world.

To compete with the international community, Las Vegas and its establishment proprietors must learn to be even more cutting edge and advanced than what has been experienced in the past in the gaming and gambling capital.  Finding a new way to advertise and a unique and innovative approach to bringing in customers has always been the staple of the Las Vegas establishment community, and will very likely play a large role in the resurgence of that community as well.