Things have changed dramatically in recent years. Las Vegas is definitely not what it used to be, and you just might be surprised at how bad the situation has gotten. After years of record visitor numbers and casino profits, tourism is finally falling. Now, you might be thinking, "But Jacob, haven't you been promoting Las Vegas for over a decade? Don't you want people to come here and visit?" Absolutely. And in that time, I have developed a reputation for telling people about both the good and the bad about the place that I love. We're going to dive into this disaster that has hit Las Vegas. But don't worry, because I'm also going to show you how you can benefit from this mess. One of the Las Vegas strip's most beloved cheap food spots closed forever in 2024. For years, this place represented everything that made Las Vegas affordable to people who cannot afford five-star dining at every single meal. Ocean One Bar and Grill was the kind of restaurant where families could eat here without breaking their vacation budget, and locals would recommend it to tourists looking for a cheap place to eat. They were well known for having every item on their lunch menu cost just $4.99, and you could get three cocktails for $10. The writing was on the wall when the prices started to climb in the months leading up to the closure. You could see that they wanted to keep their prices as low as possible, but they're struggling to survive in an atmosphere where pretty much everything costs more. This wasn't just the loss of one restaurant. It was the death of the cheapest good food that you could find at the center of the Las Vegas strip. Now that a reliable, budget- friendly option is gone, it's just another sign that the strip is pricing out the average visitor who made Vegas what it is. Something that started as just a small fee for hotel amenities has probably become the most hated aspect of visiting Las Vegas today. I remember doing a video back in 2018 on an article about how a $25 room in Las Vegas becomes a $65 room once you add in all of the taxes and fees. And at that time, $45 a night was the highest resort fee that you would find anywhere here on the Las Vegas strip. So, you know, in the future, who knows where resort fees will go, where they're headed. I think as long as the economy is doing well, these places will continue to charge. If they can get and if they can increase and people are going to pay it, they're going to charge it. You know, they're going to be doing that to make as much money as they can. Well, fast forward to today, baby. And you know what we have right now on the strip? We have over 30 individual hotels who charge $50 to $55 for the resort fee per night. So now it's more like a $99 room turns into a $175 room because remember, you pay the $99 room price plus the 13.38% room tax on top of that price, plus you pay the $55 resort fee plus you pay another 13.38% room tax on top of the resort fee. Why you're paying tax on top of a fee? Ask Uncle Sam. And to add insult to injury, some of the things that these hotels list that are included with your resort fee are laughable. Things like free local and domestic phone calls, free boarding pass printing, and access to the pool, but seasonal. So, if you come during the winter time and the hotel pool is closed, you do not get a cheaper resort fee because it's closed. And the psychological impact of this for travelers really goes beyond money. It's about trust being broken before you even arrive because your expenses have just exploded beyond what you budgeted for for your vacation. And remember guys, no matter how much resort fees are, this is Las Vegas and we are in the desert. So, uh there's a pretty good chance that no matter what, you're going to wind up seeing roaches out here at some point. I don't think resort fees can get rid of that. For years, Vegas restaurants have added an extra four to 5% fee onto your food bill that most people don't even notice. And a big reason people don't notice is because the way it's displayed sometimes is kind of sneaky. So, if you're going to eat here at the center strip at a place like Alexa's, they have the menu here posted outside. You can see, but the glass is obviously a little dirty. But you got to look down here at an angle to see where it says con concession fee of 4.9% added to all checks. So if you look through the dirt and at an angle at the tiny print at the bottom, you can find it before you actually go inside and order your food. The good news about this though is every person I've ever heard that has asked a restaurant to remove the CNF fee has had it removed because it adds zero extra value to your meal. So it's hard for them to actually justify keeping it on your bill. These charges have become so common that experienced Vegas visitors now scan every receipt like they're investigating a crime scene. What makes this particularly annoying is how these fees are presented as legitimate business costs when they're really just profit boosters designed to inflate your bill. The practice is spread throughout the industry because most customers either don't notice the extra charges or don't have the energy to complain about them. You're already tired from walking around Vegas all day and the last thing you want is a confrontation with restaurant staff over mysterious fees. Some people just choose to say, "Forget