LAS VEGAS - Media outlets worldwide have written headlines about Las Vegas’ “death.” The operators of the city’s most prominent casinos disagree.
- Las Vegas casinos have seen a drop in visitation through 2025, but gaming revenues continue to rise, driven by high-margin table games and baccarat wins.
- Casino executives, including MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle and Circa’s Derek Stevens, downplayed “Vegas is dying” narratives, citing record gaming income despite fewer tourists.
- Sports events, conventions, and wealthier visitors are fueling optimism for Las Vegas’ future, even as the city transitions from a “value” destination to an “experience”-driven market.
America’s gambling epicenter has suffered year-over-year visitation declines each month in 2025, but the leaders of Las Vegas’ best-known industry are not worried about the city’s ongoing tourism dip. Speaking at a gaming industry conference last week, MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle said the city’s gaming foundations remain fundamentally sound.
“I’m not looking at changing anything we’re doing or how we’re doing it,” Hornbuckle said
Visitation declines spark media pronouncements
After record-setting visitation and revenue figures in 2022, 2023, and 2024 following the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vegas-area casinos have seen lowering visitation figures in each of the first three quarters of 2025. Hotel room night stays, average hotel room rates, and flights to and from the city’s Harry Reid International Airport are all down between 5% and 10% so far this year.
News outlets and social media users have speculated the decline is attributed to rising prices for rooms, restaurants, and parking; animosity from foreign would-be visitors over Trump Administration policies; the proliferation of online gaming and prediction markets; and fears of a larger economic downturn, among other concerns. Casino stakeholders have also noted fewer Spirt Airlines flights into Harry Reid International Airport as the airline undergoes bankruptcy proceedings. International flight numbers are down significantly, with declines most pronounced from Canadian airlines.
“We’re in a rugged summer,” Hornbuckle said during a fireside chat at last week’s Global Gaming Expo gaming industry convention at the Venetian expo hall along the Las Vegas Strip.
A variety of factors are playing a role in the in-person visitation drop, but Las Vegas has still seen year-over-year gaming revenue increases.
Vegas Strip casinos saw roughly 5% revenue growth in each of the past two months, an indication that gamblers coming to Vegas are spending as much or more than ever. Boosted by winning baccarat, a luck-based game with notorious revenue fluctuations, and the proliferation of table games with rules favoring casinos such as triple zero roulette and 6:5 blackjack, casinos on the Strip and Downtown Las Vegas are not feeling the pain from fewer customers, at least in their gaming bottom lines.
“How do we have this ‘Vegas is dying’ narrative when the casinos are setting records on monthly income?” said Circa casino owner Derek Stevens in an interview with Covers. “The bottom line is there are less bodies in Vegas. But there’s a lot more money.”
Sports, conventions fuel optimism
The increase of sporting events in and around the Strip has also provided a boost.
The NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders play at least eight regular-season home games just feet from the Strip, with Stevens noting a recent game against the Chicago Bears attracted tens of thousands of fans from the visiting team. In the past few years, the Raiders have joined the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, and an annual Formula 1 race to accompany decades of high-profile boxing and UFC fights and the coming relocation of the Athletics MLB franchise as well as a potential NBA team, all with home stadiums along the Strip.
Casino leaders also expect continued strong convention visitation, with MGM’s Hornbuckle saying he expects the next 16 months to be “the best convention months this city has ever had,” not just at MGM but the community at large.
“We remain bullish on Las Vegas fundamentally, and I don’t think it’s fundamentally broken in any way, shape or form,” Hornbuckle said.
Still, the city must deal with a generational shift in perception of a vacation destination rooted in “value” changing into one increasingly marketed around “experience.”
“I understand that for some, the Vegas of the past, the $10 all-you-can-eat buffets may be gone, and there’s some romanticizing of that,” Stevens said. He noted that cheap meals, as well as flights and hotel stays, have become less prevalent as labor costs and inflation increase in tourism markets across the world, not just Las Vegas.
Casino leaders are not fretting this potential shift of a market driven by bargain-hunting vacationers to one increasingly dependent on wealthier sports fans and conventioneers, even as speculation continues to swirl about Las Vegas’ demise online. Some are even embracing the change as gaming revenues continue to grow even while visitation numbers decline.
“What does this mean?” Stevens said, “Well, it probably means to me the people with more money are coming, and they’re happy because it’s a little less crowded.”
