An interesting post seen recently (not mine):
Economic Alarm Bells are ringing 🔔... Vegas Edition. 🤔 Speculation / Opinion I'll make this short and sweet... big short style.
Vegas is ****ing deader than a doornail. Yeah it's August, but I've never seen it this bad in 20 years, even just after the pandemic. 😷
Friday night was empty as **** except for a few hours. Midday was like a ghost town. The mall was empty. Boutique shops and designer shops were literally empty.
Circus circus had maybe a dozen people. Folks aren't bringing their families.
Restraunts have severely cut back, quality is poor and prices are up at least 50%.
The hotels around the convention center have some traffic / guests but most are there for Defcon.
99.9% of slot machines sit empty and thats wild.
The sidewalks are basically empty and theres no car traffic on the strip.
Feels like it's taking its last few gasps of air before entering eternal slumber 💤 😴.
It's not sustainable in any way.
Vegas was busier the year after the pandemic... let that sink in.
Buckle up boys and girls.
Shits about to get spicier than a butthole the morning after eating taco bell. 🌮 🌶
I'm sure that plays into but that would assume a great deal of people that visit Vegas are in that grouping. I would imagine a great deal of people that WORK in Vegas would be involved in drugs and trafficking and cartel/USAID money, but not necessarily the majority of visitors. But I really don't know, I've personally never been there. The book "The Stand" always sticks in my head as Vegas being where the surviving evil people went after the pandemic, the devil's den so to speak, and I've never desired to go there.
The illegal activities you listed most definitely, I would guess, account for two of three legs of the tripod propping up Vegas. If that's the case, it sounds like the Trump admin is being very effective in their efforts!