An Empty Strip And Fewer Tips: Is Las Vegas In Trouble?:
Gloria Valdez has made a living as a hostess at a steakhouse at the D Casino in downtown Las Vegas for 15 years, surviving through the economic crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. But she says she's never seen business this bad.
"The pandemic was something that was worldwide, and we had the hope that everything would get better," says the 38-year-old single mother of two. "We're not sure if and when this is gonna stop."
Las Vegas—the city infamous for wedding chapels, 24/7 casinos, and live entertainment—is experiencing a slump in visitors. The destination hosted some 3.1 million tourists in June—marking an 11.3% decline compared to the same month last year, according to a report by the Las Vegas Convention Center. International visitors were down by some 13% in the same month and hotel occupancy is down nearly 15%.
The numbers are catching up to a story being told by locals and visitors for several months now, of an eerily empty Vegas Strip and deserted casino floors.
Who and what is to blame for the slump is a matter of fierce debate. Some blame rising prices, others have attributed Vegas's fall to the rise of other vacation destinations like Nashville, while the Las Vegas Convention Center Authority attributed the downturn to "economic uncertainty and weaker consumer confidence."
Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, calls it the "Trump slump."
"If you tell the whole world that they're not welcome, they're not going to come," says Pappageorge. "The lifeblood for Las Vegas is Southern California. What folks are telling our members is that the raids and crazy tariffs and this uncertainty, [are causing] people to pull back."
Data indicates that one in five [PDF] tourists who came to Vegas in 2024 traveled from California. Just under one in four workers in the state of Nevada as a whole are immigrants. And while there have been reports of Las Vegas workers who are fearful of being impacted by the ICE raids—which have mounted in recent months due to Trump's mass deportation plan— visitors may feel at risk, too.
Whatever the cause, the impact is clear to anyone who lives and works in Vegas. Valdez, a 25-year Vegas resident, sees it in the dwindling number of tourists arriving at her restaurant for a bite to eat. "We barely have reservations at the steakhouse," she says. "Sometimes we have 10-20 at most."
Vegas has typically been a tourism stronghold in the U.S. More than 40 million people visited the desert destination in 2024, generating some $55.1 billion for the tourism industry. But declines in visits to Las Vegas have been recorded every month this year.
The shortfall is affecting workers' bottom line. Holly Lang, a 47-year-old cocktail waitress at MGM Grand on the iconic Vegas Strip, recognizes that her weekly tip income can starkly vary week-to-week, but recent trends point to a downward decline. "I'm seeing a lot less ups than I normally would," she says. "When the economy is shaky, travel is one of the first things to go. If people are uncertain about things, we're an expendable thing for them. They're also not going on vacation if they're uncomfortable," she says.
"We've definitely got a lot less foot traffic and a lot less people gambling," she says. "A lot of the tables are empty."
The U.S. is projected to lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending, a decline of more than 22%, according to a May report from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). The U.S. was the only country projected to experience a decline among the other 184 countries assessed by the council.
"While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the 'closed' sign," said WTTC president and CEO Julia Simpson. Double-digit drops in international arrival data this March from important foreign markets including the U.K., Germany, South Korea, Spain, Ireland, and Ecuador, have also been recorded.
Canada, which topped the chart as the premier international market for visitors arriving in Las Vegas on a direct flight for the past three years, has also experienced sharp drops. Return trips to Canada from the U.S. as a whole fell 22% in June amid boycotts as Trump calls for Canada to become the 51st state and enacts higher tariffs against his northern neighbor.
Some businesses started making staff cuts ahead of 2025. In November, MGM Grand had a round of layoffs, followed by another round in the following spring. Pappageorge says that seasonal reductions in the workforce are typical for the area. "Twenty-five percent of our workers in these big resort hotels are part-time. They're called the steady extra board because we have ups and downs and under normal visitation," he says. "The question is: 'Is this Trump slump here to stay? Or is it something that is going to pass?' Our members are very concerned."
Earlier this year, Valdez had her hours reduced, meaning she now works for four days instead of five. She says employees have been offered greater vacation time off and many have had their schedules moved around, contributing to her job anxieties.
Fontainebleau, a casino on the Vegas strip, laid off an estimated dozens of workers earlier this May, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It described the layoffs as a "customary practice in every industry" in a statement at the time. Resorts World has also reported layoffs this year.
Some have taken to social media to point out how the tourism decline is affecting their bottom line. "Last year, around this time I made $300-$500 in tips, and today I just walked home with $124," one TikTok user who identified herself as a waitress on the Strip said.
