0:03 Welcome back to another episode of Careless Boys. We have Drew Belcher with us today. >> [applause] >> As somebody who has been born and raised in in Las Vegas and went to UNLV and everything, having seen Las Vegas develop over the years, where have they missed the mark? In what ways has like they have they developed the wrong way? Yeah, so I definitely thought they should have legalized sports gambling as far as like the athletic wise like for college sports. Oh, for college sports? >> Like letting like athletes bet and stuff. Like cuz college kids are now getting paid and stuff. I think they should have allowed college players to get paid way way before like the the '91 national team the the Rebels with Jerry Tarkanian. Should have paid those kids back in the day. I'm pretty sure there was some ████ under the table, but pay all the athletes. Pay all the kids. Yeah. They should definitely should have changed that.
0:54 Definitely should have brought sports here sooner I feel. I feel like just sports here just it's just like a no-brainer. You know, it's it's like a perfect excuse to come to Vegas as an opposing fan. And then you think the population growth wasn't strong >> No, they they used the gambling as an excuse. It's like oh, we can't have professional sports here cuz there's so much legalized gambling and everyone's just going to rig all these games and everything. It's like It's like it ain't rigged already. No, dude. It's so hard to rig a professional game. There's no way. NBA, bro. >> [laughter] >> You know what I'm talking about? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I I think they should should have did that way sooner. They definitely should have fixed the infrastructure way sooner. All these damn traffic cones everywhere. I don't know how. It's just the city's growing so fast without the proper infrastructure. Should have probably figured that out before everyone started moving here. And then the schools. The school system in Vegas is ████ horrendous. There's just not enough schools and quality schools. They're just putting portables
1:44 on all the existing schools which sucks. You drive by all these public schools. And my kids in private schools. I don't ████ care. >> [laughter] >> All the all these portables lined up. Yeah, you know, all these portables are lined up and I just I feel so bad. It's weird that they're just portables on portables on portables at all these schools. Also the score the scoring is horrendously low for public schools. >> we're 48th in the nation. Oh ████ >> a guy knock on my door and he he's like, "Hey, I work for the XYZ congressperson and then like we're pretty proud that we got us from being 48th to 47th in the nation." And I'm like, "Dude, you should not open with that." >> One point? >> Dude, that's not the one you open with when you come knocking on the door. That's not good sales. No, no. We maybe like close with that or maybe like put it in the middle somewhere. [laughter] Uh we don't we don't open with that statement for sure. You know what my uh what's not even a conspiracy. I think the reason why is I'm also in Hawaii, too. But um it's both tourist economies,
2:36 right? Education's real low over there, too. And I'm like I think they don't want a smart population because all the service work it's like, "Dude, you get a bunch of geniuses, they're going to leave." Wow. It's very It's brain draining education, though. Hm? It's very hard to rig education. Is it, dude? Hey, how deep are we getting? Is [laughter] it? Is it? >> teach how to resolve credit card debt. Well, it is really strange that they keep graduating kids who are who don't have like a reading level past third grade. That's kind of weird. Well, that part of that is language. How's What do you mean? >> of no child left behind, so just keep getting passed no matter what. >> Exactly. So part of it's language though. Like the in LA County specifically where people always say that, they say like, "They're just passing kids who like can't even read." It's cuz of language. It's cuz they they don't read English. So they're they're
3:26 flunking, but they can read their native language. >> Oh, you're saying because of ESL? I don't think I don't think it's that. I I just Well, I don't know, maybe it is. But but it's because they they can read their native language fine and they're fluent in their native language. They could read, write it. But because we are like, "Well, you need to be able to read and write English." they get flunked. What? >> Yeah. At least in LA County, I remember that being a big story. That was the reason why that they >> That was Yeah, cuz people always say like I know like a lot of like Republican radio people are like they're like they just pass these kids through who can't even read and write and it's like it's mostly cuz like yeah, they speak a different native tongue, brother. Do you think that's really why though? I don't know. I genuinely don't know. Well, when I was going uh LAUSD, I uh I didn't grad Well, I graduated the fifth grade, but there's >> [laughter] >> Graduated fifth grade? And that's where I stopped. You had a ceremony? I graduated the eighth grade. I didn't
4:17 graduate the eighth grade, but basically the the I went to the uh private school that Tim went to, right? >> Yeah. But this middle school called Perry Middle School, that's where a lot of the people in my district went to. I went through all three grades. I was in the system. I didn't even go to that school. What? >> And then when my mom went to sign me up for high school, I was already in the system. So how the ████ did that happen? >> They passed you three grades without even going to I went through a whole middle school without being in in that school once. >> Maybe they were relieved that you couldn't that you weren't at school. I didn't even register. >> [laughter] >> So how the ████ did they put me in the system? Not only that, when my mom signed me up for the high school, I did I would I came in halfway through ninth grade. >> So obviously public education >> I was in the register I was in the They have money to gain by doing that, right?
