The WSOP kicks
off at the end of May, and Las Vegas hotels, professional poker players and tournament
fans are all tuning the final details for what is consider the biggest and most
important poker event on the world. But the WSOP also brings more than people
interested in poker; it also brings thousands of customers, players and
potential shoppers, creating a
series of conditions that could aid the economic difficulties the city has been
dealing with during the last months.
The economy
of Las Vegas
has been directly affected by an escalating economic deceleration. Over the
first half of the 2008, the Las Vegas
hotels and Casinos had to develop new forms to attract visitors as a way to
deal with a diminution in the percentage of visitors and revenue. The fuel
prices, airline tickets and economic downsize have a direct impact on the Las
Vegas economy, the amount of people who visit the Las Vegas casinos is
decreasing day by day and a lot of hotels and resorts have already prepared new
strategies to balance the situation, including reduced rates, vacationing
promotions and even discount coupons and free nights. However, many experts
have concluded that the 2008 edition of the WSOP could bring new hopes for a
market that desperately needs a boost in its revenues.
Similar to
the Super Bowl weekend or the NCAA March Madness, the WSOP brings thousands of
people to Las Vegas
to take part in the tournament’s preliminary events. Everyone agrees that the WSOP at the Rio Resort All Suite Hotel and Casino attracts
thousand of poker players from every corner of the world. In 2007, the World
Series of Poker registered more than 57,000 poker players in the 55 official
poker events, setting a record as the biggest field for poker tournament ever.
But the Rio is not the only establishment that benefits from a situation like
this, with over 50 thousand visitors congregated to take part in the WSOP, the Las Vegas economy is the
major winner.
Players and
visitors will always look for some amusements beside the WSOP, many visitors
will also be looking to play, eat, sleep and shop at many other locations and
the Las Vegas
hotel operators are fully aware of that fact. For years, thousands of people
have planned their vacation around this event, and that is something that is
not going to change unless the World Series of Poker moves somewhere else. What might change is
the amount of people willing to pay for the trip plus what ever it implies
(renting a car, going out, paying for an hotel room, have a few drinks, gamble a little).
Hopefully, the WSOP will still bring enough people to boost the local economy.
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