Learn to travel for “free” utilizing the best credit card welcome offers. Travel to Vegas and anywhere else! Check out this free tool that we highly recommend.
Travel Freely –
Episode Description
This week we learned that more people flew into Las #Vegas in October than ever before. Which airlines are carrying the most passengers and how do these numbers compare to before the pandemic. Are international visitors returning?
In other #news another blockbuster land sale happened with Blackstone selling their share of #MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay to VICI Properties. VICI now owns much of the Strip including most MGM/Caesars properties. We also discuss galavanting in the Caesars fountains, how someone might have blown a $1M bar tab prize and the craziest Vegas fees and how to avoid them.
Produced & Edited by: Shawn Coomer
0:00 Running through the Caesars lobby fountain
0:50 Most airport passengers ever in Las Vegas
2:06 Which airline flies to most passengers to Vegas
3:23 Blackstone sells stake in Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand
4:55 Vici Properties now owns a majority of the Vegas Strip
6:43 Brewdog rooftop bar opens in Vegas with million dollar controversy
9:22 Mt. Charleston Lodge renders – Rebuilding after a fire
11:18 Best place for a hike. Red Rock or Mt. Charleston?
12:06 The craziest fees in Las Vegas – Food court fee?
13:22 Nightclub Amenity fee on drinks?
15:29 Crazy ATM fees and how to avoid them in casinos
Relevant Links:
Caesars fountains –
Harry Reid airport numbers –
MGM Grand sale –
Brew Dog bar tab –
Brew Dog video –
Brew Dog photos –
Mt. Charleston Lodge –
Food court fee –
ATM fees –
XS nightclub venue fee –
Social Media
Facebook Group –
Twitter –
Podcast –
Website –
Host – Shawn Coomer – @MtM_Vegas
Host – Mark Ostermann – @DetroitMark
Advertiser Disclosure: This site/channel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site/channel (including, for example, the order in which they appear). This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers.
50 comments
Learn to travel for "free" utilizing the best credit card welcome offers. Travel to Vegas and anywhere else! Check out this free tool that we highly recommend.
Travel Freely – https://milestomemories.com/go/travel-freely-youtube/
Waiting for the fee to pay off your winning ticket
so hard to keep up with who owns what Vegas property
Southwest is best cause it’s nonstop. My airline of choice
Venetian and Palazzo employees got a $1500 bonus.
That is why I only go there and the Wynn and Palms (after San Manuel) to eat and gamble. Because they treat their employees right.
I don’t even recommend people to go to my casino.
Resorts World food hall is a great concept but poorly managed. I understand how they want to cut corners by having us order or the kiosk. But paying a manditory service fee to use it is ridiculous. There should still be a desk somewhere that takes cash. Worst thing I found about using those kiosks is that it doesn't tell you where or when to pick up your food. I spent 10 mins looking for the dam place only to come to cold food (and the places seem to care less). If this is the future of food halls, I'm out of there.
The ATM fees should be regulated. They are getting ridiculous. 9.99?!?! Being a Canadian it cost almost $20 just to get $20.
As far as ATM balance fee goes, some of those casino ATMs use trickery. Big green prompt on the screen to check balance and a smaller button to skip it and continue to a withdrawal. I've made the mistake of checking balance inadvertently because the brain processes green as being cash or a button to continue with a withdraw rather than the gray blending into the background prompt that is the withdrawal button.
Whenever I hit the Strip to eat, I follow the "fool me once" guideline — if I see a ridiculous fee in small print on the menu sign out front, I beat a hasty retreat… if I see such a fee on my check, I make a mental note not to return. Also, nightclubs have never been my cup of tea and I'm guessing that's where you'll find many, if not most, of those insane charges.
The consumer has always controlled price. The gouging will continue until folks stop participating
Kitchen staff fees will be next
A family tree 🙂
Just want to say that the casinos are likely not setting the fees. "Everi" is a fintech company that pretty much services all the LV Casino ATMs.
Interesting! Didn't see Alaska Airline on that list. Wonder where they came in.
