Joe Rogan sat across from a longtime Vegas casino executive on episode 1987 of his podcast.

The conversation started casually enough talking about UFC fights and the atmosphere at T-Mobile Arena.

Then Rogan leaned in and said something that made everyone listening sit up straight.

I was in Vegas last month and I’m telling you, something’s different.

The strip feels empty.

Not empty like a Tuesday afternoon.

Empty like people stopped coming.

What’s going on? The executive paused.

He looked uncomfortable.

Then he started talking and what came out was a picture of Las Vegas that nobody in the tourism industry wants you to see.

Las Vegas is dying.

Not the dramatic overnight collapse kind of dying.

The slow bleed, the kind where the numbers still look decent on paper, but everyone who actually works there knows the truth.

The city that built itself on the promise of cheap thrills, easy money, and consequencefree weekends is pricing itself out of existence.

and the people running the show either don’t see it or don’t care.

Let’s start with the basics.

In 2019, before the world shutdown, Las Vegas welcomed 42.

5 million visitors.

That was the peak.

The city was humming.

Hotels were packed.

Casinos were printing money.

The strip was a river of tourists flowing from Mandalay Bay to the stratosphere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Then 2020 happened.

Visitor numbers dropped to 19 million.

The casino shut down for 78 days.

When they reopened, capacity limits, mask mandates, and travel restrictions kept the crowds thin.

Everyone assumed it was temporary.

A blip.

Vegas would bounce back the way it always had.

By 2021, the numbers started climbing again.

32 million visitors.

2022 brought 38 million.

2023 hit 40 million.

The industry breathed a sigh of relief.

Vegas was back.

But here’s what those numbers don’t tell you.

The type of visitor coming to Las Vegas has completely changed, and that shift is killing the city from the inside out.

Joe Rogan has talked about this on multiple episodes, but he really laid it out clearly in his conversation with comedian Bert Creree back in early 2024.

Chryser mentioned he’d just done a weekend in Vegas and couldn’t believe how expensive everything had become.

Rogan jumped in.

Dude, it’s not even the same place anymore.

You used to be able to go to Vegas with 500 bucks and have a wild weekend.

Now, 500 bucks gets you a hotel room and maybe two drinks.

That’s it.

They priced out the regular people.

He’s right.

Let’s look at the numbers.

In 2010, the average hotel room rate on the Las Vegas strip was around $92 per night.

By 2015, it had crept up to $19.

Still reasonable.

A working-class family could afford a weekend trip.

A group of friends could split a room and have money left over for gambling and shows.

Fast forward to 2024.

The average strip hotel room rate hit $199 per night.

That’s more than double in less than 15 years.

And that’s the average.

If you want to stay at a decent property on a weekend, you’re looking at $250 to $350 per night.

Want a suite? You’re starting at $500 and going up from there.

But it’s not just the rooms, it’s everything.

Resort fees, which barely existed 20 years ago, are now standard.

Every major strip hotel charges a mandatory resort fee, typically $30 to $45 per night.

You can’t opt out.

You can’t decline the services.

You’re paying it whether you use the pool, the gym, or the Wi-Fi or not.

Parking used to be free.

Now, every major casino charges for parking.

Self-parking at MGM properties runs $18 to $20 per day.

Valet is $30 to $35.

Multiply that by a three night stay, and you’ve just added $60 to $100 to your trip before you’ve even walked into the building.

Food prices have exploded.

A breakfast buffet that used to cost $12 to $15 now runs $35 to $50.

A burger and fries at a casino restaurant, $28.

A cocktail at a poolside bar, $18 to $22.

And if you want to see a cirlet show, you’re dropping $150 to $300 per ticket.

The casinos will tell you this is just inflation.

That costs have gone up everywhere, not just Vegas.

But here’s the problem.

Wages haven’t kept pace.

The median household income in the United States in 2010 was around $49,000.

In 2024, it’s roughly $75,000.

That’s about a 50% increase.

Hotel prices in Vegas have more than doubled.

Food and entertainment costs have tripled in many cases.

The math doesn’t work.

What Rogan identified and what the casino executive confirmed is that Las Vegas has shifted its entire business model.

The city no longer wants middle-class tourists.

It wants high rollers.

It wants convention groups with corporate expense accounts.

It wants international travelers with money to burn.

The problem is there aren’t enough of those people to fill 50,000 hotel rooms every night.

So, here’s what’s happening on the ground.

