Washington, D.C
Las Vegas Joins with Atlantic City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Biloxi, and New York as Trump Slump Devastates Tourism, Wrecks Casino Profits, and Guts Hotel Jobs, Here is a Very Alarming Report – Travel And Tour World
Monday, June 9, 2025
Las Vegas, once the unstoppable heartbeat of American entertainment, is now staggering—joining Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and New York City in a brutal decline. The latest data paints a grim picture: the Trump Slump is no longer a whispered concern. It’s a full-blown crisis. Tourism numbers are crashing. Casino profits are being wrecked. Hotel jobs are getting gutted at an alarming pace.
This isn’t just another market hiccup. It’s a seismic shift, and it’s hitting fast and hard. Las Vegas, which once danced in neon glory, is now blinking under pressure. Meanwhile, Los Angeles is losing footfall, San Francisco is watching its hotels go half-empty, Washington D.C. is suffering from thinning tour groups, and New York City is bleeding international traffic. These powerhouse cities are buckling.
What makes this even more shocking is the synchronized collapse across multiple major metros. One would expect Las Vegas to hold the line with its casino cash flow, or New York to hold strong with its global pull. But no. The slump is spreading like wildfire.
The Trump Slump is doing more than just bruising egos—it’s ripping through revenue streams. Tourism boards are scrambling. Hotels are slashing staff. Casinos are falling eerily quiet.
A new report confirms it all, and the findings are deeply unsettling. How bad is it really? Why now? And who’s next?
This isn’t just a downturn. This is a devastating reckoning. And what happens next could change the U.S. travel industry forever.
America’s Casino Cities Face Rough Odds as Travel and Tourism Get Hard Hit in 2025
America’s legendary casino cities are facing a losing streak in 2025. Travel and tourism, the lifeblood of these destinations, have taken a hard hit—and the cracks are beginning to show across Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno, Biloxi, Tunica, Lake Charles, New Orleans, Detroit, Black Hawk, and Philadelphia.
Las Vegas, the crown jewel of casino tourism, is seeing a dramatic slowdown. Packed casino floors and glittering lights are dimming under the pressure of fewer flights, rising costs, and global uncertainty. Hotel rooms sit empty as travel demand weakens, and the Strip’s once-pulsing energy feels noticeably slower.
Atlantic City isn’t faring much better. The East Coast casino hub has seen a dip in visitors as inflation curbs spending and entertainment budgets shrink. Its iconic boardwalk and historic casinos like Borgata and Tropicana now face quieter seasons, with tourism getting hard hit.
Reno, known as the “Biggest Little City in the World,” is also showing signs of stress. Casino traffic has dropped, and fewer Californians are making weekend gambling trips. In Biloxi and Tunica, two Mississippi casino cities that once thrived on Gulf Coast and Memphis-area travel, hotels and gaming floors are operating well below capacity.
Meanwhile, Lake Charles and New Orleans in Louisiana are feeling the pain too. As fewer visitors flock to resorts like Golden Nugget or Harrah’s New Orleans, the tourism slump deepens. Detroit’s casino industry, including MGM Grand and MotorCity Casino, faces shrinking foot traffic, and its downtown economy feels the impact.
Even in scenic casino towns like Black Hawk and Central City in Colorado, where travelers used to combine mountain views with gambling getaways, the slowdown is undeniable. Philadelphia, a rising urban gambling hotspot, is now scrambling to recover from sharp tourism drops that have hit its casino revenue hard.
From coast to coast, casino cities are facing a reckoning. Travel is down. Tourism is hard hit. And the once-booming casino sector is suddenly rolling the dice on recovery.
Las Vegas Faces Economic Crossroads as Tourism Slump Guts Casino Jobs and Hotel Revenue
Las Vegas, long celebrated as the mecca of nonstop excitement, is now facing a painful tourism reality. Visitor numbers have dropped sharply. The buzz of casino floors is fading. And behind the curtain of neon lights, the people powering the city—its dealers, hotel workers, and hospitality staff—are feeling the sharp edge of this downturn.
