Thanks to Foreclosures Gambling has not Worked Well for Many in Las Vegas

Foreclosures have stripped the city of Las Vegas, as gambling as not worked well for many residents. This Sin City is not an ordinary city but each one living here as made a deal to thrive. But the bursting of the bubble has reversed the coin and finally the city itself is losing out on the gamble. Many have tales of woe and failure to tell.

Lavana Jackson has six children and seventeen grandchildren. She is overcome with disbelief as foreclosures stalk the town and moans loudly “We’re feeling it. Oh, we’re feeling it.” She is sitting in her shop surrounded by T-shirts, innumerable coffee mugs, baseball caps, snow globes, novelty license plates and you name it. But there are no buyers. For the last seven years this stuff has brought her dollars in the north end of Las Vegas at the Convention Center Souvenirs. The upbeat resorts of the filthy rich are more south but here the customers are more rough and the hotels less costly catering to those who settle for lower minimum bets at the blackjack tables.

Few years ago there was frenetic building activity coping with rising demand. A new sleek Wynn Las Vegas worth $2.7 billion was opened in 2005. It set the ball rolling. MGM Mirage planned the setting up $9.2 billion project in CityCenter – it being the largest private sector enterprise ever planned. Donald Trump constructed a condominium tower taller than the previous one. Wynn opened another hotel. Names began to blur – The Cosmopolitan, The Fontainebleau, and The Plaza – all being billion dollar projects.

In front of the Convention Center Souvenirs one unit stands vacant and forlorn – the Boyd Gaming’s Echelon with a promise of 5,000 rooms stretched across six hotels. The complex was to be located in lush surroundings with the last word in luxury. The estimate was a humble $4.8 billion.

The half-century-old Stardust Casino was extended each year until one fine morning the credit market froze. In August the project was stopped and about 800 workers exited from the city.

Jackson feels angry looking at seven construction cranes caked with ice, looming over the skeletal remains of a giant construction venture. It brings to halt all the shoppers that come on foot. As business slumps she has cut down on work hours. With each passing day as the foreclosure crisis worsens her hopes rust with the idle cranes.