Las Vegas casino dealers quietly being laid off amid decline in tourism — what’s behind the slump in Sin City

By Monique Danao

Yahoo News

Las Vegas’s famed casino floors are getting quieter as table game dealers find themselves among the first to feel the squeeze of technological change and a downturn in tourism.

Major resorts on the famous Las Vegas Strip, including Fontainebleau and Resorts World, have started laying off workers — many of which are dealers — as foot traffic dwindles on the gaming floor.

“We want those casinos to be successful, active and robust because that gives our break-in dealers an opportunity to transition, that’s the goal,” CEG Dealer School Managing Director David Knoll shared with KLAS.

Declining foot traffic leads to job cuts

New data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority shows the city’s visitor volume dipped 7.8 percent year-over-year in March 2025, marking the third straight month that tourism dropped in Sin City. With fewer guests coming into town, gaming revenue on the Strip fell 4.8 percent over that same period, while hotel occupancy slid to 82.9 percent, down from 85.3 percent in March 2024.

Despite the city’s drop in overall visitors, convention attendance in Vegas is actually up 10 percent, but analysts warn that event-driven boosts are unlikely to offset the broader declines.

Tourism throughout the country appears to be in steep decline, as International arrivals are down sharply amid evolving U.S. travel and tariff policies. According to Travel Weekly, advance summer bookings for flights between Canada and the U.S. have plunged by more than 70 percent compared to the summer of 2024.

“Less tourism means less shifts at the job, less small businesses that support our tourist industry,” Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) told The Washington Post. “It’s going to cause businesses to go under. It has a trickle-down effect. It’s going to be devastating to Nevada.”

Travel industry analysts also link the decline in Sin City visitors to broader economic uncertainty at home. A recent Bankrate survey found that only 46 percent of U.S. adults plan to travel this summer due to affordability concerns.

Automation accelerates job losses

As casinos begin to tighten belts, automation is reshaping the role of the typical Vegas table game dealer.

According to Travel and Tour World, casinos have introduced electronic table games that handle bets and payouts without human intervention, another factor that has encouraged casinos to cut labor costs. Enrollment in dealer training programs has also fallen as fewer people view Las Vegas as a stable option for employment.

“We’ve seen our enrollment drop, and people interested in becoming a dealer,” said Knoll. “We used to have a lot more people transition from out of state and come to Las Vegas for the opportunities here.”

On the broader labor market, Vegas’s unemployment rate climbed to 5.2 percent in April 2025 — one of the highest among large U.S. metro areas — primarily driven by cuts in leisure and hospitality. This sector has shed thousands of jobs over the past year, even as the average hourly wage for Vegas dealers hovered around $19.96 — slightly above the national average of $19.25

What lies ahead

There are many factors that are likely doing damage to tourism numbers in Las Vegas.

Beyond what was mentioned above, Trump’s tariff policies, his threatening rhetoric around annexing countries like Canada and Greenland, and the increased scrutiny that international visitors can face at the borders are all additional factors that are likely scaring tourists away from the U.S. And with Trump’s economic policies forcing many Americans to tighten their belts, domestic tourism throughout the country is also in decline.

Upcoming projects in Vegas, such as Universal Studios’s Horror Unleashed attraction and a $1.75 billion stadium for the Athletics — an MLB team that will be moving to Vegas in the near future — could potentially draw fresh crowds.

But in the meantime, Sin City’s tourism — as well as its ability to generate revenue — could continue to struggle in the years to come. And if this trend of dwindling tourism continues, casinos could be forced into making more cuts, which will likely keep Vegas’s unemployment rate well above the national average of 4.2 percent.