In April 2025, Las Vegas reported a 5.1% year-over-year drop in tourist visits. That decline may appear small, but in a city that lives and breathes on consistent high-volume foot traffic, the impact is severe. Every percentage point lost ripples across hotel corridors, casino pits, and service jobs that depend on steady crowds.
Casino Tables Go Quiet as Layoffs Begin
Some of the Strip’s largest resorts have quietly begun trimming their workforce. Casino dealers—often the frontline ambassadors of Las Vegas nightlife—are being laid off in clusters. With fewer players occupying tables, their positions have become increasingly expendable. Fontainebleau and Resorts World are among the first properties to cut staff in response to the declining traffic.
Thousands of hospitality jobs have been lost over the past year. As demand slumps, casinos are seeking leaner operations. Automation is one of their go-to solutions. More venues are turning to electronic table games and digital betting interfaces, which reduce the need for trained dealers. The charm of human interaction is giving way to LED screens and self-serve terminals.
Economic Strain Spreads Across the Strip
The numbers paint a stark picture. The Las Vegas metro area ended 2024 with an unemployment rate of 5.9%—the highest among all major U.S. metro regions. This isn’t just a local hiccup. It’s a structural problem gripping the city’s core economic driver: tourism.
Travelers are simply not spending the way they used to. Rising airfares, shrinking discretionary budgets, and global economic uncertainties are all taking a toll. International tourism, once a key pillar of Las Vegas’ diverse visitor base, continues to shrink due to lingering geopolitical tensions and costly long-haul flights.
Hotel occupancy dropped 1% overall in April, with downtown hotels experiencing a steeper 2.6% decline. This erosion in guest volume compounds losses for restaurants, entertainment venues, and local attractions that thrive on tourist dollars.
Wages Flatline While Cost of Living Soars
Even those lucky enough to keep their jobs face an uphill battle. In 2024, the average hourly wage for casino dealers in Nevada stood at $19.96. That’s barely above the national average of $19.25. For a state that is globally synonymous with casino culture, this wage stagnation is glaring. Nevada doesn’t even rank among the top five states for dealer pay, highlighting a growing mismatch between brand power and worker compensation.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas’ cost of living continues to climb. Rent, gas, and grocery prices have surged, putting added pressure on workers in an already stressed sector. Fewer benefits, reduced shifts, and limited job security are becoming the norm.
The Dealer Pipeline Dries Up
The fallout extends to training institutions. Once booming with hopefuls ready to learn the ropes of blackjack, poker, and roulette dealing, dealer schools are now seeing enrollment nosedive. Many who would once relocate to Las Vegas in search of quick career starts are reconsidering. The opportunity promise is dimming. The dream of quick tips and high-stakes tables is now shadowed by uncertainty.
Without a fresh talent pipeline, even a future rebound could be hindered. The infrastructure of skill development is faltering just as demand for adaptability rises.
Industry Adapts, But at What Cost?
Casino operators are reacting—but not always in ways that safeguard livelihoods. Budget tightening is rampant. Shareholder reports show weakened earnings across several properties, and cost-cutting is the prevailing strategy. Capital expenditures are shifting toward automation and digital engagement. Unfortunately, that often means less human capital and more machines.
Some properties are opting to scale back live entertainment or reduce gaming floor hours. These subtle shifts further discourage extended visitor stays and lower ancillary spending on food, shows, and nightlife.
What This Means for the Future of Las Vegas
The Las Vegas tourism ecosystem is at a tipping point. The convergence of economic pressure, automation, and waning visitor demand could trigger long-term structural changes. The danger isn’t just in job losses—it’s in eroding the unique human experience that made the city iconic.
The Strip, once a symbol of limitless energy, now reflects something more sobering: vulnerability. Without decisive strategic shifts, including improved wages, targeted tourism incentives, and greater international outreach, the industry may struggle to rebound fully.
Travel authorities, city planners, and hospitality leaders must act swiftly. Investment in infrastructure, diversified tourism products, and fair employment practices are no longer optional—they’re essential for survival.
The world is watching what Las Vegas does next. Will it reinvent itself again, as it has many times before? Or will it fade into a high-tech but soulless shell of its former self?
For now, the cards are still in the air.