The tourist numbers this year sharply contrast with the post-pandemic tourist boom in Las Vegas, which at one point exceeded visitation levels from 2019. Yet, some casinos have still fared positively. This June, the gaming industry across the state of Nevada made $1.33 billion, up 3.5% over June 2024.
But Pappageorge says that gaming revenue is just one prong of the entire tourism industry. And those who are at risk of losing their job feel limited in their alternative options. "When I moved here in '96 there were so many jobs here I could pick and choose," says Lang. "And right now, people in our service industry are having a hard time finding those jobs. It's not what it used to be."
Lang adds: "The whole city is affected by whatever goes down on the Strip."
Related: Sex Workers Already Predicted There's A Recession Coming — Here's How They Know
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday August 28 2025, @10:15AM (8 children)
Elect an idiot who tells 'outsiders' they're not welcome on his lawn as he points a gun at them, then wonder why people stay away.
Who's the idiot?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 4, Informative) by looorg on Thursday August 28 2025, @12:12PM (4 children)
This could explain the effect from outside the country. After all it's not hard to grasp that tourists might not want to come anymore. Inside it might just be the economy (stupid or not). In general it might be that they don't like Trump, there are now other options for your gambling and entertainment needs. It might just also be if it's warm as hell in a lot of the worlds you don't want to go to a city that is in a desert.
But it seem that the gambling industry is doing "fine". It just might be their employees that are not doing so fine. Certainly not once that previously got a large boost from tips. No customers. No tip economy. So that Pappageorge fellow might be on to something.
From a personal perspective. I have never been to Vegas. Even if they offered me a free trip I wouldn't want to go. Not cause I hate America, I don't. But I just don't want to go to a city in a desert. I hate the heat. I don't care for gambling and traveling to the USA, and in general, have just become a giant pain. That has not changed. I rather just relax at or near home.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aafcac on Thursday August 28 2025, @04:11PM (2 children)
Yep, I think that explains why people aren't coming to the US to visit Vegas, but it doesn't appear that Reno's being hit as hard as Vegas is. I think that all the gambling centers are going to be hit by the international travelers not wanting to come to the US, when there's places like Macau and Monte Carlo that have gambling as well.
Personally, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they've been getting more and more aggressive at separating visitors of every possible dollar they can with things like room rates going up, and the odds on black jack tables getting worse. And, the increased cost of just about everything there is to do. On top of that, climate change is coming and I do think it gets to be a harder sell over time to go to a city where things are so hot that they can't use asphalt roofing.
(Score: 4, Touché) by driverless on Friday August 29 2025, @07:30AM (1 child)
How many visitors does Reno get though compared to Vegas? I'm sure Burnt Scrotum, New Mexico isn't being hit as hard as either Vegas or Reno.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Friday August 29 2025, @01:23PM
It looks like they get roughly a tenth, which is admittedly a fairy big difference, but it's probably also a lot more sustainable and a lot more of them are coming from inside the US rather than from international travel. There's also Carson City and Tahoe in the area that have gambling and unlike Vegas, a good chunk of the best things to do aren't things you have to pay for.
In other words, it's much more sustainable than Vegas is, and probably closer to what the visitor figures should be if things weren't so out of control in Vegas.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 28 2025, @07:32PM
Being in Vegas has less to do with the desert than it is about huge artificial environments.
There is a humidity dome over the city from all the water features and other outdoor water uses. It is on the warm side if you seek out outside activities, but most of Vegas is experienced indoors, at night, or both.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mcgrew on Thursday August 28 2025, @01:13PM (2 children)
Exactly what I was going to say, and it ain't just Vegas! Tourism is way down everywhere in America. Those businesses close to the Canadian border are hurting far worse than Vegas.
Plus, on top of Trump flipping the world the bird, nobody living here has a clue how much poorer the tariffs will make them, so American tourists are staying home as well.
Donald Trump is a mixture of Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, multiplied by ten.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday August 28 2025, @07:40PM (1 child)
Yep; with sooo much uncertainty with EVERYTHING in trumps mouth (not sure much goes through the brain)
... tariffs...no tariffs... HIGH tariffs... lower tariffs...
... deportations... zones free of deportation... no more zones free of deportation....
I'm probably going to retire in 3 years, but might be able to retire earlier except for ALL the uncertainty; i know people who retired, then went back to work to pay for the increases in inflation and uncertain how the future will play out. I'd rather be SURE (as sure as i can be) that i will not have to work again because i HAVE to, only because i want to... which is unlikely except for maybe training for pay. I'd rather garden, relax and be with family.