If you walk the strip on a random Wednesday in November, you’ll see it immediately.

Casinos that used to be shoulderto-shoulder crowded now have space to breathe.

Entire sections of slot machine floors sit empty.

Restaurants that used to require reservations days in advance now have open tables.

Shows that used to sell out are running at 60 or 70% capacity.

The locals see it even more clearly.

Taxi drivers, bartenders, dealers, they all tell the same story.

Tips are down.

Shifts are getting cut.

The energy is different.

Vegas used to feel like a party that never stopped.

Now it feels like a party where half the guests didn’t show up.

And here’s the kicker.

The casinos are making more money than ever.

How is that possible? Because the visitors who are still coming are spending more.

Way more.

The average visitor to Las Vegas in 2019 spent around $880 over the course of their trip.

In 2024, that number jumped to over $1,200.

That’s a 37% increase.

But here’s what that statistic hides.

It’s not that everyone is spending more.

It’s that the people who can’t afford the New Vegas aren’t coming at all.

The people who are still showing up are the ones with deeper pockets and they’re getting squeezed for every dollar the casinos can extract.

If you’ve been paying attention to Joe Rogan’s podcast over the last couple of years, you’ve heard him rant about this more than once.

He talks about how Vegas used to be a place where regular people could escape, blow off steam, and feel like high rollers for a weekend without going broke.

That’s gone.

Vegas is now a luxury destination, and luxury destinations don’t have mass appeal.

Listen, if you’re watching this and thinking, “Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing.

” Drop a comment below.

Tell me the last time you went to Vegas and what shocked you most about the prices.

I want to hear your stories because this isn’t just about numbers on a spreadsheet.

This is about real people getting priced out of a city that used to belong to everyone.

The executive Joe Rogan was talking to explained it in stark terms.

He said the casino companies are playing a dangerous game.

They’re betting that they can make up for declining visitor volume by increasing per visitor revenue.

In the short term, it’s working.

Profit margins are up.

Shareholders are happy.

But in the long term, it’s unsustainable.

He pointed to Atlantic City as a cautionary tale.

In 2006, Atlantic City’s casinos brought in over $5 billion in gaming revenue.

The city was booming.

Then the economy crashed in 2008, and people stopped coming.

By 2016, gaming revenue had dropped to under 2.

5 billion.

Five major casinos closed.

Thousands of jobs disappeared.

The city never recovered.

Las Vegas is not Atlantic City.

The strip has more diversification, more entertainment options, and better weather.

But the underlying risk is the same.

If you price out the middle class, you’re left entirely dependent on high-end customers and convention business.

And when the economy turns, those are the first things to dry up.

Joe Rogan made another point in that conversation that really stuck with me.

He said, “Be used to be the place you went when you wanted to feel alive.

You’d walk into a casino, sit down at a blackjack table with 50 bucks, and feel like anything could happen.

Maybe you’d win, maybe you’d lose, but it didn’t matter because the experience itself was the reward.

>> >> the lights, the energy, the sense that the normal rules didn’t apply.

Now, he said, “Veus feels transactional.

Everything is calculated.

Every interaction is designed to extract maximum revenue.

The magic is gone.

” And he’s not wrong.

Think about the way casinos used to operate.

They’d give you free drinks while you gambled.

They’d comp your room if you played long enough.

They’d send you mailers with free slot play and discounted show tickets.

The idea was to get you in the door, keep you happy, and let the house edge do the rest over time.

Now, free drinks are disappearing.

Comps are harder to get.

Loyalty programs have been restructured to reward only the biggest spenders.

Casinos used to treat every customer like a VIP.

Now, they treat every customer like a transaction.

But let’s go deeper because the pricing issue is only part of the story.

The other part is who’s actually living and working in Las Vegas.

And that picture is just as troubling.

Las Vegas has one of the highest unemployment rates of any major metro area in the country.

As of late 2024, the unemployment rate in the Las Vegas metro area was hovering around 5.

8%.

That’s nearly two full points higher than the national average, and it’s been that way for years.

Why? Because the casino industry is brutally efficient.

When visitor numbers dip, casinos cut staff immediately.

Housekeepers, dealers, bartenders, security guards, they’re all expendable.

The big resorts operate on razor thin labor margins.

They staffed just enough people to keep operations running and not one person more.

During the pandemic, tens of thousands of casino workers were laid off.

When the resorts reopened, many of those jobs never came back.

