In 1992, Mike Bailin was 29 years old working four jobs — busboy, cleaner at a gym, paper deliveryman and print shop assistant — while barely making ends meet. Then, he saw an ad in the classified section of the newspaper for a taxi driver job. 

“It changed our whole life,” Bailin said, whose wife and four kids all went on to get advanced degrees. “I was supporting a family of six on what I was making as a cab driver.” 

Today, Bailin, general manager for Yellow Checker Star Transportation, says his story is not as common. He said many of his drivers are part-time workers. Some might be working more hours to make up for lost revenue. 

Since rideshares were introduced to Las Vegas in 2014, the taxicab industry in the city has lost its power to companies such as Lyft and Uber and cab rides have been cut in half. Economists say the decline is due to an overregulated industry that was unable to pivot when met with a newer, more nimble outside competitor. 

Despite setbacks, cab drivers say they’ve managed to adjust in the face of a changing transportation landscape. Some of them are worried about what’s next — declining tourism and autonomous vehicles. 

Industry regulation 

Judd Cramer, a lecturer at Harvard University who has studied the effects of rideshare on cities, said companies such as Uber and Lyft were not bound by the rules that taxis had to follow. 

“Uber and Lyft just came in and sidestepped the regulations,” Cramer said in an interview. Uber and Lyft were not legal at first, but Cramer said this was not a deterrent. 

“The theory was, ‘We can offer such a good product to the consumer that even if it’s illegal, they’re going to lobby for these things to be legal,’” Cramer said. “Also, it will make a lot of money.” 

On the other hand, taxi vehicles and companies were strictly regulated. Due to the violent “taxi wars” of the 1960s, Las Vegas established the Nevada Taxicab Authority (TCA) in 1969. The authority was seen as a necessary governing body to curb infighting among cab companies and drivers, car burnings, violence, poorly maintained cars and uninsured vehicles. According to Bailin, it was an attempt to ensure that “everyone’s playing by the same rules.” 

Uber unofficially launched in Vegas in October 2014 but was subsequently shut down a month later from operating in the city by a court injunction. Thousands of people signed a petition to lift the order, with a letter urging then Gov. Brian Sandoval to allow Uber to operate in Nevada. 

“Nevadans desperately want and need better, more innovative ways to move around their communities — Uber can help meet that need,” the petition read. “Regulators shouldn’t stand in the way of consumer choice and economic opportunity simply to enrich a deeply-entrenched taxi industry. Millions of riders have voted for Uber with their pocketbooks and hundreds of thousands of drivers are earning more than they ever could in a taxi by partnering with Uber.” 

Efforts by the rideshare industry and its supporters paid off: In September 2015, the next year, Uber and Lyft were finally allowed to legally operate after Sandoval signed bills AB175 and AB176 into law. 

Since then, annual taxi trips have declined from nearly 28 million in 2014 to a bit more than 13 million in 2024 — a decrease of 53 percent. Annual rideshare information from Uber and Lyft is not publicly available for Las Vegas, though national data shows that rideshares have swiftly surpassed taxis in terms of market size. Nationwide, the rideshare industry is projected to reach nearly $60 billion in revenue in 2025; in comparison, the taxi cab industry sits at around $22 billion, according to Statista. 

Uber and Lyft are classified differently than taxicabs and are therefore less strictly regulated. Rideshare companies are monitored by the Nevada Transportation Authority, which regulates larger transportation networks such as buses and The Boring Co., home movers and tow cars as well as state passenger transportation laws across Nevada. The TCA is much smaller and only regulates Clark County. 

According to Teri Williams, a spokesperson for the Taxicab Authority, Uber and Lyft are classified as “transportation network companies.” The key difference between taxis is that these companies use digital technology to connect riders to drivers or other monitored autonomous vehicle providers, like Zoox. 

Compared to these companies, taxicabs are vehicles that use a taximeter, do not transport more than six passengers including the driver, Williams said an email to The Nevada Independent. 

When asked about loosening the regulations, Williams said the efforts “would be a push that would have been made by the taxicab industry.” She emphasized that the taxicab authority was just a regulatory agency. 

“If stakeholders believe changes should be made to the way that paid transportation services in Nevada are regulated, the appropriate way to enact those policy proposals is through the legislative process,” Williams said via email. 

By the time that rideshares hit the Las Vegas market in the mid-2010s, Tamer Cetin, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley who has published studies on taxicab markets, said many of the regulations governing the taxi industry were outdated. 

“When we talk about regulation in the taxi industry, we basically talk about the early industry problems coming from 100 years ago,” Cetin said. “They were natural monopolies; there were no other transportation services or products. It made sense to regulate these companies.” 

Cetin said strict regulations such as those imposed by the TCA — designed to protect consumers and drivers alike — eventually became the industry’s downfall. 

“Ride-sharing works because they are competitive. There is no regulation,” Cetin said.