Family is important, something trump seems to not know about like all the other things he seems to not know about. His wife has disappeared, his family is staying far away... he is a man alone with only ass-kissers for friends.
I'd feel bad for him, except i'm not fond of rotting, putrifying ass-holes.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday August 29 2025, @01:55PM
From my experience, I'd say to go for it asap. I retired in 2014 at age 62 when I was old enough for Social Security.
I needn't have waited. I was eligible for my pension years earlier but didn't think I could live on it without SS, but I never realized how expensive working is! Gasoline and lunch alone are expensive. Now instead of a six dollar hamburger at Sonic I'm eating a four dollar steak I cook on the stove. And my gasoline use became almost nonexistent (I stopped using gasoline in 2023, it's 4 times cheaper than gas and I no longer have oil changes or other routine maintenance).
However, things change. When I retired my pension was twice what my SS was, now they're almost equal because SS, unlike the minimum wage (affecting all wages) is pegged to inflation.
Donald Trump is a mixture of Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, multiplied by ten.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday August 28 2025, @10:51AM (5 children)
1. If you're an international traveller, your vacation could very easily turn into weeks in ICE detention [nbcsandiego.com] for non-crimes like saying or writing something not-nice about the US president. Since the rest of the world has on average a lower opinion of the US president than the US public does (and he's not popular at home either), that's going to cut back on international tourism massively.
2. Things have gotten more expensive in the US thanks to the tariffs. This was clearly something the US president thought would coerce other countries into doing his bidding, but for the most part it hasn't, it's just driven up prices domestically even further than they did under the previous administration.
3. In part due to higher prices domestically, and in part due to the long-running fundamental fact of the US economy that prices are going up and personal debts are increasing [stlouisfed.org] but wages are not [epi.org], there's fewer people with disposable income available for luxuries like expensive vacations.
4. For Las Vegas in particular, a big part of their problem is that casinos have been popping up in a lot of other places (usually with the false promise that whichever area legalizes it will wind up just as prosperous as Vegas), which means that people who want to play the slots or think they're card sharks don't have to go to the Strip, they can head to much more convenient locations. And for people who just like to gamble, they don't even have to do that, they can do sports betting on their phone and lose their shirt that way. And for the people that come there for the adult entertainment, that's also easier to get anywhere else than ever before, legally or not.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 28 2025, @11:13AM (4 children)
Thanks God a comprehensive private [propublica.org] transit [youtube.com] has happened. In Vegas. Keep it there, guys, the world would benefit from less stupidity.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday August 28 2025, @03:57PM (3 children)
The most ridiculous thing about the Las Vegas transportation systems is neither Musk's monstrosity nor the monorail nor the bus service, but the lack of a transit connection between the airport and the strip. There is a city bus that goes to the airport, but it doesn't go to the Strip, it carefully runs a ways behind the Strip even further from popular tourist destinations than the monorail. The monorail stops a little over a mile away from the airport but is privately funded by the casinos and they don't want to pay to get it all the way to the airport despite that being potentially super-useful.
Apparently, the main reason is that taxis and limo services and Uber and Lyft and the like have all paid politicians handsomely to prevent such a transit link from ever existing.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aafcac on Thursday August 28 2025, @04:14PM
It is, but it's just a good example of the nickling and diming of the visitors that goes on for the entire visit to Vegas. Individually, the stuff isn't necessarily that bad compared with other tourist locations, but there seem to be a lot more opportunities to spend money than I'm used to seeing at other tourist areas. And that's on top of the main stuff that people go to Vegas for, as in the shows and the gambling. With even the gambling getting more expensive as they get more effective at convincing people to keep gambling as long as there's any pretense that it's a choice.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by edinlinux on Thursday August 28 2025, @05:13PM
>The most ridiculous thing about the Las Vegas transportation systems is neither Musk's monstrosity nor the monorail nor the bus service, but the lack of a transit connection between the airport and the strip
Its even more ridiculous than that. The tracks for the monorail go literally up to the back gates of the airport! (check it in googlemaps, you'll see) and stops there.
Corruption..taxi services, limo services..grunt..grunt.. corruption... the tiny last bit of track from the edge of the airport land to the terminal itself could never get built though all the rest did...
Think of all the unemployed taxi and limo drivers...they did, and killed it, so now you need to take a cab or an uber or a limo out of the airport.
D.A.F....