5:08 Yeah, the more students you have, the more funding you get. >> So they're just saying they got you in there kind of like a small in daycare. Basically. What the hell, dude? That's rad. And I how the ████ am I passing grades when I didn't I had one year of high school. You didn't [laughter] even go. Why did I go to middle school at all then? Yeah, ████ middle school. Why did you even go there? I didn't even have to work that hard to try. That's insane. You're so lucky. I had such a bad time in middle school, too. Jesus. >> Yeah, but middle school sucks. Yeah. >> Yeah, just in between. Terrible. >> Can't party, you can't hang out, you're just there. You have acne. Yeah, riding your ████ bicycle with your backpack. How do you think like how do you think Vegas has done in terms of like, you know, how over the years the how they've built the cities, like how they've expanded. Like Summerlin and and I mean, so locals, real locals, I mean, it's all still just Vegas. Yeah. >> Even like Henderson, they all still rep Henderson. It's still all just Vegas. Like you can't go to Alabama and be
5:58 like, "Oh, I'm from Henderson." They're like, "What the ████ are you talking about?" I'm from Vegas. Like, "Oh, okay, cool." Um I'm from Tule Springs. >> Yeah, yeah, okay. You know, >> [laughter] >> okay, you know. Yeah, North Las Vegas, it's all just the same. I mean, there's only three real cities, right? North Las Vegas, Vegas, Oh, no. And Henderson. >> [clears throat] >> Then you have all these little split-up things like Enterprise, which wasn't even a thing, Sunrise Manor, Summerlin. Like these aren't even like real things. >> Is McDonald Ranch a real thing? It I mean, yeah, it's a neighborhood. >> It's a neighborhood, yeah. Yeah, beautiful, but I think they count the ones with actual city halls. So, what do like >> Oh, okay. >> So, Summerlin doesn't have a city hall. That's still a Vegas city hall. No, North Las Vegas has its own city hall, and then Henderson has its own Yeah, yeah, no, you're right. You're right. Yeah, that's right. If you're so cool, what city do you live in, dude? Well, I live in uh Section 10. Oh, Section 10? Sick. I like that. >> That's where you wanted a house, right?
6:48 Yeah. It's actually really sick. If you know, you know. If you don't, then you're just ████ I just got Section 8. Then you're just exactly. [laughter] If you know, you know. If you don't, you're They really shouldn't call it Section 10, but but It sounds like a government ████ program. >> Low-key, doesn't it? Well, no, if you if How come it's not Spring Valley? How what? Is it Spring Valley or no? >> Outside of Section 10 is where the poor people live. That's That's Spring Valley. >> [laughter] [cough] >> Oh, but no, Section 10 is just it's all the the bigger houses, the older houses with like character and ████ We loved it. We we No HOA, everything is half acre or above. >> We got an HOA. You do? Cuz we live in a small little sub, so I don't know. Oh, wow. Ooh. Yeah, you do have a really nice house. You have real grass? We had. We took it out, though. Oh, you're a ████ >> Dude, those $2,000 water bills a month were just >> a lot of You get a lot of Two G's for water? Ooh. I have a I have a
7:38 substantial property. >> I would do that. >> I heard Section 10 people have a problem with leaves in their pool all the time. You know what? Only because uh dude, the god damn African sumacs Yeah. on my property [laughter] man, they just shed like a ████ in the summer and the wind it's always windy here. My pool is just ████ ruined every day. >> [laughter] >> If you if you were to be like the official Vegas historian with your flavor of course from like 90s to 2000, 2000 to 2010, 2010 to 2020 and then 2020 and beyond, how would you label each decade if someone if you want to give someone a snapshot of where it's been or any of its downfalls or Yeah, so the 90s to the 2000s was definitely like peak Scandia. Do you guys know Scandia? Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> The the truck company? Damn dude, none of you guys know what Scandia is.
