Las Vegas - the end of a Gambling Era?

Las Vegas is not only the largest city in the US Federal State Nevada, but also the most significant place worldwide for gambling. More than 600,000 people live in the dazzling big city and year after year millions of tourists used to visit Las Vegas. However this year, because of the Covid-19-Pandemic everything is different.

Over a period of more than two months all famous hotels and venues like The Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan and the Casino at Aria Resort were closed. The Gambling Metropole is now slowly recovering from the Lockdown. However some Casinos are still closed and the number of visitors are still way below the levels of previous years. For a city which most recently had 42 Million visitors, this is a big problem. Meanwhile in the media, there is already talk, that the „City of Sin“ now wants to become a good one, by evolving from a desert metropolis of gambling to a dream destination for Sports fans. An overview of the development and a prognosis for the future. 

Las Vegas stops

In spring of this year when the lockdown started, many casinos, among them those in Las Vegas had to close for several months. From one day to the next there were no more tourists in the desert metropole and there were thousands of job cuts. Since the beginning of June, the popular Las Vegas Strip is again welcoming guests. The number of bookings however is way below that of the previous year, such that one cannot talk about normality. In spite of the fact that the lockdown has ended, only a few people are turning up in the largest city of the US Federal State of Nevada. The current restrictions on admittance and the quarantine rules have affected the number of international visitors. Not only tourism, but basically the whole city has been put on the backburner. And probably this will not change in the coming months.

Las Vegas was once the sinful gambling metropole, but in the past years there was a lot of work on measures to change its image. The offer for families was broadened, e.g. shows like The Blue Man Group were brought to the city. However the city still depends on tourism. There is no other city in the USA that depends so much on tourism as the desert metropole Las Vegas. Therefore it is essentially no surprise, that the city has been extraordinarily hit by the Corona pandemic.

A long way back to Normality

The hotels and casinos have now been officially open since the 4th. June 2020. However the low number of visitors have not made it very viable for the operators. In addition to this, the casinos have to abide to several sanitation and social distance regulations. To be able to keep to the required minimum social distance required, the casinos are therefore clearly operating with a decreased available space. Further to this one can find stations for hand-disinfecting at all entrances. Plexiglas walls at some Roulette and Blackjack tables protect the visitors in an optimum way. Upon check-in at the hotel it is often the case that the receptionist checks the temperature of visitors. Since mid-June, mask wearing is obligatory nearly everywhere in the city. Hence normality seems to be very far off in Les Vegas.

Around 17 % of the population of Las Vegas work either in the established hotels or casinos. Several others work in gastronomy or in other shops. There is no other city in the USA which depends so much on tourism as Las Vegas. In mid-October 2020, the world famous Casino-Hotel Encore on the Strip of Las Vegas reacted to the constantly low number of overnight stays. During the week, from Monday at noon to Thursday morning, the hotel and the gamble areas remain closed to the public. The few guests are greeted at the Casino-Hotel only during the weekend.

Hotel rooms are sold at a loss

At the moment one can get a room in the central location of the Strip for the ridiculous price of 40 US-Dollars per night. Up to a year ago, tourists could only dream of paying these prices. In spite of the persistent crisis situation, one has to add a “resort-fee” of another 40 dollars to this price. A lower price for overnight stays will however not be enough to once again attract more tourists to Las Vegas. In fact guests, especially from Germany, at the moment cannot visit Las Vegas because of the current travel restrictions.

Is there hope for Las Vegas in the future?

Critics are already insisting, that Las Vegas has no future any more as a legendary place for “Gambling friends”. The damage left over by the pandemic and that which is still to come is too big. It can be too late till normality is achieved in the gambling metropole. The glittering and shimmering desert oasis, in which even the Mafia laundered their money, has lived since years and decades from its despicable reputation. It will be interesting to see whether the several casinos and hotels of the city will survive the pandemic and if Las Vegas will resurge as an adventurous place for gambling after the corona pandemic. Up till then visitors to the Casino must either experience the strict sanitising and social distance regulations or else they can dodge directly to the virtual casinos on the internet. The online-offers have experienced a sharp increase since the beginning of the pandemic.

In the current situation with the pandemic we have to rely on the responsible behaviour of each individual. It is obvious that Las Vegas is the wrong place for this. Indeed one may play again in all the casinos in the city, but only under strict conditions. And at the end of the day, this is exactly what makes the experience less glamorous and also less attractive. Las Vegas has opened again – but even now nothing is the same as it was before.