The Pee Fee
If you have to utilize the ATM machines at these casinos, maybe you shouldn't be gambling in Vegas in the first place. Bring enough cash or stay home!! Your bank probably has a branch in the area, so use Google Maps to locate, then go make a withdrawal in that manner.
I As for the gratuities business, these businesses are attempting to continuously nickel and dime the customer. Besides, it takes away from the "experience" of enjoying a great meal or drinks.
Thank you for the atm card recommendation. You guys always put out great content. Thank you and Cheers
Fun show with lots of good information. Keep up the good work!!
They need to pick a new winner 😉
The fees are outrageous. And they are constantly introducing rules to make it more difficult to have Airbnb’s in vegas. Are those automatic gratuities even legal?
I want to thank you so much for introducing me to the FoundersCard and the chance to get the diamond membership. I really got my moneys worth out of that.
Shawn/Mark, the ATM fees are fair and legit if the banks keep them below $3.00. Those Automatic-Teller-Machine fees that most banks charge is used to pay for maintenance in their electronic equipment. The technical personnel they employ are not cheap. They can earn anywhere from $60.00 to $70.00 per hour. And when some of these ATM machines go down, the banking institution has to send a technician from another town, and even from another state to do the repair. So, I think that they should charge a small fee for the usage of their equipment. However, to charge more than $3.00 is a rip-off. And to charge $6.00 or $8.00 is shear thievery.
Diverted or rolled over flights lol people were not actually going on that destination, weather back home so they had to stay in Vegas lol
Remember Seinfeld’s multiple-fees fee? They are gonna charge you $1.50 for each additional fee over the base 1 fee
VICI was a spinoff from Caesars bankruptcy while MGM Growth Properties was spun out of MGM Resorts. VICI bought MGM Growth in April 2022. Somewhere in between, El Dorado bought Caesars, keeping the Caesars name, and most (all?) of the El Dorado properties became part of VICI. Blackstone and MGM Growth had jointly owned Mandalay and MGM Grand. VICI simply bought out the part they didn't own after they bought MGM Growth. Lots of smaller deals done by all these companies along the way. Very complicated to keep track. VICI and competitor GLPI (General Leisure Properties) are the 2 publicly traded that I'm familiar with that own casino properties. EPR is trying to diversify into casinos, too.
I read an article, which I cannot find again because I didn't take note of where online I was, but it was a "you and your money" type site, anyway, the writer wrote that all those little fees are totally illegal. One does not have to pay them. If you ask for it to be removed they have to remove it, and he cited some law to back what he wrote. I haven't been back to Vegas in a while, but I sure would be asking for those fees to be removed. They get away with it because most people don't even look at their bill before they pay it. Back when Vegas first opened back up they had a Covid cleaning fee on just about every bill, and people really protested that! Very quickly the Covid cleaning fee was gone. People need to call these business's out when they see those fees. He even wrote that the resort fees hotels charge are illegal under that law (that I can't cite LOL) and if you pressed on them they would remove it. They know they are in the wrong.
Do a search on who owns Vici Properties. Bet you won't be surprised. I will take my money elsewhere.
As someone who has won enough smaller sweepstakes (trips & many other items, packages) you couldn't force me to enter for that million dollar bar tab. The tax hit on that would break the average person. It's the same reason that when anyone wins the HGTV dream house, they sell it. No one can afford the yearly property taxes plus initial costs and the values are always way overrated.
Even divided yearly, they will still value that win at 50k yearly. You'll be paying thousands even if you never use the prize because you signed off when accepting.
I am done with Vegas. for now to many fees. I heard that some casinos are charging people including guests to use the pool . Is this right.
Ellis Island has one of the lowest ATM fees in Vegas.
food fees just = lower tip for the servers if there any.
Walgreens or CVS on the strip have ATMs that only charge around $3.00!