8:29 >> Oh wait, no I'm thinking of Scania. So Scandia, there's one in Southern California What's Scandia? >> Scandia was like a cool like not theme park cuz it was super like low grade but like they had like mini putt, batting cage, arcade. >> Like a family fun center. >> Yeah, like a family fun center. Scandia, that was like peak Scandia. Wow, that's what you guys would do like back then? You just go to Scandia? Yeah. Wow. I know. I know. And how big was Vegas then? Did you even know Southern Highlands? >> No, Southern Highlands wasn't a thing. Deep Henderson wasn't a thing. Hendertucky wasn't a thing. God forbid whoever ████ lives there. >> Hendertucky. I've heard I've heard of Hendertucky. Oh, so you like old town Henderson by like Water Street? Yeah, that surrounding area is called Hendertucky. But then some people who aren't from here think all Hendersons Hendertucky. >> I thought cuz people always said it. No, cuz there's some really nice areas in Henderson. Like really ████ nice. >> I see. >> Like Dragon Ridge and McDonald Highlands
9:19 and Ranch. Well, nobody talks about that though. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no there's some really nice areas in Henderson. Um so I would say like that's peak Scandia or even like Grand Slam Canyon. Do you guys know Grand Slam Canyon? The Adventure Dome. Adventure Dome. Yes, man. Damn it, dude. Okay, so it used to be called Grand Slam Canyon. Wow. Okay. And then like some kid died on the ████ roller coaster and then it got all weird and ████ but no. It's Grand Slam [snorts] Canyon. And then By the way, that's like the best time, in my opinion, of like peak Vegas. >> Circus Circus? That '90s to 2000. >> That's my memory. Like all the crazy themed resorts, the Treasure Island, the Mirage, the New York New York, Excalibur. Now it's like everyone's just doing mumbo jumbo mega resorts. Like, "Dude, how many ████ crazy infinity pools can I ████ swim in?" Everything's just about being balling. >> Yeah, I want the a square boring pool. Yeah, I want the knights in shining
10:09 armors with the turkey legs. I want the New York New York with the s█████ ████ New York pizza. I want the Excalibur. I want like the Grand Slam Canyon. They even put down a resort while dude, it's going to be like Chinese central and then they Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. They b██████ out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's still Nobody's wearing kimonos in there or not? No, no. And have you been to the Asian the Asian food court? It's so bad. Oh, dude, it's really sad. It's like it's like half closed now. >> joke, dude. It's half closed. It was sick like 2 years ago. Yeah, it's it's like half closed. I don't If you have Spring Mountain, you need to have some really good food to compete. >> Oh, yeah. Or else we're just going to go to Spring Mountain. >> You're on the corridor, we have ████ Wynn and Encore. And then Fountainbleau now is now open. And then you have Venetian and Palazzo, which are like the four mega resorts in Vegas. Yeah. Even though they're not like the largest as far as like Mhm. pieces of property owned. You know, MGM Resorts still owns ████ Cosmo, MGM, all that ████ But that that part of the strip is like you
10:59 really have to come correct. And I just feel like Resorts World kind of dropped the ball in that aspect. Didn't the owner of Station Casinos walk into your restaurant? Yeah. Yeah, that's how that's how the deal fell apart. I mean, fell into uh with with With Love Always. Yeah, with the son, Frankie. >> Wow. You're going to be at Red Rock? Yeah, that's cool. So, Frankie the fourth would come to With Love Always to Centennial during like the very first early days when we had like crazy lines, and he'd wait in line and talk to >> in line and just waited with everybody. Damn, that's dope. Which is ████ crazy. >> You know, and loved the burgers and then would come back and then a a good friend of mine Tall who worked for Station Casinos. Oh, do you know Tall? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, he's the one who kind of like Tall's put everything together. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Tall's like a person that puts everything The glue. The glue of every >> everything. Tall's the ████ goat. And Tall reached out. No, he's small. Oh,
