{"id":409,"date":"2026-02-27T19:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/?p=409"},"modified":"2026-03-25T13:23:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:23:47","slug":"las-vegas-woes-continue-casino-execs-say-fears-overblown-nevada-dems-blame-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/las-vegas-woes-continue-casino-execs-say-fears-overblown-nevada-dems-blame-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Woes Continue, Casino Execs Say Fears Overblown, Nevada Dems Blame Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Las Vegas Strip revenue was down double digits in January 2026<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Tourism numbers continue to indicate fewer people are visiting Las Vegas<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Casino execs say fears about the destination are overblown<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Las Vegas began 2026 where it left 2025: slow.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_378163\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-378163\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-378163 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Las Vegas casino revenue tourism numbers\" width=\"858\" height=\"572\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/shutterstock_2282594963-858x572-1.jpg\"><figcaption>A &#8220;Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas&#8221; sign greets travelers inside Harry Reid International Airport. Las Vegas hasn&#8217;t been so fabulous, with January 2026 continuing the tourism worries. (Image: Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">While the Las Vegas Strip managed to post a trivial 0.03% year-over-year gain in terms of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nevada-casino-revenue-hits-record-high-2025\/\">gross gaming revenue<\/a> (GGR) last year, visitation was down 7.5%. The tourism drop represented 3.12 million fewer visitors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The ongoing visitor volume pains could be catching up with the Strip casinos, as January 2026 began deeply in the red.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">On Friday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board revealed that the state&#8217;s 315 licensed gaming facilities generated GGR of $1.345 billion. That represented a 6.6% decline from January 2025.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Table games and sports were the culprit, with revenue from felt, sports, race, and bingo down almost 19% to $425.4 million. Slots were flat at $919.8 million, a 0.5% increase.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\">Gaming, Occupancy, Visitation Lower<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In Clark County, Nevada&#8217;s most populous county that&#8217;s home to Las Vegas, things were even worse. GGR was down 8% to $1.159 billion. Downtown Las Vegas GGR totaled $79.4 million, 5% lower than a year ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">On the Las Vegas Strip, casino revenue fell 11% to $747.65 million. The year-over-year monthly revenue difference was more than $92.4 million. Visitor volume in Las Vegas was down 2.2%, and h<\/span><span class=\"s1\">otel room occupancy on the Strip was down 2.4% to 79.5%. Despite fewer visitors, the average nightly room rate on the Las Vegas Strip was up 7% to $216.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Traffic at Harry Reid International was 8% lower to a little more than four million arriving and departing passengers. International traffic was 19% lower, while domestic flights brought in 7% fewer people.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Las Vegas Blame Game<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Casino executives continue to blame the media for reporting on fears regarding the state of the destination. Officials at MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment say such reports, despite the data, are overblown.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;I read the headlines, &#8216;Las Vegas is dead.&#8217; Stop,&#8221; Bill Hornbuckle, MGM&#8217;s CEO, said during a discussion hosted by the Vegas Chamber.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There really is no crisis happening in Vegas,&#8221; Tom Reeg, Caesars&#8217; CEO, said during the company&#8217;s earnings call this month. &#8220;It is normal cyclicality, and it will play itself out. I know that the pricing gets focused on social media and I am sure if I say the wrong thing here I&#8217;ll read it tomorrow.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Some of Nevada&#8217;s Democratic delegation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nevadas-lawmakers-blame-trump-for-las-vegas-slump\/\">blame Trump for Las Vegas&#8217; struggles<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">2025 was the year of the &#8216;Trump slump,&#8217;&#8221; opined US Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV). &#8220;POTUS is killing our tourism economy, as he discourages international travelers and raises costs here at home.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;Every tourist who chose not to come to the United States represents lost tips and wages for our workers, and lost revenue for our businesses and local communities. Donald Trump&#8217;s chaotic and offensive agenda caused this. He should be fixing it. But instead of helping Nevada&#8217;s economy, he&#8217;s more focused on building himself a ballroom,&#8221; added US Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-woes-continue-casino-execs-say-fears-overblown\/\">Las Vegas Woes Continue, Casino Execs Say Fears Overblown, Nevada Dems Blame Trump<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Las Vegas Strip revenue was down double digits in January 2026 Tourism numbers continue to indicate fewer people are visiting Las Vegas Casino execs say fears about the destination are overblown Las Vegas began 2026 where it left 2025: slow. A &#8220;Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas&#8221; sign greets travelers inside Harry Reid International Airport. Las&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}