Tags: casino jobs, clark county, dealer schools, Downtown Las Vegas, fontainebleau, Las Vegas, Nevada, Nevada casinos, Resorts World, The Strip, Travel Economy, travel inflation, travel layoffs, U.S. metro unemployment, U.S. tourism trends
WASHINGTON (7News) — Tuesday was the last day the D.C. Council could vote to enact an expanded curfew in time for summer.
7News learned it never even made it on the agenda for a discussion and went to council members to find out why.
For the next two months, it’ll be up to the mayor to declare a curfew until the permanent version kicks in. There is already a city curfew. The curfew that has been up for debate for more than a year is the expanded version of the curfew. The expanded version allows the Metropolitan Police Department to create zones where teens 17 and under cannot gather in groups of nine or more.
RELATED | DC curfews pushed large groups into local neighborhoods, some residents say
Mayor Muriel Bowser currently has her own curfew order in place, which ends Saturday. The mayor can continue issuing an order. Councilmembers against the expanded curfew said that’s why it doesn’t need to come from the council.
In a video posted two weeks ago, D.C Council public safety chair Brooke Pinto said she wanted her councilmembers to vote to fill the gap today. 7News asked her why she never presented it to the council.
“Unfortunately, in working with my colleagues over the last several weeks, we did not have the votes,” said Pinto. “We have to have enough votes to pass the law and make sure that we didn’t have a gap.”
Bowser, in a letter to council Tuesday, said councilmembers Trayon White, Robert White, Zachary Parker, Brianne Nadeau and Janese Lewis-George are “blocking the will of the public and majority of council.”
7News spoke to three of the members she called out about the mayor’s pushback.
“I reject the rhetoric and the political games that are being played, and I’m wanting for us to get to the bottom of how do we stop the teen takeovers and the delinquent behavior we’ve been seeing,” Parker said.
“I stand by my belief that a curfew policy is a failed policy, kind of smoke and mirrors, and what we really needed is investments in our young people, so I’m pretty firm on that,” Nadeau said.
“We have to choose our tools and the time we use those tools. I’ve supported the curfew in the past, but I think with the current surge of more federal troops that have been impending, we’re putting our youth in even more danger by extending that work. I know the executive has put in an emergency executive order that will fill the gap. I hope that comes alongside extended hours, I’ve funded at DPR, extended weekends, and opening more safe spaces for youth here in the city. And that’s the solution that we do agree on,” Lewis-George said.
The mayor has not confirmed if she’ll issue another order, but it is on the table.
Whispers, mysteries still hang in air 50 years after Bolles’ murder
Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles died on June 13, 1976, 50 years ago. There are still mysteries surrounding his death from a car bombing.
A memorial designed to pay tribute to journalists who have died in pursuit of a story — including Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, who had a bomb explode under his car 50 years ago — will soon have a home on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
The Fallen Journalists Memorial, set to open in June 2028, won’t include individual names of journalists. A rule says that unless Congress makes an exception, a memorial wall can only include a group whose last member died more more than a quarter century prior.
And the number of journalists who die in pursuit of truth continues to grow every year.
The foundation creating the memorial has featured journalists on its website. Included in the first round of those showcased is Bolles.
Bolles was a reporter with The Arizona Republic who investigated the mafia, land fraud and political corruption. He was killed in June 1976 by a bomb planted under his Datsun at a midtown Phoenix hotel, an incident that shocked the nation and shook the journalism community.
Barbara Cochran, president of the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation, said the aim was to remind people of the work done by journalists like Bolles.
“They go as eyewitnesses. They document,” she said. “They dig deep and come up with information that people don’t have time to do on their own.”
Bolles’ legacy was not just forged by his death, Cochran said, but the work his death inspired.
Scores of reporters from around the country descended on Phoenix to continue investigating political corruption as Bolles had.
That collective action sent a message.
“Even if you kill the journalist, you won’t kill the story,” Cochran said. “Don Bolles was really the symbol of that.”
The memorial will honor journalists who, like Bolles, were targeted for their reporting, Cochran said. It would also honor those who died in pursuit of a story.
That’s the story of at least five more Arizona journalists.
