While visitors and pundits continue to grapple with affordability concerns in Las Vegas, a few casino operators are separating themselves by resisting the industry’s post-COVID march toward higher prices and fewer player-friendly perks.

The state’s Gaming Facility Location Board is placing an expensive bet that New York City can support three full-fledged casino gambling operations just miles apart, with one in the Bronx and two in Queens.

Visitor numbers may be down compared with last year, but Las Vegas resort officials and analysts say it is not time to hit the panic button.

The number of tourists visiting Las Vegas fell this summer, but gaming revenue increased for many casino operators throughout the valley. Nearly 3,000 miles away in Atlantic City, the story was comparable as visitation to the seaside resort was essentially flat, but casinos had their best summer in over a decade.

Las Vegas casinos are moving towards a smoke-free future due to investor pressure and changing public views. While most Las Vegas Strip resorts still allow smoking on their gaming floors, more and more people want casino operators to think again.

It’s been nearly two decades since Nevada legislators banned indoor smoking in public places, but the exceptions they made for businesses like casinos, bars, strip clubs and brothels remain intact. Aside from Park MGM, Strip resorts have kept casino smoking in place since then, but recent shareholder votes suggest public opinion could be trending in favor of eliminating that allowance.

In the Oscar-nominated 2003 movie “The Cooler,” William H. Macy portrays a downtown Las Vegas casino employee whose job is to reverse winning streaks. Bernie Lootz — get it, lose? — has such extraordinary bad luck, all he needs to do is sit next to a guest experiencing good luck and it stops.

Five red roulette numbers hitting in a row doesn’t mean a black one is more likely on the sixth spin. Even if you recognize the truth of this statement, whenever that sixth spin lands on black, it can still be difficult to resist learning incorrectly from the experience.