News and notes from around the interweb:
- We used to be a proper country. Bring back the mob. $13 for a Snickers bar!
This is why Las Vegas needs to be boycotted
American is in Vegas at the MGM Grand. He’s in the store inside the casino and shows how much this small candy bar costs
The price on this isn’t just a scam. It should be considered criminal
Vegas has legalized robbery in every sense pic.twitter.com/l8McR9qBFT
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 19, 2026
This isn’t an outlier. Expect $26 bottles of water, $50 for charging your laptop in the room and $48 for a cheese pizza at a budget hotel on the strip:
@kristine_stone Normal people can’t afford Vegas any more. “Resort fees” and deposits that are more than the cost of a room, and then crap like this.
This was at @LuxorLV in July. ♂️♂️ pic.twitter.com/tWgVUhvWBQ— Nick LaBrie (@nicklabrie) October 15, 2025
- Here’s a new run at capping credit card interchange – a Democratic think thank has come up with grocers voluntarily freezing the price of 24 food items for two years in exchange for forcing credit card payment networks provide lower interchange. This hair-brained scheme would get populist support for redistribution from Visa and Mastercard to retail business, thanks to Biden’s Council of Economic Advisors chair.
This actually combines two terrible ideas, potentially making them together more popular.
Boris Yeltsin visits a grocery store in Houston, Texas with an official Soviet delegation (1990)[1024×639]
by
u/Breab1 in
HistoryPorn - Snoop Dogg’s credit card was declined buying takeout at the Winter Olympics.
After Snoop Dogg’s credit card didn’t go through on a takeout order in Livigno during the Winter Olympics, he paid the next day and gifted the restaurant owners five tickets to the men’s snowboard halfpipe final. pic.twitter.com/nS4H99M2ox
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) February 15, 2026
- This just creates an incentive for my kids to lose stuff at the airport.
When @United Airlines heard 7-year-old Reid lost his prized collection of Pokémon cards at the airport, they put out a call across their airline. In no time, 88 of their employees pulled together more than 15,000 cards for Reid!
United really meant "Good Leads The Way" with… pic.twitter.com/dybxDzOcaf
— GoodNewsMovement (@GoodNewsMVT) February 19, 2026
- I feel like anybody going to these lengths to buy basic economy deserves miles for the trip.
Not today American Airlines, not today pic.twitter.com/RwVgr5tyCx
— Seanald_Connery (@Seanald_Connery) February 19, 2026
- Poor design thinking. Each seat needs their own nozzle. (Each seat also needs their own power port – when customers share, bad things eventually happen.)
Who is at fault here? On the B787 each seat has its own dedicated air vent, but the A350 lacks these vents, so this problem does not occur on that model. What would you do?pic.twitter.com/4g8Wf0BtKH
— Fahad Naim (@Fahadnaimb) February 20, 2026
This is why you are better off going to your nearby Native American-operated casino or just staying home.
@Gene – I get comped for hotel, drinks, food and shows. Think I’ll keep going multiple times a year (plus 8-10 trips to other casino locations)
People will budget for doing what they want to do, even if they know they really can’t afford it. So they will keep charging these excessive prices.
Yes, the prices are crazy, but guests have a choice. You know that it’s a complete and obnoxious ripoff. Also, the claim that the $50 is for charging a laptop is misleading. It’s for unplugging the cord for the electric snack tray monitor which is not an uncommon device now in hotels and it should be fairly obvious to any reasonably alert person. It’s clear that the cord runs right to the tray.
Las Vegas is off limits to many now. The absurd pricing is a deal breaker. Your money goes further in many other tourist destinations, no need to go to Las Vegas anymore.
Las Vegas is a pit stop to get gas. A few people will pay the high prices for convenience so that is why there are $13 candy bars. Pay or go elsewhere.
@Retired Gambler – Glad that Las Vegas is working out for you, but you seem incapable to seeing this from the perspective of a first-time (or occasional) visitor. Chances are they aren’t gambling at a level or frequency that would make them eligible for the comps you’re getting, and they’re still getting screwed.
I’ve been going to Las Vegas at least once a year for the past 40 years. Back then Las Vegas was the only game in the country. Now most people are within a two-hour drive of a casino – I’m about 30 minutes (depending on traffic) from Encore Boston Harbor, about 90 minutes from MGM Springfield, Mohegan Sun, and Foxwoods, and an hour from multiple small casinos in New Hampshire.
Even with all of those options, there is a certain thrill about visiting Las Vegas. The only difference is that after about 10 years, the thrill of The Strip faded away. Since then I’ve only stayed at “locals” casinos, and my budget stretches much further. Even factoring in the cost of a car rental I still spend less than a comparable stay on The Strip.
The people bemoaning the fees and charges on The Strip ARE idiots for not considering off-Strip options. They’ll still be ahead even if they use Lyft or Uber for getting around.
@michael fitzgerald
the paris does not have a desk in the rooms
the paris rooms have a shelf where the ripoff tray is located
the only place in the room with an outlet which is accessible to the guest is the shelf
the only way to charge a personal device is to use this outlet
the only way to use this outlet is to unplug the ripoff tray
the end result is the personal use of electricity incurs a $50 fee
it should be fairly obvious to any reasonably alert person
Because of the claim of no wall sockets for recharging electronics, I reviewed photos of rooms in the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. That seemed to be true in many cases. However there were a lot of lamps in the rooms. I wonder if the light bulbs could be taken out and a light socket adapter put in instead, making a way to get standard voltage but at relatively low current.