In 1985, Republic reporter Charles Thornton was killed in Afghanistan, which at the time was invaded by the Soviet Union. Thornton was a health reporter and took the trip to cover a clinic set up by Americans looking to save the lives of people injured in the war by bombs and chemical weapons.
Thornton knew the risks of traveling to a war zone. But said he thought it was worth it to bring the story of the injuries suffered by the Afghan rebels to Republic readers.
In 2007, two news helicopters collided while covering a police chase in midtown Phoenix. The helicopters, one from Channel 3, KTVK-TV, and one from Channel 15, KNXV-TV, each carried a cameraman and a pilot. All four men died when the helicopters crashed onto Steele Indian School Park.
Bolles will be the only Arizona reporter among the first to be honored as part of the new National Mall memorial project.
The physical memorial in Washington will be made up of glass rectangles.
On one end of the plaza, they will be laid in an abstract design. The glass rectangles could serve as benches on the plaza.
As visitors walk to the other end, the glass rectangles begin stacking. Visitors will then enter a circle formed by more glass rectangles.
On the ground in the center of the circle will be the words of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Reporter writes ‘the book I wanted to read’ on slain journalist Don Bolles
Axios reporter Jeremy Duda discusses “Murder in the Fourth State,” a book on the murder of The Arizona Republic’s Don Bolles, who died after a car bombing in 1976.
Arizona effort to create a Don Bolles memorial stalls at state Capitol
The DC memorial was introduced in Congress in 2019. It passed both the House and Senate unanimously in 2020 and was signed into law in December 2020 by President Donald Trump.
In contrast, a push to create a memorial for Bolles on the grounds of the state Capitol was proposed at the Arizona Legislature each of the past few years. But every attempt has stalled.
The bill passed the Arizona House unanimously this year. It was bottled up in the state Senate, as has happened since it was first introduced in 2023.
The Bolles memorial bill was assigned to the Senate Government Committee, chaired by state Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek. He did not give the bill a hearing, just as he had declined to do in the previous two sessions.
Hoffman, who has done contract work for the conservative groups Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, has had an antagonistic relationship with the mainstream press and The Republic.
Rep. Selina Bliss, R-Prescott, the sponsor of the measure, said she is not sure exactly why Hoffman hasn’t given the bill a hearing. She expected it would easily pass if it made it to the state Senate floor.
“I can’t get into the minds of others,” she said, “why they choose to hear or don’t hear a bill.”
Bliss said she recognized the passion that Bolles had for journalism.
“It’s like a line of duty death, if you will,” she said. “People are killed in action doing what they do.”
Bliss said she was a teenager in Prescott at the time of the Bolles bombing. She remembers the experience as searing.
“It shook everyone so dramatically,” she said.
Bliss said she might expand the bill next session to include all fallen Arizona journalists, in hopes of getting it out of the logjam in the Senate.
Tim Eigo, president of the Arizona chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, has testified at the Arizona Legislature in support of the bill to allow a Bolles memorial.
Eigo said it was unfortunate that the bill was caught up in the swirl of current political feelings about journalism.
“I think people can get confused about whether dogged coverage is also advocacy. It’s not,” he said. “Some people get confused by that. So, they hesitate to honor a remarkable journalist like Don Bolles because there are other journalists they don’t like.”
Commemorating reporters who were targeted specifically because of their work like Bolles sends a signal, Eigo said.
“When we are honoring their accomplishments and commitment,” he said, “we are also defeating those who feel they can commit crimes against the press with impunity. … We are speaking truth to that cynical power.”
Shooting that killed journalists in Maryland inspired push for memorial
The idea for the DC memorial came after the June 2018 mass shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland. Five people were killed in the incident, four of them journalists.
The convicted gunman had filed a defamation suit against the newspaper after it reported on his legal troubles. He reportedly sent letters threatening to attack the newspaper’s journalists before he stormed the newsroom with a shotgun.
Retired U.S. Congressman David Dreier sat on the board of Tribune Publishing, the corporate owner of the sister newspapers, The Capital and the Maryland Gazette. Dreier, a Republican from California, worried that by 2019 the memory of the shooting was already fading.