11:49 that's ironic. >> What is he like? He's still like 6 ft, right? 5'11, 6 ft? He's like 5'10, maybe. That ain't ████ Yeah. [laughter] That ain't ████ That ain't That ain't ████ No, that's That's little man ████ bro. What What are we talking about? No, it's it's 5'10 and up around here. I was 13 years old and I was 5'10. Minimum, bro. Minimum. You're still tall. That's victim height. That's victim height, bro. That [laughter] That's Oh, man. >> That's little boy ████ Uh No, so Tall reached out and was like, "Hey, like uh Frankie would come Frankie loved the burgers. Like, do you guys have any interest in going to like Red Rock?" And I was like, "Bro, ████ yeah. Like, I was born and raised here. I looked up for the Fertittas, the whole family, just the way they built this entire ████ city. Forever." I was like, "Yeah, I don't even know what that deal looks like, but we're definitely interested." >> ████ yeah. Their leasing guy came in, tried the food, he's like, "Oh my god, this is phenomenal." And uh you know, all >> Fat Burger out, which is a mom-and-pop. >> [laughter]
12:39 >> Like, "Please, we This is ████ ass out of here. I support my family with this business, so please do Please Fat Burger alone. >> I You know, we didn't We didn't feel We We didn't feel bad. Yeah, >> [laughter] >> it's ████ female-owned, isn't it? >> Yeah, they sent over some numbers and it all worked out. I'm taking your ████ ass out of here, Fat Burger. [laughter] You're ████ no burger now. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> And then they filed for bankruptcy. And then I felt really ████ bad. I was like, "Oh my god, we snowballed that whole thing." >> [laughter] >> You know, chapter 11, all this. I was like, "Oh, man." It was inevitable. Uh but yeah, that's how the deal originally came about. >> That's so I didn't know it was so organic like that. That's crazy. >> Yeah. Yeah, oh my god, I didn't even tell you guys. I And I And I can >> I know. What the hell, dude? >> And I can tell you guys this now cuz it's it's all public. I've talked about it before. Uh-huh. Once they said that they we were interested, then they said, "Okay, great. Can you come cook for the Fertittas at their executive kitchen at their executive office." So, right
13:29 across the street from Red Rock, they have their executive office building, which is like the top the top 30 C-suite executives that are at Station Casinos. And uh they all work there. Like the floors one, two, and third floors. The Fertittas and all like the the the other top five Across the street from Red Rock? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it called at One Summerlin? Is it that >> No. >> building? No, it's literally on the same property as Red Rock. >> Oh. >> Separate building. Sick as ████ You can't even get in there. It's like Fort Knox. Wow. >> in there, retina scan, background check. They give you a badge. They ████ stick a little finger in your butt. All that ████ Okay, you're not getting in. >> it. We were all about it. >> like it. Yeah. Uh tons of art, like ████ Oh. >> $20 million And uh so, he went and cooked in their dope ████ They have a crazy James Beard-like kitchen. Wow. >> Where they these three dope ████ chefs just cook for the 30 executives every day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Tomahawk steak. >> Holy ████ dude. Tacos. Like crazy ████
14:21 Like meat flown in from ████ Italy cuz Lorenzo loves like these crazy grass-fed tomahawks. Like ████ they don't even serve at like T-Bones, which is the steakhouse. >> gig. Crazy ████ >> You get to cook with the best of the best. >> and smashed ████ burgers in their sick ass kitchen with like mise en place and little tweezers and like crazy fine dining ████ And uh they loved it. And I was like the top 30 executives just came Oh my god. And they also said, "Hey, do you mind if Dana White stops by? He's on property." >> No way. >> Dana White was also there. It was it was I just call him Dana. Yeah. No mistake. [laughter] Just Dana. Just Dana. >> me. I told him TO GET THE ████ OUT OF HERE. >> HEY, get the ████ OUT OF HERE, YOU ████ GUY. OUT OF HERE, I said. >> The guy's been bugging me. So, what was it like 2000 to 2010 that era? >> 2000 to 2010. So, I graduated high school in 2005. That was peak ████ wigger. Wigger. The wigger. [laughter] The wigger style, for sure. Early 2000s, you know, I wore straight tall tees, big