Automation replaced some positions.

Service cuts eliminated others.

Hotels stopped cleaning rooms daily.

Restaurants reduced their hours.

Buffets, which used to be a Vegas staple, closed permanently at multiple properties.

The Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas, has been sounding the alarm for years.

They’ve negotiated for better pay and job protections.

But the fundamental problem remains.

Las Vegas is a city built on an unstable foundation.

When tourism is strong, everyone eats.

When tourism weakens, the bottom drops out.

And tourism is weakening.

Not in the obvious headline grabbing way, but in the slow, measurable decline that shows up in occupancy rates, convention bookings, and foot traffic counts.

If this video is opening your eyes to what’s really happening in Vegas, do me a favor.

Hit that like button.

Share this with someone who loves Vegas or someone who’s been thinking about planning a trip.

Let’s get this conversation out there because the mainstream media isn’t covering the story.

They’re too busy publishing press releases from casino PR departments.

Let’s talk about the convention business because that’s another huge part of the Vegas economy that’s in trouble.

Las Vegas is one of the top convention destinations in the world.

The city has over 15 million square ft of meeting and exhibit space spread across dozens of venues.

Conventions bring in serious money.

A typical convention attendee spends more than twice what a leisure tourist spends.

They book hotel rooms for multiple nights.

They eat at restaurants.

They attend paid events.

They’re a casino’s dream customer.

In 2019, Las Vegas hosted over 6.

6 million convention attendees.

That’s a massive number.

But in 2023, the number was just under 5.

8 million.

That’s a 12% drop.

And 2024 is numbers are tracking even lower.

Why? A few reasons.

First, remote work has changed the convention game.

Companies that used to send dozens of employees to Vegas for a week-long conference are now doing virtual events or sending a smaller team.

It’s cheaper and frankly a lot of employees prefer it.

They’d rather save the travel time and avoid the chaos of a Vegas convention.

Second, other cities are competing harder for convention business.

Orlando, Nashville, Austin, and Phoenix have all invested heavily in convention infrastructure.

They’re offering competitive pricing, better airport access, and frankly, a more relaxed experience.

Vegas still has name recognition, but it’s no longer the automatic choice.

Third, and this goes back to pricing, conventions are expensive in Vegas.

Hotel room blocks that used to be negotiated at $120 per night are now starting at 180 to 200.

Convention centers charge premium rates for everything from Wi-Fi to furniture rentals.

Companies are looking at the total cost and asking if Vegas is really worth it.

And here’s the thing, conventions were supposed to be Vegas’s safety net.

When leisure tourism softened, conventions would pick up the slack.

That’s not happening anymore.

Both sides of the business are struggling.

Joe Rogan has talked about how Vegas feels like it’s coasting on its reputation.

People still think of it as this larger than-l life destination, but the reality doesn’t match the hype anymore.

He mentioned going to Vegas for UFC events and noticing that even during a major fight weekend, the strip didn’t feel as packed as it used to.

That tracks with the data.

Major event weekends used to sell out every hotel room in town.

Now, even during big events, there are vacancies.

Casinos have added so many rooms over the last 20 years that supply has outpaced demand.

The strip alone has over 37,000 hotel rooms.

The entire Las Vegas market has around 150,000 rooms.

That’s a staggering amount of inventory to fill every single night.

When occupancy rates drop below 85%, casinos start to panic.

They cut rates, offer promotions, and slash operating budgets.

That’s where Vegas is right now.

The official occupancy rate for the strip in the first half of 2024 was around 83%.

That sounds decent until you realize it used to be consistently above 90%.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

Sports betting.

This is something Rogan has discussed at length, especially given his involvement with the UFC and his general interest in combat sports.

Sports betting used to require a trip to Vegas.

If you wanted to bet on a game, you had to physically walk into a sports book.

That created foot traffic.

People would fly to Vegas for March Madness or the Super Bowl, not just to bet, but to be in the atmosphere.

The sports books were packed.

The energy was electric, and the casinos made money off of everything surrounding the betting action.

Then, sports betting went online.

State after state legalized mobile sports betting.

Now, you can place a bet from your couch in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Arizona, or 30 other states.

You don’t need Vegas anymore.

The impact has been massive.

Sports books in Vegas casinos are noticeably quieter.

The big crowds during major sporting events have thinned out.

People are still betting, they’re just doing it from home.