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 28 2025, @07:35PM
Miami taxi drivers successfully delayed rail service to the airport for decades, I believe they finally lost but Miami transit is still a nightmare.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 0, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Thursday August 28 2025, @11:20AM (15 children)
Another day at SN, another TDS flare-up. TFS spews a bunch cherry picked evidence of a "Trump slump" until finally, at the very end, we get some hard data on the bottom line.
"This June, the gaming industry across the state of Nevada made $1.33 billion, up 3.5% over June 2024."
(Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Thursday August 28 2025, @11:51AM (2 children)
You don't have to read every story. If there is one that you dislike then please just skip it. Nobody will tell you off.
Yet despite you highlighting that the casinos had increased profit, the hotels, restaurants, and bars have far less customers than last year. That is a lot of jobs that are at risk. As TFS states:
Somebody is losing out.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Thursday August 28 2025, @04:04PM (1 child)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday August 28 2025, @04:16PM
I barely gamble when I have gone to Vegas, but I'm definitely in the minority. People go to Vegas primarily for a couple things, gambling and conventions are probably the most common reasons to go. Then there's the legal brothels that are in the vicinity. The entire city is unsustainable with the Strip being even less sustainable than the actual city is.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rich26189 on Thursday August 28 2025, @01:04PM (1 child)
So visits are down but "gaming" is up $1.33B. Maybe Vegas (the Vegas experience) is past its prime. Here in the NE USA small casinos are going into shopping malls or other easily accessible places. These shopping malls are not vacation spots, just opportunities for the "mildly impulsive" customers wanting to "game" for a few hours.
So you run a business that's loosing its appeal while dependent on low wage immigrant labor - maybe time to read the Tea Leaves and downsize instead of blaming it on the Orange Man.
Apparently there are still enough *suckers that still want "The Vegas experience" hence the up by $1.33B
* The house Always wins
No, I didn't RTFA
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 28 2025, @01:38PM
Why not both? I mean, do you think the causes for this stay w/ somebody else?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Touché) by Tork on Thursday August 28 2025, @02:36PM (3 children)
So... a TDSer "cherry picked" a variety of evidence, then our hero Doofy came along and totally didn't cherry pick one single data point and called it 'the bottom line'. But then our totally non-biased Doofy forgot to read the rest of the summary:
Next time you visit Vegas, DadaDoofy, I recommend Circus Circus.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Thursday August 28 2025, @03:23PM (2 children)
"Next time you visit Vegas, DadaDoofy, I recommend Circus Circus."
Nope. I've never spent so much as a penny gambling there. A fools errand, if there ever was one.
You'd find me in a Ferrari or Lamborghini at Speed Vegas, and then someplace like Joel Robuchon or Picasso for dinner.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Tork on Thursday August 28 2025, @03:27PM (1 child)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
(Score: 3, Funny) by aafcac on Friday August 29 2025, @01:26PM
You think that by DadaDoofy needs help escaping from the real-world? I can't remember the last time I saw a post by him that reflected an acknowledgement of a shared reality.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 28 2025, @07:37PM
There is a difference between what the gaming industry is making and what the service industry workers are making.
Vegas has been diversifying their income sources for decades with "family friendly" hotels, shows and other attractions. Not to mention conventions...
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 4, Touché) by Gaaark on Thursday August 28 2025, @07:51PM (3 children)
You talk about TDS, then quote how casinos are making Bigly profits.
I say, how come Trump had casino bankruptcy syndrome? How can you run a casino into the ground if you are SUCH A GREAT BUSINESS MAN?
How can some casinos make 3.5% more profit than the previous year, in a declining customer environment, and yet THE GREATEST BUSINESS PERSON EVER TO HAVE LIVED had his casino(s) go bankrupt?
Sounds like a not very good business man. NOT VERY GOOD AT ALL! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Thursday August 28 2025, @08:19PM (2 children)
It may be news to some, but people who set lofty goals usually experience spectacular failures along the way. For a man who has finally achieved his dream and destiny of becoming king of the world, a failed business venture, or three, along the way is simply par for the course.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday August 28 2025, @09:09PM (1 child)
He's STILL experiencing spectacular failures. His dreams will be America's nightmare.
Still... how the fuck you lose money running a CASINO?
How the fuck you cheat on your wife? How the fuck you lose the support of your family?
How the fuck does a person's dream include surrounding yourself with a bunch of ass-holes whose only job is to kiss your ass and say "Yes, sir!" to every stupid thing you say?
