While 2025’s tourism slump dominated headlines throughout the year, Southern Nevada’s casinos rode a month-to-month roller coaster that, so far, has landed right about where you’d expect — close to dead even from last year.
Experts concur it wasn’t one singular factor that so far has led to a 7.6 percent decline to 32.3 million in visitor volume to Las Vegas through 10 months.
To be sure, some months were worse than others. December 2024 was the last month Las Vegas had more visitors than it had the previous year. But the steepest declines with double-digit percentage drops occurred in February, June and July.
Tourism leaders won’t know the final tally until the end of January when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announces 2025’s totals.
Industry experts theorize that consumer confidence uncertainty is keeping many would-be travelers on the sidelines. Others have questioned Las Vegas’ value proposition, a position the industry tried to address in the fall with a multiproperty sale.
Some national and international controversies have been cited as reasons for the downturn with some saying newly imposed tariffs are a factor for international travel, while others say President Donald Trump’s comments about making Canada the United States’ 51st state have angered prospective visitors from north of the border.
An issue that has affected domestic travel has been the slipping financial fortunes of Spirit Airlines, once the second-busiest airline at Harry Reid International Airport. Spirit, now the No. 6 carrier 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 in the fall, the longest in U.S. history at 43 days.
Remarkably, the shutdown had little effect on Las Vegas.
Many air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers across the country didn’t report for work when they weren’t paid for the duration of 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 assist workers and the LVCVA helped by providing gasoline vouchers to ease the financial stress.
Despite it being business as usual at the airport during the shutdown, there were other big changes at Reid during the year. Longtime Clark County Department of Aviation Director Rosemary Vassiliadis retired in September, completing a 28-year airport career, and she was replaced in the role by James Chrisley, an Air Force veteran who once had key roles at Nellis and Creech air force bases.
Reid expansion
Chrisley has a construction 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 scoping meetings for initial planning 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 eventually will lead to building the new airport within a decade.
Chrisley also is a big fan of airport lounges and two of them were added at Reid in 2025. Capital One and JPMorgan Chase & Co. each opened airport lounges in 2025 with the latter a two-story design within the C gates, the arrival point of most of Southwest Airlines’ flights.
Southwest, the busiest commercial air carrier at Reid, was in the news in 2025 with a strategical change in operations. The airline abandoned its famed “bags fly free” policy, which took effect in late May and has begun the process of charging passengers for seat selection. Flights on and after Jan. 27 will have assigned seating with some seats costing more than others.
The new policies haven’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 coming to an end at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The $600 million renovation of the North, Central and South halls that was planned more than a decade ago and is being completed after two years of construction concludes in January.
The expanded volume of 2.5 million square feet of exhibit space is one reason tourism officials are predicting 2026 will be a record year for conventions and trade shows in Las Vegas.
Construction crews have been working the better part of the last two years to bring the North, Central and South halls up to the $1 billion West Hall’s level. Starting with 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 enabling conventioneers to walk to and from exhibit halls without having to go outdoors.
During construction, Las Vegas never lost a convention or trade show.
Boyd cyberattack
In late summer, a locally based casino company was the victim of a cyberattack.
Boyd Gaming Corp. acknowledged the attack in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, but provided few details about it.
The attack apparently occurred around Sept. 5-7.
In an SEC filing Sept. 23, the company said the attackers removed certain data from its systems, including employee information and records tied to “a limited number of other individuals.” Boyd said it has started notifying those affected and would alert regulators and government agencies as required.
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 locations spread across 10 states. The company also manages 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 summer 2023.
Prediction markets
Gaming also came under attack by a different source in 2025 — prediction markets.
Early in the year, KalshiEx LLC began selling prediction contracts on sports outcomes to its customers. The Nevada Gaming Control Board, which believes the contracts to be a form of sports betting, in March issued a cease-and-desist order to Kalshi, telling the company it was violating state law by offering sports bets without a license.
Kalshi responded by filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in 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, believing Kalshi’s contracts were a detriment to Nevada resorts operating sports books, joined the state as a defendant in the case.
In November, U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon dissolved a preliminary injunction that allowed Kalshi to sell prediction market contracts in the state until the court case was resolved.
Kalshi opted to appeal the ruling and continues to sell contracts.
Since Kalshi’s original filing of the lawsuit, other state gaming regulators have taken the same position as Nevada against Kalshi and similar companies that offer prediction contracts.
Experts say the controversy isn’t likely to end until court appeals reach the U.S. Supreme Court, with some saying that isn’t likely to happen for years.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
