Valley Casinos Manage to Hold Customers

Friday, November 14, 2008

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John-Thomas Kobos
More: Bio, abc30.com News Team

Fresno, CA, USA -- Casino entertainment is big business here in the Valley and profits and customers are still enough to help casinos resist this recession-like climate.

The thrill of a spin ... The sound of a win ... Gamblers are still making their way to Valley casinos despite these uncertain economic times.

Fresno's Mario Nunez said: "It's sitting here, lose yourself for a minute with a few dollars nothing too much."

"We set ourselves a limit and we just came and set a limit and now we're leaving and that's it!" said Kelly Rey.

Rey, from Fresno, just won $750. She also took advantage of a player's card that offers meal discounts and bonus points on slot machines.

"It feels great! Feels really good! We're gonna do some Christmas shopping later," said Rey.

"They deserve it regardless of the economic conditions outside these four walls as a matter of fact they come here to escape that," said John Mayweski.

Table mountain president and C.E.O. John Mayweski said people continue to come to his casino even though they're pinching pennies.

"Customers are conservative, players are conservative, discretionary income is lower," said Mayweski.

While Table Mountain enjoys steady continual business and conservative play one psychologist Action News spoke to said it's no surprise that people are willing to risk their hard-earned dollars at casinos like this during this tough economic times.

"They don't make a drastic shift in their life-style, like completely cut it off-no. Because they're not hurting that much yet," said Dr. Charles Arokiasamy.

Arokiasamy said people who enjoy casino entertainment will budget accordingly. "So for them it's the same thing as dinner or a movie. You know what maybe we need to cut back a little bit. That's how people make these decisions."

Arokiasamy believes the only factor that will truly hurt the casino industry is major job loss. So for now it looks like the odds remain in the casinos' favor.

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Tags:

local, john-thomas kobos