Not my idea of a dream... or a destiny worth living for.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 29 2025, @03:56AM
You don't get it. Trump is just charitable in putting his ass up to keep satisfied those Americans w/ a kink for brown nose :large-grin:
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday August 28 2025, @11:21PM
The phrase "gaming industry" doesn't cover just the casinos, it also refers to companies like International Game Technology [wikipedia.org] (IGT). Those companies actually manufacture the slot, video poker, lottery, etc machines that are used all over the world, not just in Vegas.
So yeah, companies like IGT may be making money hand over fist selling their wares world wide to every tribe or mom&pop store that gets a permit to have slots on the premises but locations like Vegas that rely on outsiders to come and spend money gambling are losing money.
Apples, oranges. Both fruit but very different.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Touché) by Snotnose on Thursday August 28 2025, @01:09PM (2 children)
They extracted as much money as they can from Vegas, now they're leaving like rats from a sinking ship heading for their next target.
Will Vegas survive? Probably. It's much harder to kill a city than a company.
Being the dumbest idiot in the land and president of the US should be 2 different people.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday August 28 2025, @04:35PM (1 child)
I'd put a lot of it down to the fact that Vegas is in an incredibly stupid place. Before gambling, it was a tiny town and virtually everything there is a byproduct of the gambling. At some point, there was going to be a reckoning as most of the money is still coming in from the Strip and while there are other things like tourism to some of the local mountains, the thing is that it's still tourism related.
You see the same sort of thing in Seattle, Detroit and much of the Rust Belt. Seattle was able to escape that fate in the 70s and subsequently diversified the local economy, but it was in a stronger position to begin with as it was a port city and had aerospace, timber and fishing on top of being the closest port to Asia, which at the time wasn't yet a major factor like it is today.
I doubt very much that Vegas is ever going away entirely, but the local real estate market has been massively overheated for a long time now, and there's only so much water available locally. On top of that, there's a limited number of ways to diversify the local economy beyond conventions and gambling.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday August 28 2025, @06:19PM
A former work buddy of mine lived and worked out there for a very long time and they've done some things to make sure it'll always be a state or even regional influential city:
Geographically its a good spot for logistics. At least one small air carrier already uses it as a hub city and they're pushing HARD to make it a state/regional logistics hub.
It's a big enough basin (surrounded by mountains) for warehouses and pretty decent transport and they put a TON of money into drainage (its in a flash flood plain and unlike their neighbors in the area is now more or less flash flood proof on a large scale (there will always be that "one street with a clogged drain that flooded one time, but the city overall will never flood again)).
They seem to be trying to turn themselves into a regional cannabis hub. Good luck, CA is too close and easier to grow there. But they're trying. My guess is they'll fail to be a regional legal-weed hub but will always be the state hub.
I think they'll win the race to be a regional museum / gallery / performing arts hub. They're dumping a lot of money into that. Having a big Natural History Museum is not a major money maker but they're trying to lure people in for more than gambling. I'd say its already regional, already bigger than state-wide. It'll likely never compete nationally or at the world level but "the southwest" will likely end up going to Vegas for cultural consumption. In the future if you live in the SW, the stereotypical "kids go see a museum more than a daytrip" will be Vegas.
Likewise they dumped a TON of money into legacy boomer pro-sports-ball. In the long run, probably wasted money. Specifically in combat sports they're already heavily marketed as the "fight capital of the world". MLB is dying in general but its possible Vegas will permanently be the world wide center for combat sports like MMA and other martial arts etc.
Vegas is already a state hub, maybe even a reasonable attempt at a regional hub, for higher ed. There's not many other places for several hundreds of miles to get a law or MD degree. OF course not many people live there, but still its a major hub for education that'll probably never go entirely away. I can't think of anything academic that Vegas is known nationally or internationally for. They should build "something" educational to lure people in. Nation's biggest data center research site or something, I donno. They have the space nearby to be an aerospace power, but they are not except for that top secret AF base.
Vegas was about twice the size of my landlocked midwest suburb before the real estate boom, and after that collapses and it settles down it'll probably return to about that size. Long term, they don't really have the water to be much bigger. It punches above its weight for its size, if you exclude the bubble.
The real estate bubble is F'd up in Vegas, something like a fifth of the population is employed building more housing. They build because they build which lures more builders to move there in a feedback loop. They'll keep doing that until the collapse. Literally the only reason anyone wants to buy vegas real estate is the speculative belief that everyone else also wants to buy in vegas, which works until the panic selling sets in. Then 1/5 of the population will be unemployed until they move away.
