By Editor,Lauren Acton-Taylor

Copyright dailymail

As tourists are steering clear of the ever-more expensive Sin City, a smaller and quieter Nevada casino town has captured gamblers’ hearts.

Laughlin, roughly 100 miles from the iconic Las Vegas strip, has become an attractive alternative for a gambling getaway, where tourists say you get more for your money.

The city hosts a string of eight hotel-casinos along the Colorado River and has seen a six percent increase in tourism so far this year, while numbers in Vegas continue to plummet.

Laughlin, which has roughly 8,000 permanent residents, attracts around 2 million tourists annually who enjoy gambling, water sports, shows and events.

From the start of the year to July, the town saw 859,000 visitors, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

While Vegas outperformed the small town, with Sin City reaching numbers as high as 22.6 million tourists through July in 2025, it saw an eight percent, or two million people, decrease in the same time period.

For Laughlin’s tourists, its attraction comes from its affordability.

‘You get a lot of bang for your buck here,’ Diana Fuchs, marketing and entertainment director for the Riverside Resort, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

One of Laughlin’s more expensive hotel-casinos, Laughlin River Lodge Hotel & Casino, has rates starting at $69.95.

Among its cheaper accommodation offerings, Edgewater Casino Resort, has rates starting as low as $28.05.

But it isn’t limited to how much your hotel stay will cost you, it also comes down to the small perks that have been stripped from Vegas with added fees at every corner.

Vegas recently came under fire by Aaron Perez, a hospitality veteran who has been planning events in Sin City for 16 years.

He pointed his finger at greedy corporations for Vegas’ spiraling downfall.

According to Perez, many benefits that gamblers used to get along the Strip have been taken away and replaced with more fees.

‘The comp culture that once brought people back to Vegas is diminished or gone, and instead the Strip has kind of been pricing out their bread-and-butter visitors in favor of trying to only cater to the top one percent,’ he said. ‘And frankly, it’s not really working for them.’

‘If you show up to check in for your hotel room, there’s an early check-in fee,’ Perez continued. ‘There’s long lines because people are not getting properly staffed and if you’re paying 30 plus dollars for a cocktail, how much do you feel like tipping the bartender?’

The perks that many Vegas casinos and hotels used to offer for free now come with a hefty price tag which, Perez believes, is hugely insulting.

‘All Caesars properties prior to Covid used to have something called a diamond lounge, and if you were a diamond-rated player there were places where you could get free drinks, free food, you could watch sporting games. You could hang out and socialize,’ Perez recalled.

Laughlin casinos advertise a range of discounts and rewards on their websites, including a discount for local gamblers and a tiered rewards system that accumulates points redeemable for slot play, comps and cash back.

Many criticisms of Vegas have stemmed from the outrageous pricing and fees along the Strip that continually increase over the years, particularly following the Covid-19 Pandemic.

For Laughlin, small amenities, such as free Wi-Fi or parking, are making a difference to tourists who aren’t looking to take out their wallets at every turn.

‘If you’re going to a casino to give them money, to get gouged on to just sit and literally give away your money and gamble, why are they charging for parking?’ Perez asked.

The co-owner of London Bridge Jet Boat Tours in Laughlin, Trevor Chiodini, told the Review-Journal that his last trip to Vegas cost him far more than he expected – or ever wanted – to pay.

Chiodini recalled a rum and coke costing him a whopping $17, and added that Vegas is just ‘fee after fee after fee.’

‘Who would want to go there?’ he asked.

Perez added that Vegas’ ‘numbers are down,’ and he believes that – especially for local residents – the reason is ‘obvious.’

‘[Companies] got greedy,’ Perez said. ‘Tourists and locals are being nickel-and-dimed to their limits.’

The Nevada city, once buzzing with glitz, glamor and gambling, has recorded a sharp drop in tourism and spending in recent months.

Perez described his disbelief after a friend stayed at the ARIA Hotel and Casino, where a Diet Coke cost $15 and a bottle of water an eyewatering $26.

He also balked at paying $40 for nachos that were ‘literally just tortilla chips with nothing on them.’

The hotel also offered ‘Kettle Chips, Butter Popcorn or Pretzels’ for $21 and ‘Roasted Peanuts of Fancy Mixed Nuts’ for $34.50.

As of August, Vegas tourism was down 11 percent and overall visits to Las Vegas were down more than 6 percent, figures from the LVCVA show.

For tentative tourists, affordability has become an enormous factor in a travelers decision to vacation and where they plan to take their money to make the most of their time.

‘They are testing the upper limits of what people are willing to pay, and yes, they have no other option. Until they decide enough is enough.. [if] I’m going to go out with friends. I will tell them let’s go somewhere else,’ Perez added.