My pal Joe Brancatelli sent me this link to an article about how poorly things are going, dollar-wise, in Las Vegas. Here’s one excerpt…
Las Vegas drew about 3.1 million fewer visitors in 2025, a 7.5% drop — its sharpest decline outside the pandemic since record-keeping began in 1970, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
The huge drop in the casinos’ income is, of course, largely attributable to the fact that I’m not going there anymore and I’m not going there anymore because everything is so overpriced in a “make-you-feel-like-a-sucker” way. It isn’t just the money. It’s the insult.
There have always been scams in that city…ways of raiding your wallet dishonestly. I think about the many street “performers” in costumes who try to tempt you into taking a photo with them without agreeing in advance what you’ll pay them for posing with you. They could on you being too dumb or maybe too tipsy to know that’s gonna cost you more than you like. Well, the whole city seems to be run on that basis now. That hotel rate you saw advertised for $60 a night will, upon checkout, turn out to be $300 a night.
When I used to go there a lot, those surprises were few. They wanted you to spend money, of course, but they wanted you to not feel cheated because if you felt cheated, you were less likely to come back. Now, they don’t care. And a lot of us don’t care if we never go back.
If you must go, here’s a tip: The plundering is mainly in the hotels on The Strip and to a lesser extent, Downtown. Prices and gaming rules are more predictable and fair at the casinos away from those areas that cater mainly to the folks who live in and around Vegas. “Why is this?” you may ask. It’s because those places rely on repeat business.
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