I stood behind a drunk guy at a casino ATM once. First he checked his balance, then he hit "ok" on the $8.99 fee….and withdrew $50. I felt bad for him, but what can you do?
last visit coming in jan. for me things are just too high. resort fee are the killer. i often kinda off strip. so there are eating places only blocks away. near the rio is a denny's a taco place, and couple others. cross from the strat there are couple fast food places.
how about a welcome Vegas fee by the city .25 cents on every purchase within the city limits lol
I'm far from a high roller, but I get plenty of room (and food) offers from 4Q/Binion's, Circa/D, Arizona Charlies/Strat, and since doing the Diamond card match, now the Caesar's properties too. Also pretty good promos from Stations. I played a half day at the new Palms and have been getting freeplay and room and food offers from them now as well. Basically, the only thing I pay for on a Vegas trip is transportation. It's really not that hard. I won't stay somewhere unless I have a room offer and the resort fee is waived, and I take advantage of every food comp and offer, so I pretty much eat for free as well. I only drink when I'm sitting at a machine and the drinks are comped. If you want a higher-quality cocktail comped, go sit at the high-limits bar and play for a little while. No way I'd ever pay $20+ for a drink. A fun, reasonable-cost Vegas vacation can still be had, without the ridiculous fees. You just have to be willing to be a little adventurous and get away from the Strip. By the way, Vegas has tons of great small independent restaurants that are affordable. (hint, they're not in the Strip casinos, nor do they have a "celebrity" name).
Southwest does a TON of business between Vegas and the California airports (54 daily flights from the six Southern California airports! That’s like 8000 people a day just from SoCal)
As a rideshare driver in 2017 I had a pickup at the Mirage Casino when the now closed 1 Oak nightclub let out. My passenger was a gorgeous lady who openly told me she worked at Spearmint Rhino, and it was her night off. She also explained that the clubs would give her and coworkers free entrance so it would not just be guys standing around. I never go into nightclubs and this conversation made feel better about it. Thanks for the updates!!
They should start calling all now be called F#%k You, Pay Me Fees… it’s like a legal version of the skim😂🤦🏾♂️
Part of the deal with the contest was that he cannot buy drinks for others.
Fee Explosions. The Accounts are in charge. All these fees are a direct outgrowth of the splitting of real estate interests between Lease Holders, Leased Fee, and Fee Simple interests of the real estate. Each owner's interest has a complicated formula of how they collect revenue (percentage rent from sales, ground rent, license fees, royalty, etc). So accounts create these gimmicks to allocate the revenue streams to the individual real estate interests. It's only going to get worse as these bifurcated RE deals become more widespread and more sophisticated.
sausage party, hell yea! from a gay man
Hi Mark & Shawn, just enjoyed your latest video. I am flying in from Overseas next week. I usually get a Shuttle Van. I went onto the Harry Reid Airport Webpage under Transportation. "Shuttles" All that came up was Bell Trans..Sedan $88 to MGM grand, and AWG $$$ Kaptyn wanted $80. ONE WAY. What has happened to Showtime and the others. Like you Guys Said. "The Fleecing of the Vegas Sheep Tourists " BBBAAAAADDD' SG.❤
I paid $90 for 2 people to go to Enchant Resorts World. I do not drive, No Cabs or UBER, (UBER just got fined 21 Million Dollars for Confusing their customers in Australia today by the High Court. ) I emailed Resorts World 5 times.. a simple question, "If I am taking the Deuce from the MGM, what Northbound Stop is Closest to Resorts World ??? " No Reply.. Dissapointing.
$3.00 ATM fee @ Casino Royal
I work in the forum and see homeless stealing from the fountains alot. All security will do is escort them out and they let them keep the money.
I love Mt. Charleston any time of year. In the winter it is just stunning. If you dress for it, and watch the weather report, it can be a great afternoon.
I still believe there's going to be a slowdown at some point. It may take longer to happen and may be milder than we first thought.
In AC the fees are absurd. My room was $49 and fees doubled that. F them. I won't go.
Next fee will be the Excessive Fee Fee
Love watching you guys over here in the UK, but surely it's only a matter of time before the casino's start charging a Carpet Tax for wear and tear to the carpets as we walk around the casino floor lol.
More over Criss Angel because VICI is now the best magician in Las Vegas! They can make billions of dollars appear out of nowhere! I don’t understand all of what they are doing. Seems like an illegal shell game on the strip to me.