These days, the high rollers are still rolling into Las Vegas, but those on a budget no longer feel like winners.
Even as private jets pack the airport and V.I.P.’s crowd the high-stakes tables, a steady decline in overall visitors is sending ripples of worry through this city and beyond. Casinos have closed card rooms, restaurants have cut hours, and resorts have scrambled to lure customers back with deals and discounts.
And pain in Las Vegas, a sequin-draped economic indicator, tends to signal a malady in the nation at large.
“Some say when the country gets a cold, we get the flu,” said Aaron Ford, Nevada’s attorney general. “I say we get pneumonia.”
