While the 2025 tourism decline dominated headlines throughout the year, Southern Nevada’s casinos rode a month-to-month rollercoaster that so far has landed right where you’d expect — near dead even from last year.
Experts agree that it was not a single factor that has led to a 7.6 percent drop to 32.3 million in visitor volume to Las Vegas over 10 months so far.
Admittedly, some months were worse than others. December 2024 was the last month that Las Vegas had more visitors than the previous year. But the sharpest declines with double-digit percentage drops occurred in February, June and July.
Tourism leaders won’t know the final figure until late January when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announces the 2025 totals.
Industry experts theorize that uncertainty about consumer confidence is keeping many would-be travelers on the sidelines. Others have questioned Las Vegas’ value proposition, a position the industry sought to address in the fall with the sale of several properties.
Some national and international controversies have been cited as reasons for the decline with some saying recently imposed tariffs are a factor in international travel, while others say President Donald Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st US state have angered potential visitors from north of the border.
One issue that has affected domestic travel has been the declining financial fortunes of Spirit Airlines, once the second-busiest carrier at Harry Reid International Airport. Spirit, now No. 6 at the airport, has flown 36.7 percent fewer passengers in the first 10 months of 2025 from last year and has been identified as a potential merger target for JetBlue Airways or Frontier Airlines.
Government shutdown
Another political event that didn’t help the travel industry was the federal government shutdown last fall, the longest in US history at 43 days.
Remarkably, the shutdown had little effect on Las Vegas.
Many air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officials across the country did not report to work when they were not paid throughout the shutdown. But at Reid International, there were no significant delays during the shutdown.
At one point, a food pantry was set up at the airport to help workers and the LVCVA helped by providing gas coupons to ease the financial stress.
Although it was business as usual at the airport during the shutdown, there were other major changes at Reid during the year. Longtime Clark County Department of Aviation Director Rosemary Vassiliadis retired in September, ending a 28-year airport career, and she was replaced in the role by James Chrisley, an Air Force veteran who once held key roles at Nellis and Creech Air Force Bases.
Reid expansion
Chrisley has an engineering background, making him ideal for a key role in expanding and modernizing the airport with a gate redesign that will add 26 new gates at Terminal 1.
He also assisted Federal Aviation Administration project manager David Kessler over the summer in coordinating initial planning scoping meetings for the Clark County Supplemental Airport south of Las Vegas in the Ivanpah Valley. The FAA and the Bureau of Land Management are the lead agencies for an environmental impact statement and a resource management plan amendment that will eventually lead to construction of the new airport within a decade.
Chrisley is also a big fan of airport lounges and two of them were added at Reid 2025. Capital One and JPMorgan Chase & Co. each opened airport lounges in 2025 with the latter a two-story design within C-gates, the arrival point for most of Southwest Airlines’ flights.
Southwest, the busiest commercial airline in Reid, was in the news in 2025 with a strategic change in operations. The airline abandoned its famous “bags fly free” policy, which took effect at the end of May, and has begun the process of charging passengers for seat selection. Flights on and after January 27 will have assigned seating with some seats costing more than others.
The new policy hasn’t had a detrimental effect on Southwest’s Las Vegas passengers yet — the airline reported surpassing 2 million passengers to and from Reid for the first time in history in October.
LVCC project
While physical changes at Reid are on the horizon, work is nearing completion at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The $600 million renovation of the North, Central and South concourses planned more than a decade ago and completed after two years of construction will be completed in January.
The expanded volume of 2.5 million square feet of exhibit space is one reason tourism officials predict 2026 will be a record year for conventions and trade shows in Las Vegas.
Construction crews have been working for most of the past two years to bring the North, Central and South Halls up to the $1 billion level of West Hall. Beginning with the January conventions, it will be the first time conventioneers will be able to take advantage of the upgraded convention digs, enhanced with new wayfinding technology, information screens and a new all-weather corridor that will allow conventioneers to move to and from exhibit halls without having to go outside.
During construction, Las Vegas never lost a convention or trade show.
Boyd cyber attack
In late summer, a locally based casino company fell victim to a cyber attack.
Boyd Gaming Corp. acknowledged the attack in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but provided few details about it.
The attack apparently occurred around September 5-7.
In a Sept. 23 SEC filing, the company said the attackers removed some data from its systems, including personnel information and records linked to “a limited number of other individuals.” Boyd said it has begun notifying those affected and will alert regulators and state agencies as needed.
Several lawsuits were filed with plaintiffs hoping to establish a class action against the company, which operates 11 casinos in the Las Vegas Valley, including three properties in downtown Las Vegas, and has 17 other gaming venues spread across 10 states. The company also operates a California tribal casino.
Boyd became the third major casino company based in Nevada to be attacked by cybercriminals, with Caesars Entertainment Inc. and MGM Resorts International attacked in the summer of 2023.
Prediction markets
Gambling was also attacked by another source in 2025 – prediction markets.
Early this year, KalshiEx LLC began selling sports score prediction contracts to its clients. The Nevada Gaming Control Board, which considers the contracts a form of sports betting, issued a cease and desist order to Kalshi in March, telling the company it violated state law by offering unlicensed sports betting.
Kalshi responded by filing a lawsuit in the United States District Court of Nevada against the state and each individual member of the Gaming Control Board and the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Later in the spring, the Nevada Resort Association, which believed Kalshi’s contract was a disadvantage to Nevada resorts that operate sports books, joined the state as a defendant in the suit.
In November, U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon lifted a preliminary injunction that allowed Kalshi to sell forward market contracts in the state until the lawsuit was resolved.
Kalshi chose to appeal the verdict and continues to sell contracts.
Since Kalshi’s original filing of the lawsuit, other state gambling regulators have taken the same stance as Nevada against Kalshi and similar companies that offer prediction contracts.
Experts say the controversy likely won’t end until court appeals reach the U.S. Supreme Court, with some saying that won’t happen for years.
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