In summary at the world/national level they don't have much going for them other than combat sports. At a state and regional level they've got too much infrastructure to ever fall, its always going to be a "very big deal" in the SW and its always going to be "the biggest deal" in Nevada. I don't see any realistic way for another city to rise to the top in the state of Nevada because of geography and infrastructure. After the collapse, if they're still the national and world capital of combat sports, thats still kind of impressive.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Username on Thursday August 28 2025, @01:45PM
There were a spat of unexplained shootings in vegas in 2017, with about a thousand victims. I think that's when tourism started... dying.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by srobert on Thursday August 28 2025, @03:14PM (6 children)
I live and work in Las Vegas since the 80's. My work will likely be affected more by the Trump slump in the future. The effect on tourism starts a chain reaction that eventually gets other sectors. But we're already starting to see it. Fortunately, I'm nearing retirement.
It's well-known in my workplace that I'm a Democratic Socialist. A Trump voting co-worker told me some months back that Trump is a "savvy businessman who's going to fix all this shit." I told her that back in the 90's I read a book that convinced me that Trump is NOT a "savvy businessman", but a "lucky idiot" and a bully. The name of that book was "The Art of the Deal". From previous conversations with her I gather that she thinks uncontrolled immigration and welfare are at the root of everything that has gone wrong with the country. I've told her that I think the root of her problems are billionaires rather than immigrants. I'm just waiting for the perfect time to ask her, "Are we great again yet?"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Tork on Thursday August 28 2025, @03:55PM (1 child)
I was a late-bloomer, here. I was a fan of the show Apprentice when it aired. For the uninitiated this is a show where week-by-week contestants manage a project with the goal of earning a profit, then they go to the board room where they sort out with Trump who'll be fired. It is interesting to see how resourceful people can be when presented with a challenge like that. Fun show, popular across-the-pond, too! The big prize is a spiffy job at one of Trump's resorts where you get paid a lot and can live the big lifestyle. Exciting! I enjoyed the escapist quality of the show, woulda been fun to compete for that! But, I'll tell you the problem I ran into: It wasn't long in the series before I arrived at the conclusion that I'd never ever actually want to be a contestant. Trump was in the show, at most, for ten minutes or so. And he acted like he was imparting wisdom, hence the title, but... no. That's not what we got. Instead he'd turn to one of his cronies to get their assessment, agree with whatever they said, fire somebody for often questionable reasons, and then ask his cronies to slobber all over him about what a great job he's doing like the yes-men that they are. If you were actually a participant in that show the best thing you could do was get on Ivanka's good side. The stars of the show were the contestants and Trump's role was more of a cameo. Towards the end of his run on it, while he was eyeing the presidency but didn't dare run against Obama, he made a crack about climate change after Gilbert Godfried complained about standing outside in the cold. Our next president, folks.
It is hard to watch a Trump administration after following this show. Imagine having to prepare a ballroom for a charity, but what you have to decorate is a $500 Hobby Lobby gift certificate. With that in mind, then think about Trump's Sharpie and his tariff charts. yick. It was cute watching grown people throw events while serving cold cheese sandwiches, but imagine seeing the White House serving Big Macs to a University Football team who is visiting after a big win. Yerg. Ketchup and gold go together really well, huh. It was amusing in the context of the show, but running the White House that way?
This is purely anecdotal but my Trump-leaning friends on Facebook all clammed up early in term 2. I think they know that question is coming, it's gonna sting, and are somehow hoping to wait it out.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Lester on Saturday August 30 2025, @06:31AM
I'm not American, but I was really astonished watching Trump running for president and winning.
It's not a question of ideology, but that he is obviously a total stupid, unable of any deep thought, a bully and one of the least trustworthy person I've ever seen.
It looks like In USA Trump was already known, but I hadn't heard of him until he ran for president. It was funny, I thought "how can a public person say such things, let alone a politician" . But for my surprise the more he insulted and the more ridiculous were his accusations and promises, and the more blatant lies he said, the nearer to Whitehouse .
Every politician is demanded to have a spotless past. But Trump has record of sexual scandals, he has been sued for fraud many times. And is the new president... twice.
How people don't that "America first" in Trump's mind is "Trump first"?
Bush II was not the smartest president in history, he has good record of funny quotes, but at least he had the intelligence of listening his advisors. But Trump is a narcissist the thinks that his last idea, thought five minutes ago with no analysis or second thought, is a pearl of wisdom.
In the guest book of Holocaust Memorial museum in Israel, he wrote
“It is a great honor to be here with all of my friends — so amazing + will never forget!”