Conversely, only a limited number of taxis are allowed on the road at any given time, regulated by the taxicab authorities that issue medallions, which must be purchased by the companies in order to operate. 

In Las Vegas, there are 3,530 medallions held by 17 different companies — no company is permitted to own more than 50 percent of the medallions in the city. Prices for rides are regulated by the Taxicab Authority, and companies must perform background checks on their drivers as well as teach a Defensive Driving and Safety Course for new drivers. 

Effects on drivers 

Taxi drivers in Las Vegas describe the first days of ride-sharing as strange and a bit tenuous. When Uber and Lyft launched, the companies marketed themselves as a way for people to make money while “sharing” a ride together. Lyft’s original tagline was “your friend with a car.” 

However, as the companies grew and began affecting the Las Vegas market, Bailin said it was clear that ride-sharing was just another term for a taxi service. 

“At first I couldn’t believe it, I thought, ‘There’s no way, this seems crazy,’” Bailin said. “But I was wrong.” 

Some cab drivers said that the industry was hit hard by rideshare, though they’ve made some adaptations to retain customers. Cab companies have adopted a shared calling service that dispatches the closest cab to customers regardless of what company was called first. Bailin said the industry has also partnered with Uber X to be added to the app. If a user calls an Uber, they might be picked up by a taxicab — the change is set to be launched next month. 

They have also implemented flat-rate fees from the airport to the Strip to discourage drivers from “long-hauling,” or running up the meter by taking longer routes. 

Despite the changes, ridership is still down. Henry Szcygielski, who is working part time after being a driver for 37 years, said the transition was hard. 

“At first, they took a lot of business away. You were just sitting there and people were getting in an Uber,” Szcygielski said, talking about rideshare. “You have to work a little bit longer and another day or two to make ends meet.” 

Lenny Rutkosky, another driver, said the market has been overloaded and oversaturated by rideshares, autonomous vehicles and alternative transportation projects. 

“When I started, my biggest competition was limos. We’ve gone so far from that in 20 years,” he said. 

Rutkosky said it was unfair that companies such as Uber and Lyft, The Boring Co. or driverless taxicab service Zoox are not regulated as strictly as the taxi industry despite being private transportation. 

“My biggest competitor is non-regulation of other businesses here,” Rutkosky said. 

The competitors are cutting into the pie of the Las Vegas transportation, according to Szcygielski, leaving fewer options for drivers. He said he could wait for two hours at the airport until he got a customer this summer. 

Szcygielski said the ’90s were a golden age for cab drivers — they didn’t have to compete with other transportation alternatives, tips were good and drivers would get kickbacks for bringing customers to hotels or strip clubs. 

“Back in the 90s and 2000s you could get 30, 35 trips now if you do 20 trips you’re lucky,” Szcygielski said in a follow-up text after an interview. 

On the hiring end, Bailin said he often meets former Lyft and Uber drivers who switch to driving taxis because it’s difficult for them to support themselves. According to him, it can be hard for rideshare drivers to maintain the cost and upkeep of a vehicle without the support of an agency.

Drivers also don’t get benefits or vacation time and the pay isn’t as good as it was in the past. According to Gridwise Analytics, a company that analyzes the gig economy, workers in the transportation sector saw their wages decline roughly 3.9 percent to 5.5 percent in the past two years. 

The future 

Cramer said economics are all about “winners” and “losers.” In this case, he said the consumer is the one coming out on top, while workers and stakeholders in the taxi industry are the ones who might experience setbacks.  

“This is kind of the market working its course, weeding out old methods and rewarding the consumer,” Cramer said. “If we still want to take a taxi or a limo, we can take it. We also have the ability to choose Uber and Lyft if we want to.” 

However, he also said the introduction of driverless and autonomous vehicles could be a cause for concern for workers losing their jobs. 

Rideshares are just one threat to the taxicab industry. The economy is another. Drivers said they are worried about the future of the industry, though many of them said they’re doing OK financially despite a decline in ridership. Szcygielski said the economic uncertainty of this year has made him nervous. 

“This was the worst summer I’d seen since 9/11,” Szcygielski said. “Tourism is down big time.” 

Others echoed similar sentiments, including Rutkosky, who said the high costs at casinos are a reason that ridership is down this year. 

Autonomous vehicles and driverless cars could eliminate jobs for traditional taxicab companies and rideshares. Companies such as The Boring Co., which just got permission to bring its vehicles above ground, Zoox and potentially Waymo, another driverless taxi service that does not yet have a presence in Las Vegas, were mentioned as potential competitors. 

“Who knows? In two or three years, every car could go driverless,” Szcygielski said.  

Cramer said Las Vegas is quick to feel the effects of the economy, but resilient, and that it’s unlikely drivers who might be replaced by a driverless vehicle will be permanently displaced from the job market. 

“I remember when Nevada had the highest unemployment rate during the financial crisis, but after COVID unemployment rates were at record lows,” Cramer said. “I think people were finding the jobs they were looking for.”