15:12 heavy basketball short shirts, uh Jordans, >> else, dude? And I even think at one point I wore like a doo-rag under like a >> Oh, wow. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. >> [laughter] >> Uh >> But did you suck dick at anytime. At a moment's notice. At a moment's ████ notice. You say the word. >> [laughter] >> But as far as Vegas goes, I think that's when like the Wynn and Encore opened up like 2008. That was like just that was that was their peak for sure. They get that. And then uh 2010 and 2020, I don't know. That's probably like the death of like the themed resorts in Vegas. Like where everyone started just being too bougie like the Cosmopolitan. Too cool for that ████ City Center opened. I was like, "Dude, what's all this?" Yeah, I don't come here to go to a Yeah, where's all the cool ████ Yeah. Give me a clown or something. You guys start noticing like bunch of people starting to move in from
16:03 all the other places? Well, because California got so crazy expensive and like they're Did it start happening in pre-COVID already? Like a decade before that? >> Yeah, not I don't know about a decade, but they definitely cuz California just shot up in price just cuz they got so crowded cuz dude, who doesn't want to live in Southern California? It's ████ beautiful. I mean, everything else kind of shotty government-wise, you know, but who doesn't want to live in beautiful Southern California, you know? Like but now they realized the cost of that. It's like, "Dude, wait a minute. Gas is X amount in Vegas. Housing is X amount in Vegas. Food's X amount in Vegas. If I really want the beach or California, it's a 4-hour drive. It's a 45-minute flight. I'm just going to go there." So instead, I can now sell this little ████ house in Orange County that my parents ████ gave me and then they died and I get to sell this little ████ for 2.5 million and go to Vegas and buy a ████ behemoth for a million, you know? It's like, "Yeah, I'm
16:54 doing that all day." It goes such a longer way. in LA to get to the beach, it was like 2 hours anyway. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Really? Yeah, absolutely. Oh, okay. Yeah. It takes ████ forever. Yeah, so from here to get to Huntington Beach is like ████ 4 hours, you know, if you leave at like 5:00 in the morning. ████ fly down there, dude. You're good. Uh, but yeah, I would say that that was like the peak like where every all the themed ████ started dying and they just started making like all the mega ████ Now that's when the prices just got out of control. It's like the average >> That's when the resort fees came in and got all crazy? >> Resort fees came in like after COVID, I think, cuz they want they they needed to make up for that missed revenue. Mhm. They just started charging for parking, resort fees, all this crazy ████ And you just you're going to eliminate that entry-level mid consumer when you start doing that, you know? And it's like it a lot of the resorts took a hit for that. But again, so the middle is where they die. Mhm. Entry-level price points, you
17:45 can thrive, and super high price points you can thrive, cuz those markets are always going to be there. It's where the middle gets priced out. And ████ that ████ >> Well, they're all just trying to get whales now. That's all they care about. That's right, cuz that they're not going anywhere. And by the way, I know everyone says Vegas is dead, but brother go down there, man. >> Vegas is slammed. That's like when I remember LA used to be on fire. And my mom would call and be like, "You got to evacuate." And I'm like, "Mom, the fire [laughter] The fire is so far the ████ away. Like, I don't even know what you're talking about." Like, I can smell a little bit of smoke, but what are you talking about? But it's the same thing with the news. It's like, "Vegas is so dead." I'm like, "Bro, go to the strip." Or actually, probably don't, cuz you'll get stuck. Yeah, no, Vegas is Vegas is slammed. It was had a little downturn for a little bit a couple months ago. Yeah, definitely. ████ slammed. >> Let's talk more about that in a whole other episode. That'd be good.
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