He wanted a public memorial on the National Mall. The idea gained urgency, Cochran said, when the Newseum announced in 2019 that it was closing. That museum had an exhibition honoring slain journalists. Its centerpiece was the blown-out car from the 1976 Bolles bombing.
“There is nothing in Washington that talks about the sacrifices of journalists or that talks about the First Amendment, which is such a unique contribution to freedom and free expression for people everywhere,” Cochran said.
The location cited for it is a triangular plot of land about three blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The site, about a quarter-acre, was formed by the intersection of Independence Avenue and Maryland Avenue, which runs on a diagonal to the U.S. Capitol.
“The site has a clear view of the Capitol Dome,” Cochran said. “It’s a connection to journalism and a symbol of democracy. It reinforces the idea that journalism is a pilar of democracy.”
The memorial will not carry the names of any of the fallen journalists.
Cochran said a federal regulation governing memorials on the National Mall has a rule about those being honored in a group needing to have been deceased for more than 25 years.
“This is a memorial for which there would never be an end time,” she said.
Threats to press freedom are on the rise across the globe
The anniversary of Bolles’ death and the memorial underway come as journalists around the world face increased threats.
Reporters Without Borders, a global nonprofit advocating for independent journalism, has tracked press freedom around the world since 2002. The organization scores countries based on how free journalists are to report, evaluating the legal, political, economic and cultural constraints. It also looks at journalists’ safety working in the countries.
The organization’s 2026 World Press Freedom Index returned the lowest average score among all countries in 25 years.
The United States ranked as the 64th freest country in the world, dropping seven places from its ranking in 2025. The organization cited Trump’s continued attacks on journalists who cover him, as well as his administration’s pressure on networks and news outlets as part of the ranking.
Trump has made attacking the press and sowing distrust in traditional news media a hallmark of his agenda since his first run for higher office in 2015. He has threatened to ease libel laws to make it easier to sue news outlets.
Trump himself sued the CBS and ABC networks based on their journalists’ work. The networks settled despite legal experts saying the cases were weak.
U.S. presidents have long had an antogonistic relationship with the press.
George Washington, the first president of the United States, referred to journalists as “infamous scribblers.” Vice President Spiro Agnew called the press “nattering naybobs of negativism.” President Barack Obama used the Espionage Act to plug what he perceived were leaks from his administration to the press, according to the Cato Institute.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit news advocacy group, has tracked more than 2,500 anti-press incidents in the United States since 2017, with nearly 1,400 assaults making up the majority. The tracker records non-physically violent threats, too, such as subpoenas and legal interventions, or chilling statements.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded 17 journalists and reporters killed in the United States since 1992.
In Arizona, 28 anti-press incidents were recorded since 2017, including arresting reporters and denying them access to government events.
The Arizona incidents over the past decade include an interview subject who pushed and shoved an Arizona Republic reporter before stealing her cell phone during the interview, the detention by Phoenix police of a Wall Street Journal reporter who was talking to customers outside a bank, and the detention of an Arizona Republic photographer who was covering protests outside the state Capitol in 2024.
Taylor Seely is a First Amendment Reporting Fellow at The Arizona Republic / azcentral.com. Do you have a story about the government infringing on your First Amendment rights? Reach her at tseely@arizonarepublic.com or by phone at 480-476-6116.
Reach Richard Ruelas at richard.ruelas@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-8473.
-
Nevada6 minutes agoCountry artist Caleb Montgomery performing at State Fair of Nevada
-
New Hampshire8 minutes ago12 beautiful hikes this season in Mass. and NH
-
New Jersey14 minutes agoDramatic video shows ferocious flames shooting from row house in Camden, NJ
-
New Mexico21 minutes agoCumbres & Toltec to begin summer season June 9
-
North Carolina23 minutes ago‘Bonsai in the Blue Ridge’ exhibit brings dozens of displays to North Carolina Arboretum
-
North Dakota28 minutes agoAnd he’s off
-
Ohio36 minutes agoThe purge? Ohio moves to downgrade non-domiciled CDLs
-
Oklahoma38 minutes agoWhat Oklahoma Does Better Than Texas and Why It Matters
