Transcription
They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But these days, there’s not much happening.
[Elvis impersonator] Where's the people? There should have been 100 people deep. And there's not. There's 13. They're not here. They’re not here.
[John Russell] In 2025, Vegas saw its biggest drop in tourism in years, leading some to declare Vegas. There's a technical term for that. That is horsesh—. That has been the media coverage... Vegas is dying guys! ...that people are fleeing Las Vegas. And it is absolutely dead.
[Uber driver] You look up Las Vegas and those negative videos are coming up now.
[Chef] Everything was flourishing. Everything was great. You can get a job anywhere. And then...
[John] So which is it? Is Vegas dead? Or is something else happening here?
[Scott Roeben] The perception is definitely “that’s not the cheap Vegas I used to visit.” Do you feel like Las Vegas is still for people like you? No, I don't think so.
[Elvis impersonator] Vegas is changing. It’s going to be another evolution of Las Vegas.
[John] Despite what they say, what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay here. Vegas is a good kind of bellwether of economic trends.
[John] So if Vegas is in bad shape, it could be a warning that the economy we're building is a lot more fragile than it looks.
[Elvis impersonator] Nobody loves Las Vegas more than me. But you can't celebrate with people that aren't here. Everybody's mad. It's catering to the rich. Can I say sh—show?
[John] What's going on, Mark? I love that jacket! You like it? Damn! I wasn't going to come to Vegas and not look good, man. No, that's great!
[John] That's Mark. When he's not busy being Elvis... Hell, yeah, Elvis. That's awesome. Thank you very much.
[John] ...he's running a 24-hour wedding business. How's business? Bad! I would go from 6 or 7 weddings a day to I'm hoping for 6 or 7 a week. Woah, alright. So we're not feeding anybody on the weddings anymore.
[John] And it's not just Elvis. In 2025, Vegas saw a 7.5% drop in visitors. The last time numbers fell that much, outside of the pandemic, was right after the Great Recession. On the ground, that's meant fewer rides for Uber drivers like Mike.
[Mike] It used to be you could go out anytime and work, and there'd be people coming out of the airport. Now you go in the middle of the afternoon, nothing. You sit there all day waiting for a ride.
[John] And fewer hours for chefs like Cris.
[Cris] They don't need a lot of cooks where I'm at right now, because they see the amount of traffic coming in and it's like, “Yeah, there's not a lot of people here.”
[John] How do you get the people back to Vegas? Exactly, that would be the question.
[John] From the outside, a 7% reduction in visitors doesn't exactly look like a crisis. And depending on where you sit, it's not.
[Scott] It's hard to get too bent out of shape. I talk to these CEOs, these presidents, all the kind of business leaders in Vegas. They don't — they're not worried.
[John] Scott Roeben is the founder of Vital Vegas, a blog about the people who run the casinos, and the ones who keep them running. He's skeptical of claims that Vegas is dead. 2025 was probably peak hating on Vegas. They’re saying that tourism numbers are, like, really like declining, bro. As you can see, it is dead. And that was associated with a small decline in visitation. There's been a lot of talk about why that might have happened. How's the economy in Vegas?
[King Kong] Hello.
[John] Everyone has a different theory.
[Scott] Canadians aren’t thrilled with our current administration, right?
[Mark] Gambling is not unique to us any longer. There’s gambling all over America now.
[John] But there was one theory that kept coming up. What do you think the answers are? People have less money now. It’s expensive. Expensive? Vegas is really, really expensive right now. Is that your experience? That is my experience. This bottle of water was $14, so.
[Mark] And they’ve got all these stupid fees up and down all these hotels.
[John] From the moment you show up, they hit you. Resort fees, parking fees, service fees, pool fees. What other fees are there? There's so many. Your mini bars that are in your refrigerator, all you gotta do is open the door and you'll get charged 75 bucks for it.
[Mark] And then you're going to buy a bottle of water that’s $10. Don't beat people to death over a bottle of water. Buy 'em a drink, for gosh sakes. We're in the desert. Right!
[John] And the pioneers of many of those fees are the biggest companies on the strip. The big boys are obviously MGM and Caesars.
[John] How much of the strip does MGM and Caesar's own, like roughly? Yeah, I’m going to say probably 60 or 70%. They're the big players. A lot of the things they do, others follow, and people freak out when I say this, but it's just smart business. They have shareholders. They have quarterly earnings reports. So you got to get creative. A lot of that creativity comes in the form of how can we give a little bit less back?
[Mike] The people that run this town, it’s just about the least you can do to make the most money. And some people will pay that.
[John] But these days, fewer and fewer people feel like they can. In the last year, consumer confidence fell to near-historic lows. Household debt hit record highs. And when Americans aren't feeling great about the economy, Vegas is often the first to find out. I have friends that would come here 3, 4 times a year. Vegas was their place, and now they're like, “We're going other places.”
[Cris] Economically, you and me, we're all doing our jobs. But the other side looks like they forgot what they're supposed to be doing, and they're doing something else that is not helping the people. I can tell you that much.
[Mike] You want to pay people living wages to be able to support themselves, but then the price of everything goes back up even further.
[John] But here's the thing: On paper, the economy, with a capital E, looks fine. The stock market's up. And even though Vegas is facing its biggest slump in years, it's not necessarily a crisis, at least not for the biggest casinos, who've spent decades reshaping their business model to chase a different kind of customer.
[Mike] You'll hear people say things like, “This place was much better when the mob was running it.” It ain't ran by the mob no more, it’s ran by the corporations, they be taxing like a motherf—.
[John] Back in the mob days, the goal was simple: get as many people through the door as possible, keep them happy, and keep them playing. That meant cheap rooms, low-limit tables, and big, free attractions. You could go see the pirate battle at Treasure Island. You could see the show in the sky at Rio. And you could see the the volcano.
