The WoW Style

What would Las Vegas look like without its glamorous casinos? Would its magnificent luxury motels even exist? They probably wouldn’t. Worse, 40 million people wouldn’t travel to Nevada every year, were it not for its exclusive gambling establishments. That’s the impact the casino industry has on Las Vegas and the entire state of Nevada.

Around the world, gambling businesses have always been linked with more tourism and enhancing local economies. But why exactly does gambling attract so many tourists?

Casino Entertainment

A recent study by Statista shows 45% of people who travel to casino cities like Las Vegas and other gambling cities visit primarily to have fun. It’s not a surprise. Casinos are some of the best places to find entertainment, at least if you are ready to spend some cash on slots and table games.

A typical casino provides more than 200 games to ensure all sorts of people find games to keep them entertained. Slot machines are the easiest games to play and can also be exceedingly profitable if you are lucky.

Progressive jackpots, for example, let you gamble small amounts of cash for a chance to win a jackpot that increases in value with time. On the Internet, the best online slots have progressive jackpots that run up to €20 million. Most of these games allow you to bet as little as ten cents, meaning you don’t have to drain your wallet on them.

Table games, on the other hand, allow you to interact with people while at the casinos. You can choose card games like poker and blackjack if you want to stay around the tables for a while. But if you enjoy instant wins, play a round of roulette, and it will usually take less than a minute to know whether you won or lost.

Hotel and Bar Services

Last year, the most profitable casino in Las Vegas acquired the biggest chunk of its money from non-gambling activities. The Wynn Resort earned $1.66 billion in 2018, $100 million more than its closest competitors. Despite that, 67% of the casino’s revenue came from selling food and beverage and organizing nightclub festivals.

Considering that $490 million of the money came from food and beverages, Las Vegas tourists don’t spend most of their money gambling. But why find hotel services in a casino instead of any other place?

When Steve Wynn, the owner of Wynn Las Vegas, was asked why people love his casinos, his answer was simple. “It all lies in the details.” He wasn’t wrong. Wynn’s resorts continually outperform many casinos in the strip year in, year out. What’s more, the Wynn Resort isn’t located at the heart of the Strip, meaning tourists visit the motels purposefully for its exquisite services.

Festivals and Music Concerts

When a group of investors decided to build a casino in Brisbane, Australia, in 2013, they intended to do more than to offer gambling services. Their vision was to create an avalanche of tourist-friendly facilities like restaurants, bars, retail shops, and music theaters.

Unsurprisingly, music festivals are commonplace in nearly all cities where casinos exist. From Macau to Monte Carlo, Atlantic City to Las Vegas, casinos have a way of attracting people who love music.

In Las Vegas, you can attend some of the annual music festivals free of charge. What’s more, the city is gradually adjusting its services to cater to families and people who generally don’t want to spend money inside casinos. That is good for the city because it will continue to attract tourists whether the casino industry performs well or not.

Convention Centers

Some of the biggest businesses in the US hold their annual general meetings at casinos. Surprised? Last year, attending conference meetings was the fourth most common answer on why people visited Las Vegas, according to Statista.

If you think about it, Las Vegas is endowed with all the facilities and tools businesses of any size would need in a conference meeting. Whether it’s conference rooms, dining facilities, or entertainment joints; companies can fly their employees to Vegas and hold conferences successfully.

Of course, most of these companies don’t visit Las Vegas or any other casino city to hold meetings alone. Their bosses and executives probably love gambling also, which is why they choose to hold meetings at casinos, after all.

People Visiting Relatives

Gambling businesses are traditionally concentrated in specific cities. Macau and Las Vegas host the majority of land-based casinos. Gibraltar, Malta, and Curacao, on the other hand, are home to numerous online casinos.

In all the cities and countries mentioned above, casino businesses helped increase local populations. In turn, the growing community attracts movement from relatives and friends. In 2018, more people visited Las Vegas to visit friends than to gamble, meaning casino employees help boost local tourism to a great extent.

Of course, Las Vegas has hundreds of businesses, so there are millions of people in non-gambling establishments that help boost tourism. Despite that, the casino industry is the city’s biggest employer.

Other Businesses

In nearly all areas with casino businesses, there are more businesses related to entertainment or otherwise. Most of these small industries depend on casinos to attract customers. In some places like Las Vegas, casinos helped breed a city that now hosts some of the largest sports teams in the world.

Numerous boxing and MMA games, for instance, are held in the city. The Vegas Golden Knights, the Mobsters, Thunder, and Aces also wouldn’t exist with the city. Yet, they’ve now developed into mega teams that help bolster the city’s tourism as well.

To Conclude

Contrary to popular belief, casino businesses impact a city’s tourism industry massively. In some areas, casinos have helped spur new businesses that attract thousands or millions of tourism as well. Surprisingly, many visitors don’t visit places like Las Vegas to gamble alone.

At a time when you can gamble online conveniently, people now visit Las Vegas, Macau, and similar cities for their after cities. They want to attend music festivals, enjoy nightclubs, or visit any of the attraction sites in the city.