! !? Where did he think he was? In a party? In which world does this guy live?
A total moron.
(Score: 2) by Username on Thursday August 28 2025, @04:48PM (3 children)
Not yet. It will be about 30 years before we get out of this recession.
Trumps only fault during his first term was the covid lock downs, can't blame it all on faucci, there was rights violations that should have never happened.
This latest season of trump, is letting israel dictate terms with the united states, and the rights violations that came with it. Not sure what they have on the guy, but it has to be something serious to put up with a genocide.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cmdrklarg on Thursday August 28 2025, @06:31PM
I wouldn't say "only". Bungling the COVID response was the biggest reason for sure; had he simply turned Fauci and the CDC loose and then got out of the way and supported them he'd would have won in 2020 (I know, I know, impossible for an asshole narcissist con man). Politicizing the pandemic was a really bad idea.
The next biggest fuckup was denigrating mail in voting.
I don't think it would matter what they have on him, including nothing. Quite sure the Florida Orange Man could not care less about Gaza beyond razing it to the ground and turning it into a resort. The lives of a couple million Palestinians are no concern of his.
Netanyahu and the FOM are, as the British say, "two cheeks of the same arse". Of course the FOM would cozy up to Bibi.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday August 28 2025, @08:00PM
They are very good at hacking: they probably hacked Russia and have the same information against him that Putin does.
I think Canada should hack Russia too so we can play puppet master to him as well.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday August 29 2025, @11:13PM
The obvious question here: who was Fauci's boss? I see a couple of possibilities here. First, that Fauci was doing exactly what Trump needed him to do: help protect Trump from the political fallout of a nasty pandemic. Or that Trump was too TACO to remove Fauci.
I lean towards the former. Trump had his cake and ate it too. He got someone to be the mean, responsible one when it came to actually doing something about the pandemic while Trump got to pander to the base by flouting those very precautions that Fauci advocated.
And how hard really is it to process the faults of the first Trump term? Such as aggravating the Floyd protests in the middle of a pandemic rather than just putting out the fire - a specific, but far from unique, example of him inserting his bullshit into the middle of legitimate problems. Or the idiocy of the transitional period where Trump and allies maneuvered in bizarre and profoundly stupid ways to contest the 2020 election - to be followed up with a profoundly disrespectful act of rebellion (in the immature teenager sense not the legal sense).
There's more faults there if you choose to look for it.
Trump doesn't care. And this support gets Israel out of Trump's hair. He doesn't need to make more enemies.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Thursday August 28 2025, @04:28PM
Vegas is a very small part of the larger bunch of interconnected problems we're facing. And I think the root of the problem are all these Stone Age throwbacks among us, people who want to compete for mates as our Stone Age ancestors did, "all's fair in love and war", no holds barred.
In such a competition, their attitude is that any damage to the premises is merely something to be turned to one's advantage somehow. They would roll with Global Warming by trying to use its devastation to disadvantage the competition, and never mind that civilization itself is in peril of falling. Civilizations have fallen, many times, from such neglect. It's like in the 1997 movie Titanic. The ship is freaking sinking, and the rich idiot doesn't care about that near as much as he wants to win the mating battle. He's willing to send the ship and all others aboard to Davy Jones' locker if that means he gets the girl. Also, it's like Dr. Strangelove. They like the plan to huddle in a bomb and fallout shelter while the rest of the world dies, because each of those special, chosen men get to huddle with a nice, big harem. Sucks for the other 99% of the men and women, who have only 20 minutes to live after the missiles are launched.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Thursday August 28 2025, @05:43PM
The symptoms are being misinterpreted
I really couldn't disagree more. A list of things it is / was famous for and the current problems:
1) It was a cheaper destination because gaming subsidizes everything, so rooms and restaurants were cheap, and you say you will go and not gamble you'll just enjoy the free sights but they know if you "save" $100 in your pocket and they give you $5 of "free" liquor, you'll probably gamble $150 anyway when you get there, LOL. Nope not any more. Boomer greed collecting that home refinance cash-out money plus a real estate boom in prices means Vegas is a "pretty expensive place to go" in 2025. There are cheap Indian gaming casinos in my state, why would I spend more to go to Vegas? For my vacation dollar, I can have more fun elsewhere.