Screw Las Vegas..I’m never going there again
People talk about the difference between the opolitical parties since (about) 2010.
This proposal is illustrative of one huge change. Democrats are, more than ever, the party of redistribution. The Republicans the party of production and innovation. Viz: The switch in parties from some of the greatest entrepreneurs. E.g Musk, a16z;
“This hair-brained scheme would get populist support for redistribution from Visa and Mastercard to retail business, thanks to Biden’s Council of Economic Advisors chair.”
Although according to AI “hair-brained” is now acceptable, I prefer harebrained. Save “hair-brained” for when you’re speaking.
@jns 50%+ of strip customers do not possess the intellect to macgyver your solution and those that do would have to know about the problem in advance and purchase and bring the device with them
it does exist:
Borju Light Socket USB Adapter
$10 on amazon
I recently visited Vegas for 4 days for a company event. I used to frequent Vegas because of the great food and entertainment (watching people gamble & Pulling an occasional one armed bandit for thrills)
ARGHHH- $29 scrambled eggs @ “the coffee shop at Planet Hollywood” caused sticker shock.
$11 Chai Tea Latte at the Starbucks (in Austin Tx it is under $5) Not a good substitute for breakfast!
4100 Buffets at both MGM and Caesar’s …. OYE.
And, the food a MGM on the buffet was old and tired, and although the Caesar’s seafood was fresh (unlike MGM) the rest of the food offered looked unappetizing.
Vegas was a fun place to go to people watch, pull a one armed bandit…. and have great food at a reasonable price.. No longer and even the Roulette wheels are Digitalized now…….. how sad.
What ever happened to the thrill of watching someone throw the little ball or pulling the lever on your favorite machine until your arm hurt, trying to get a waterfall of pennies, quarters or more?
Even if the prices were 80% lower. I still wouldn’t return. The place is gross.
“…for however much more money that is…”
Is it that hard to subtract $270 from $330?
A friend that I’ve known since he was a kid is a F&B manager at one of the larger hotels. He told me that the casinos used to support the reduced prices for food, drink and the like. NO MORE! The owners have made every business unit of the hotels stand alone. One might think that by doing this business model makeover, the owners might realize that this method is going to backfire. OLD METHOD: let the casino help offset the other business units. LOTS OF CUSTOMERS. NEW METHOD: make each business unit self sufficient. Raise the prices to ridiculous levels that were once subsidized by the casinos. FEWER CUSTOMERS. NET ZERO or LOSS.
In the olden days, 120V light socket adapters were quite common because rooms in houses were sometimes built without wall sockets. That was even more so for houses built before electrification. The light socket USB adapter is a great solution because it is low voltage and a stand alone solution. When I travel, I sometimes take a multi tap extension cord with me just for the situations where there is only one outlet and many things need to be charged. I also commonly take power banks with me to give me more options. Note the plural.
As far as intellect, there is a penalty for not being smart enough to come up with solutions. The $50 charge is one of such penalties. Such penalties are in all societies and at all times.
@Win Whitmire – your friend is 100% correct. They still do business the old-fashioned way at the South Point, and their business is booming. The South Point is on Las Vegas Blvd, a few miles south of the south end of The Strip (Mandalay Bay).
One thing that the geniuses running the Strip hotels can’t seem to wrap their heads around is that a large number of visitors have a set dollar amount for their trip. Let’s say it’s $1500 for two people on a two-night/three-day weekend visit. In the old days you might spend $500-$600 on room, food, and perhaps a show, leaving you with close to $1000 for gambling. Today that same room will cost about $500 (after all the fees and taxes) for two nights, easily $300 for food (for two people), and another $300 if you also want to catch a show. That means there’s around $400 left for gambling – and table limits are significantly higher these days.
All things considered, more and more people are simply saying “screw that” and are vacationing anywhere but Las Vegas. I don’t blame them.
I have wealth and status, and here’s how you all can enjoy it.
(insert loud fart noise)
The bigger problem isn’t the prices per se, but that Vegas has gotten corporate and boring. It no longer feels like a party. It feels like a big corporate convention with lots of wealthy but stodgy and sleepy visitors that want exclusivity rather than social interaction.
I’m fine with paying inflated prices if the atmosphere is fun enough to make it worth it (like on a party cruise, at a club, or at Disneyworld), but Vegas is a nonstarter to me now until they change the atmosphere to make it more social like it was 15-20 years ago.
I haven’t been to Vegas in years. And when I did go, it would be a day trip for a convention. Fly in AM, fly out PM. F all those crazy prices.
@L3 — LOL. I thought you were supposed to pitch us on the uniparty.
I’ve always traveled because it makes me happy. So to all the unhappy people constantly hurling snipes at each other in the comments section: Please stop traveling—it’s making you miserable! Plus, nobody else would ever want to meet you while they are traveling. You are really not essential to the happiness of anyone else in the world.
Don’t bother responding because I won’t read it. I’m done with this thread. I have more travel to plan now. It’s my happy place.
My very best wishes to all the happy travelers!