it." CNNF charges, service fees, COVID recovery fees, and quote unquote restaurant fees can add four to 5% to your meal cost on top of expected tips and taxes. The really crazy thing is that every time I've heard of someone asking to have this fee get waved, if you ask the manager, is that they do because they add zero actual value to your dining experience. But restaurants count on customers either overlooking, being too shy, or too tired to question these charges. So, they keep adding them to every bill and hoping that no one notices. If you've been visiting Las Vegas for years, you've probably noticed a change that's gradually taking place across many casino floors. There used to be plenty of table games like blackjack and craps all over the place. But, as the years have progressed, those table games have been removed and they have been replaced by seemingly endless banks of more and more slot machines. This isn't just about efficiency for space. It's about completely changing the odds in favor of the house. Table games like blackjack, craps, and bakra typically have a house edge under 2% when played correctly, which gives players a better chance to win. But penny slots often give casinos around a 10% advantage, meaning they keep $10 out of every $100 played over the long term. Vegas doesn't want you to win like you used to. We can even look at over 20 years worth of data to see that Vegas casinos have been gradually making slot machines pay out less and less to players so that they can keep even more of your money. From 2004 to 2024, strip casinos increase how much they are taking from every dollar you bet by 24%. While downtown casinos during the same time increase how much they are taking from players by 45%. So, when you hear people talk about how much more generous Vegas used to be, you can use these slot hold percentages as proof. Aside from the fact that casinos make more money with slots than table games, slot machines also don't call in sick for work, they don't need to take lunch breaks, they don't get overtime pay, they don't receive health benefits, and they don't file complaints. These are all things that help casinos save money on top of now winning more money. So, by removing tables and adding more slots, casinos guarantee themselves much higher profits from the same amount of floor space. The result is fewer opportunities for knowledgeable players to get decent odds and more mindless button pushing that drains bake rolls faster than ever. Many experienced players call what you see right behind me the biggest ripoff in modern casino history. And a lot of casual players have no idea that every time they sit down at this game that they are getting mathematically screwed. This single rule change has largely altered the most popular table game in Las Vegas, and the majority of players don't even notice. The deception is particularly cruel because these rigged games look identical to fair blackjack tables from a distance. And not all dealers explain the difference unless you specifically ask. Traditional blackjack pays 3 to2 when you get a natural 21, meaning a $100 bet pays $150. But the strip is now filled with tables that only pay six to five. So that same $100 blackjack only pays $120, stealing $30 from every natural you hit. And over the course of a gambling session, this difference can add up to hundreds of dollars in lost winnings. The worst part is that these terrible games often sit right next to 32 tables, but the minimum bets are usually much higher on the fair games, pushing many players into the sucker bets. So, why do casinos keep doing this? The reason these ripoff games exist is very simple. Tourists keep playing them anyway. Casino executives have figured out that they can offer absolutely terrible odds and still fill seats as long as the games look familiar from a distance. This creates a rather depressing cycle where customer ignorance feeds the corporate greed that so many people come to associate with the big casinos. And the problem has been gradually getting worse for years. The most frustrating part is watching smart people who are successful in other areas of life repeatedly make these costly mistakes without learning from them. A former casino employee at the Venetian once told me that when they introduced triple0ero roulette in 2016, they expected nobody would play it because the odds were so terrible. But players flocked to those tables anyway because they didn't understand the difference between good and bad roulette games. A roulette dealer at one luxury property let me know that he even tells players upfront that the company logo represents triple0ero. Basically admitting the deceptive tactics employed by the casinos, but people keep playing anyway. This proves that casinos can get away with offering terrible odds because most players simply don't understand what they're getting into. What used to be a problem mainly in some areas of downtown has now spread throughout the entire tourist corridor in ways that shock firsttime visitors and longtime locals alike. The homeless population in the Vegas area has grown every single year since 2021 and has had a 56% increase in the last 3 years. And I myself have been inside a casino before where I'm standing there talking or actually playing a slot machine and had someone come up to me and then ask me for money. And I know some