And when they’re betting from home, they’re not buying drinks, not playing slots, not eating at restaurants, and not booking hotel rooms.

The casino saw this coming and tried to adapt.

They launched their own mobile betting apps.

But the competition in the online sports betting market is brutal.

FanDuel, DraftKings, Bet MGM, Caesars, they’re all fighting for market share with massive advertising budgets and aggressive promotions.

The margins are thin and it’s nothing like the guaranteed revenue of having betters physically inside your building.

Joe Rogan has said he thinks Vegas missed the boat on this.

Instead of fighting to keep sports betting exclusive to Nevada, the casinos pushed for legalization everywhere because they wanted a piece of the online action.

But in doing so, they gave up one of the few remaining reasons people had to visit Vegas.

Here’s another trend that’s quietly killing Vegas.

Younger generations aren’t as interested in gambling.

Millennials and Gen Z grew up with smartphones, video games, and instant gratification.

Sitting at a slot machine pulling a liver for hours doesn’t appeal to them the way it did to their parents and grandparents.

Casino gaming revenue has been flat or declining for years when adjusted for inflation.

>> >> The average age of a slot machine player is now over 50.

Casinos have tried to adapt.

They’ve added nightclubs, pool parties, celebrity chef restaurants, and immersive experiences.

The goal is to attract younger visitors who might not gamble much, but will spend money on bottle service, cabanas, and Instagram worthy meals.

It’s working to some extent.

Las Vegas has reinvented itself as an entertainment destination rather than purely a gambling destination.

But here’s the problem.

Entertainment revenue is less profitable than gaming revenue.

A casino can make $500 in profit off a gambler in one night.

A nightclub might clear $50 per person after overhead.

The math doesn’t work the same way.

And younger visitors are more price sensitive.

They’re not dropping $2,000 on a weekend trip to Vegas.

They’re looking for deals, using discount apps, and maximizing value.

That’s not the customer profile the casinos want.

So, we’re left with this weird paradox.

The casinos need younger visitors to stay relevant, but younger visitors don’t spend the way older visitors do.

Meanwhile, the older visitors who do spend are being priced out or finding other vacation options.

Before we wrap this up, let me throw one more thing at you.

If you’re still watching and you’ve made it this far, you’re the real one.

Hit that subscribe button because we’re not done exposing the truth about what’s happening in cities like Vegas.

This channel is all about pulling back the curtain on the stories the mainstream media won’t touch.

Let’s talk about what happens next because Vegas isn’t going to collapse overnight, but the trajectory is clear.

In the next 5 to 10 years, expect more casino consolidations.

Smaller properties will close or get absorbed by bigger companies.

We’ve already seen it happen.

The Tropicana is being demolished to make way for a baseball stadium.

The Mirage is being sold and rebranded.

The Rio closed and was sold off.

More will follow.

Expect more automation.

Self-service kiosks, mobile check-in, and AI powered customer service will replace human workers.

Casinos will cut labor costs wherever possible.

Expect ticket prices for shows and attractions to keep climbing.

The entertainment side of Vegas will become even more exclusive and expensive.

The days of affordable cirle tickets or cheap comedy shows are over, and expect the wealth gap in Vegas to widen.

The ultra rich will still fly in on private jets, rent out pen houses, and drop $50,000 at a Bakarat table without blinking.

Meanwhile, the working-class visitors who used to fill the middle tier will disappear entirely.

The executive Joe Rogan spoke to said something chilling at the end of their conversation.

He said, “Vegas is becoming a playground for the rich.

Everyone else is just a tourist passing through, getting squeezed for whatever they have in their pocket.

” That’s not the Vegas that Frank Sinatra sang about.

That’s not the Vegas that Hunter S.

Thompson wrote about, and that’s definitely not the Vegas that millions of Americans grew up dreaming about visiting.

Joe Rogan is right to call this out.

Las Vegas is dying, not because people don’t want to visit, but because the city has priced itself out of reach for the very people who made it famous in the first place.

The lights are still on, the music is still playing, but the party is winding down, and fewer people are dancing.

So, what do you think? Is Vegas still worth visiting? Or has it become just another overpriced tourist trap? Drop your honest opinion in the comments.

And if you’ve been to Vegas recently, tell me what surprised you most.

Let’s keep this conversation going because this is bigger than just one city.

This is about what happens when greed overtakes common sense.

Thanks for watching.

Don’t forget to subscribe and I’ll see you in the next one.