There’s good news and bad news out of Las Vegas. We’ll start with the bad before flipping to the more positive headlines in our weekly recap of the news.
Shooting At Sahara Las Vegas Ends Up Leaving Devastating Wounds
It was a very dark day for the Sahara Las Vegas casino as a shooting on Sunday left one man in critical condition. The man has yet to be named but was shot in the torso at noon. The Metro Police arrived on the seen a little bit later to check out the crime scene for any evidence as well as trying to find any witnesses for the shooting.
As of right now, the police haven’t released any information regarding their findings, and nobody has been arrested or even named yet.
This wasn’t the only shooting that happened in Las Vegas this weekend, unfortunately. In the second case, a man was shot and killed at a bar right next to the Las Vegas Strip on the same day. Footage shows that both the shooter and the man that was killed had no interaction with one another leading up to the incident.
There has been a recent rise in violent crimes near The Strip and it’s surprised many in the city – especially after a year of quiet times. We’ll see if this is just a blip or a trend to be concerned about.
Airport Passenger Total Takes Another Jump In Las Vegas
Going from bad news to good in Las Vegas, the McCarran International Airport has seen increased foot traffic throughout 2021. May has now been their best month of the year as they were able to see 3.5 million people coming and going. It was another huge jump compared to the 2.9 million passengers that the airport saw during April.
To put those numbers into perspective, airport officials claim that less than 153,000 people used their airport during April of 2020.
The total number of passengers in 2021 is still down quite a bit compared to the 2019 year but there are still promising signs of recovery. From January through May of 2021, the airport has seen around 12.1 million passengers, a 41.7 percent decrease compared to the same time frame in 2019. These numbers are still less than Las Vegas has hoped for, but it’s a great step in the right direction.
Lawsuit Against Massachusetts Casinos Comes To A Close
A few blackjack players decided to sue the Encore Boston Harbor as well as the MGM Springfield in the state of Massachusetts, claiming that each of those casinos were paying out odds that were worse than regulators were allowing. That case has come to a close and the court did not side with the players. The judge said that each of the players knew all of the rules prior to sitting down and playing the game and essentially committed to that.
The players argued that the casinos were offering odds of 6/5 instead of 3/2, which would equate to a loss of $35.60 per hour playing those odds. However, the rebuttal was that 6/4 odds were completely legal in Massachusetts and that both of the casinos that were being sued were in compliance to each and every rule.
Once again, the house always wins.