[John] How much money did it take to have a good time back in the day versus now?
[Mike] 100 bucks. 100 bucks, you could go out, have a good time.
[Scott] But what happened over time is these companies realized like this is a huge expense. Pirates are expensive. Look, we could try this mass appeal, but it's in our best interest to chase the folks who have the most money to spend. It's Bruno Mars. It's Dana White. It's the guys playing $50,000 a hand for a half an hour. Those are the folks you want to have as your customer, because they're more valuable to your business.
[John] That business model isn't unique to Vegas. It's showing up more and more across the economy. Whether it's luxury cars, high-end travel, or designer fashion, the richest 10% of Americans are now driving almost half of all consumer spending, while the rest are cutting back. They're calling it the K-shaped economy. The K-shaped economy. K-shape economy. This K-shaped economy where the wealthy keep spending.
[John] And in Vegas, at least for now, that business strategy seems to be paying off.
[Mark] They’re not so worried about the neighborhood guy that wants to come out here with his wife and gamble. It's fewer people. They're actually gambling more.
[Reporter] How much we betting here?
[Dana White] $400,000. A $400,000 hand? Mhm. 'Cause these sissies won’t give me a million a hand.
[Scott] So it's a very weird industry because the gaming revenue keeps going up even as visitation goes down.
[John] But to understand what that business strategy actually looks like, I present to you: Formula 1.
[News anchor] The race to transform the streets into a high-speed track is well underway.
[News anchor] The Las Vegas Grand Prix will once again turn the strip into a racetrack.
[Scott] F1 is not a sport for the common person.
[John] Tickets for F1 go for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Add on the cost of food, hotels, and it’s pretty obvious who the event's built for. It's catering to the rich. There's an influx of air traffic. All the private jets come in. That parking lot is usually over capacity. You’ve got Pépé from France coming over to watch the stupid cars driving, and you don't even get to watch 'em, they go like, “vroom vroom.” Like, what are you watching? It's a split second. It's like sex with me. It's done. The main artery of our town is taken over by an event that lasts three days. What city on Earth would let a three-day event take over for four months?
[Mike] It is such a hindrance on being able to get around this town. A huge percent of the people that live in this town work on this boulevard.
[News anchor] A lot of traffic and slow-going along the strip. You’ve got grandstands going up here, you’ve got lighting going up here.
[John] How do you feel about F1?
[Mark] Oh, I hate F1. F1 has done more damage to this town and they kill more business. I hate F1. Can I say sh—show? You can say f—. You can say whatever you want. You can say whatever you want. But... f— F1. Everybody's mad!
[John] Can you just like kind of see it in town or? Oh, you're not allowed to look at it. What does that mean? They put film across the bridges so the locals couldn't walk up and watch the race.
[Mike] As a matter of fact, these bars— any bars that have windows facing the Formula 1 race, they come up and they put partitions over it so nobody can see it. It's a whole town that is being put on hold.
[John] Why? Four casinos make so much money for three days. That's literally the answer. They make bank. You've made a decision to cater to a very small number of affluent people, sacrificing the convenience and mental health of everyone else.
[Mike] I had picked up an elderly couple. He told me that his wife's bucket list was to see the Bellagio fountains, and they got here, and the fountains were all covered up with grandstands. They put all their dedication into bringing his wife here for her bucket list, and they couldn't even see what she came here for.
[Scott] I think the Bellagio fountains, even though they don't generate a penny, they're really important for Vegas, because when people list like the memorable things, “What did you do in Vegas?” “I saw the Fountains of Bellagio. I took a picture of that beautiful fountain outside Bellagio.” That's one of the things that's changing about the perception. It's not that you're not welcome. It's just like, maybe this isn't for you. You might not be our target customer.
[John] Vegas has changed a lot over the years. And with it, so has the country.
[Mark] The people that used to be here on the street partying —
[John] Like the middle class people? Middle class guy, you and your friends. There are just not as many as there used to be.
[Mike] I came here in 1991, and, I got about a year left. I'm going to get the hell out of here. Because it has changed so much. I don't care for it much anymore.
[John] What's that say about where the town is heading? Well if it keeps heading the same direction, it’s gonna — it’s gonna be a ghost town at some point, because people are just going to stop coming here.
[John] No matter what the YouTubers tell you, Vegas isn't dead. At least, not on paper. The money's still here, and in some places, there's more of it than ever. What's changed is who the city is for, who gets dealt in, and who gets priced out. So it's worth asking: What happens, long-term, when an economy is built like this, fueled more and more by the consumption of the rich?
[Scott] I think the reality is they have to cater to everybody. I don't think it's realistic that you have this elite group paying all the bills. I don't think it's sustainable.
[John] What's that do to fun? Oh, poor people are much more fun than rich people.
[Mark] The locals, they're still doing their thing. You can go downtown. You don't have the fees that you have on the strip.
[Cris] Once you start going out of it, then you start seeing that it's real people like you and me, doing the day to day, whatever the job is, they do whatever they can to survive. That’s the thing right now. I gotta put my head down, and just keep doing the work, keep doing the work, keep doing the work. And then hopefully eventually this gets better, and things go back to where they were. I don't know what to say. Just, it speaks for itself. My entire career is basically one long blackmail reel that's been assembling. Ah f—. What? I'm looking at prices. I'm cooked, man. I'm going to be living in your town before long. The thing that I say sometimes is Vegas suffers by comparison to itself. If you're going to go out and do something, you got to be prepared to shell out, as it always been. That way. No. You used to be cheap. It's all about feeling like a celebrity. It's about feeling important and special. There are definitely differences the minute you veer off of the strip, because you're getting away from those bigger companies. The stated customer. Is everyone okay? That's the official. The official statement is everyone's welcome.