of you have had the same thing when you come here to visit. This situation has deteriorated to the point where it's destroying the fantasy escape that Vegas is supposed to provide for people on a vacation. This isn't just about people asking for money on the street anymore. It's direct interference with casino gaming that makes players feel uncomfortable and unsafe. It is now more common for homeless people to regularly enter casinos and even approach players at slot machines, creating an awkward and sometimes dangerous situation. Some incidents with homeless individuals inside Vegas casinos escalated to the point of making national news, like the man who set off an explosion at the Paris casino, causing $50,000 in damage. The man was later released with the condition that he stay out of trouble. But these are the kind of situations that make visitors feel like Vegas isn't the safe escape it used to be. And people approaching you while you're playing a slot machine to ask you for money is not what anyone wants on their vacation. The tariffs that were put in place in early 2025 has many international tourists staying away from Las Vegas due to uncertainty. This matters a lot because international tourists typically stay longer, gamble more, and spend more on shows and dining than domestic visitors. New trade policies have made traveling to the US more expensive for foreign tourists, while Canadian airlines have reduced flights to Vegas as demand dropped. The economic concerns go beyond just Vegas. With inflation affecting travel costs nationwide and real estate markets slowing down in various parts of the country. And when people are worried about their jobs and their home values, Vegas vacations become an easy expense to cut from their budgets. Major strip properties chose to lay off hundreds of employees as visitor numbers continue to drop month after month from what they used to be. These cuts represent more than just cost-saving measures. They're a clear sign that casino executives are proactively cutting costs because they are uncertain about the future of Las Vegas. Font and Blue cut numerous table games dealers in the first half of 2025 while other properties have eliminated entire departments like concierge services at MGM Grand Park MGM New York New York Mandandalay Bay and Vara. And although these employees are commonly told that the layoffs are just temporary, there's no guarantee that they will be called back to work at their old job. One off-strip casino manager told me that just a $1 minimum wage increase costs his property an extra $1 million annually in labor costs, which also makes it more difficult to offer customers the same value that they've been used to getting. When casinos can't fill rooms and gaming floors, they're forced to reduce staff to keep down their costs. But this can create a poor experience for the customers that are still visiting. The hotels and casinos that can benefit most from the recent problems in Las Vegas are the northstrip properties like the Sahara and the Strat, the offstrip properties, and the downtown ones. These properties have kept their commitment to affordable gambling and reasonable prices for their customers. While many strip properties have gone crazy with fees and terrible odds, smart gamblers are starting to realize that significantly better deals exist just minutes away from the overpriced strip properties that get most of the attention. The contrast in value has also become so dramatic that many experienced visitors never set foot on the strip anymore except to see shows or eat at specific restaurants. Places like Ellis Island offer $5 craps and $532 blackjack with table minimums that never increase even when the casino is packed. South Point provides affordable gaming with a wide variety of options for players. The Plaza Casino has single zero roulette that is a 15 minimum during the day and a $25 minimum at night. The Palms Casino began offering $5 32 blackjack and craps 24 hours a day in early 2025, directly targeting frustrated strip visitors who are tired of feeling like they're getting ripped off. Many offstrip properties especially benefit since they're already known for cheaper drinks, better gambling odds, and lower table minimums across the board. Some of these properties are experiencing increased business as strip prices push more players their way, proving that there's still a market for honest value in Las Vegas. The good news is that Las Vegas will always change with the market. Smart travelers are discovering that the recent changes in tourism actually creates opportunities to get better deals if you know where to look. The hospitality industry's need to fill these hotel rooms creates more and more opportunities and more discounts than we've seen in recent years. And despite all of this, Las Vegas still offers amazing value per dollar compared to most other tourist destinations in the country. So even if the major strip casinos still try to squeeze every dollar they can out of the tourists who come here, there are plenty of other affordable options for you to have fun all around the Vegas Valley. Food and drinks in general are something that have become much more expensive in Vegas in recent years. And finding cheap options is getting difficult. But if you want an entire list for free that won't hurt your wallet, just click right here.