Video above: July 30, 2025, coverage of Las Vegas Strip casinos struggling as ‘local’ casinos report 49-year high earnings.

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Concerns about the Las Vegas economy — specifically, slow business on the Strip — have been simmering this year, and it seems no one has an answer to what is going on.

Financial analysts are asking if it's tariffs, or the weather, or if there's something structurally shaky with how Las Vegas works. Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg, who has offered theories about consumer behavior in the past, doesn't have an answer this summer.

"It's tough to put your finger on that," Reeg said last week. "This is kind of normal seasonality that we haven't seen in a while."

Las Vegas has been on a hot streak coming out of the pandemic. The state saw casinos win record amounts from gamblers three years in a row before the run ended in June, the end of the fiscal year (July 1-June 30). But this year is different.

A few interesting observations have emerged over the past weeks as leaders from Station Casinos, Caesars and MGM Resorts International have been peppered with questions about what's wrong with Las Vegas this year.

Younger customers

The declines in revenue and earnings aren't universal. "Easily the best quarter in our company's history," said Stephen Cootey, executive vice president, CFO, and treasurer at Red Rock Resorts (the publicly traded face of Station Casinos).

Improvement projects at Green Valley Ranch, Durango Casino & Resort, and Sunset Station show the company's continued investment in the local market. Executives say local customers are happy, particularly at the oldest of those three properties.

Frank Fertita III, CEO and chairman of the board, said renovations at Sunset Station are turning it into the Red Rock Resort of the East Valley, and he notes that it is accomplishing a long-term goal that is crucial to the company's future.

"We really have been able to........

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