2) Its a decadent boomer paradise like acting out scenes from the movie "Animal House". Nah boomers are too old for that party stuff and Vegas is now "family friendly" which changes it from a unique destination to "yet another family friendly offering" just like the other 50 similar offerings in my home state. Like how a heavy metal (in multiple senses LOL) lifting gym can sustain itself as a unique entity even at higher prices BECAUSE its a heavy metal gym, but once literally every gym in the city is a family-friendly almost identical commodity clone of the YMCA is unsustainable for all the gyms copying each other and they all end up suffering. Maybe like the difference in the old days between "the" organic health food store vs the endless identical supermarket chains. Whats special about Vegas in 2025? Nothing? Oh, well goodbye then, Vegas. There's nothing "special" about Vegas anymore.
3) Its the only place in the entire country with legal gambling (also prostitution and semi-ignored drugs). In the old days this was true, but now that seems to be every urban city in 2025. Even if its "illegal" IRL its possible online even if "illegal". Bye bye Vegas.
4) Vegas was a place for individuals to party. Oh wait they tried a rebrand to its the place for giant boomer era 1980s mega conferences. Those, like arena rock, have generally disappeared or gone local or shrunk especially post-covid. The days of inviting 15000 people in the plumbing manufacturing industry for an industry conference in Vegas have gone, mostly because those jobs have moved to China, but partially because the giant conference concept was just a short term fad, although long enough to build dedicated real estate for it thats no longer needed. Vegas has to move backwards or move forwards; the idea of every hotel complex will have 10000 rooms and five million sq feet of conference space and they will all be full 52 weeks/year are gone.
5) Someone, mob, gamblers, both, was funding some pretty weird temple-like crazy structures to visit. Or call them palaces of capitalism. Roman baths morphed into "family fun water parks". Various financial forces mean every shitty downtown and even suburb has their own water park, resort, expo center, conference center thing, no need to go to vegas to swim in a pool on the roof of a building anymore. That life size Noah's Ark in the South (forget where) sounds like the kind of thing you'd have found in Vegas in the 70s or 80s, but Vegas is dead so its not there.
6) "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". Pre-social media, sure. "Everyone knows" that "Everyone else knows" that even "respected professions" party up when they're young or annually on vacation even when they officially are not allowed. Its not possible anymore. In 1980 you could be a literal Sunday School Teacher, and party very hard, very far from home, in Vegas for a weekend. This is dead, post social media, post iphone era, in 2025 if you're a Sunday School Teacher and decide to streak down the strip naked then puke from drinking too much booze, in 1980 you were a pretty good sunday school teacher the other 51 weeks of the year although perhaps a bit hung over, but post social media and smart phones, you will just end up unemployed once its posted everywhere. "What happens in Vegas gets posted to Facebook and LinkedIn and the prudes pretend they never did the same damn thing when they were that age or when they were on vacation last summer" so Vegas is dead.
7) Vegas is boomer in general. This is fine, if boomers can keep the place afloat. They did, up until recently. They can't any more, they're too old, and everyone knows Vegas is for boomers, just like shopping malls. Both are going away. Its like a style thing. Also, lets be realistic, some of the "big shows" are not very relevant to the population born after 1970. Is 2025 America mono-cultural enough for the concept of "the big show" to sell in Vegas anyway? Even Tay Tay doesn't have universal appeal in 2025. The idea that literally the entire country wants to go to Vegas to see Sinatra at least once is gone. Not because Sinatra is gone but because of multiculturalism. And if Vegas was financialized to only work if the entire country wanted to do something, and the entire country inherently can't agree on anything at all, much less desire some specific show...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Covalent on Thursday August 28 2025, @08:09PM
Trump and the MAGA insanity over immigrants is surely playing a role.
But there's also online gambling to consider. Why go to Vegas when you can wi^G^G lose all of your money in your underpants on your couch while eating nacho cheese dip from the jar with a spoon?
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Revek on Thursday August 28 2025, @11:16PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W62Ie7dKXRY [youtube.com]
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sonamchauhan on Friday August 29 2025, @02:36AM (2 children)
I want your money. You want my money. Let's get together and play a zero-sum game that gives life to covetousness. Let's turbocharge it with whores, drunkenness and an impressive collection of dark patterns that weaken common sense. In the process, lawlessness increases, fortunes are lost, families destroyed and ecology damaged. But we have a constant parade of media, 'CSI Las Vegas', 'Friends', and a rolling army of fading entertainers, glamorize le life noir
I feel for the common person hurting in this downturn. But what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 29 2025, @09:37PM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I8C0XVXLEw [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Sunday September 14 2025, @04:03PM
Thanks - it's interesting. I've skimmed a few Alan Watts videos now. I think is mistaken in his convictions. I'm Christian and believe in Jesus.