As Strip slumps, Red Rock and Boyd find success in Las Vegas locals’ market
Operators of the two major Las Vegas local casino companies don’t usually agree on much. But they do have one thing in common. The investment community believes the business models for Boyd Gaming and Red Rock Resorts are stable.
Unlike their Strip counterparts, executives from Boyd Gaming and Red Rock Resorts didn’t have to explain away gaming revenue and visitation declines during 2025.
Both companies had a few hiccups, primarily business disruptions associated with renovations or decreases in their smaller tourism segments. However, gaming industry observers remain universally upbeat when it comes to the Southern Nevada markets catering to the area’s residential population.
Stifel Financial gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski said neighborhood casinos performed well “against the current murky economic backdrop.” CBRE Equity Research gaming analyst John DeCree said the companies’ properties have been immune from the visitation declines seen on the Strip, which fell 7.5 percent in 2025.
“While concerns remain about a broader slowdown on the Strip impacting the wages of Las Vegas consumers, the locals market is more diversified than ever, and we expect any potential impact to be negligible,” DeCree wrote in a research note.
Strip gaming revenue was relatively flat in 2025 compared to 2024. Every other Southern Nevada market had an increase, ranging from Downtown Las Vegas’ 2.1 percent jump to the Boulder Strip’s bump of 3.8 percent. Casinos in unincorporated areas of Clark County grew revenue by 1.2 percent.
Meanwhile, Boyd’s Southern Nevada properties produced almost $1.1 billion in revenue in 2025. Red Rock’s revenue was just shy of $2 billion.
Both companies are expanding.
Red Rock is in the midst of an extensive $200 million renovation of Green Valley Ranch and is in the late stages of a $53 million investment into Sunset Station in Henderson. On Tuesday, the company announced an additional $87 million enhancement to Sunset that includes a new steakhouse and a high-end table games area.
Red Rock completed a $100 million expansion of the 2-year-old Durango Casino Resort in December and launched another expansion to the southwest Las Vegas resort, adding 275,000 square feet of gaming, dining and recreational amenities with a cost of $385 million. The company also has more than 450 acres of land for casino development across Las Vegas.
During Red Rock’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Steve Cootey said the company differentiates itself from the Strip because of its locations, many of which are located near the major beltways.
“We don’t rely on conventions. We don’t rely on hotel-driven revenue,” Cootey said. “We are a locals market company. We rely on our customers coming back multiple times a month. I think that differentiates us from the Strip.”
However, Red Rock Vice Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta said the company is picking up business from the Strip.
“We’re seeing a lot of customers, particularly on the high-end, that historically stayed on the Strip,” Fertitta said on the earnings call. “They are now staying with us based on the amenities we have and the services we provide.”
Boyd expects to finish up property-wide renovation at the Suncoast in Summerlin this year, and then will turn its attention to Orleans, which will undergo a similar yearlong renovation.
Boyd CEO Keith Smith, in an interview with The Nevada Independent last week, said Orleans lost a combined $13 million in hotel revenue in the last two quarters, due to declines in visitation. The property has 1,800 rooms.
Smith said Boyd’s downtown business from its core Hawaiian customers remained stable, but he noted a 10 percent decline in pedestrian traffic along the Fremont Street Experience in the year’s last three months may have led to a decline in hotel revenue at the company’s three properties.
“These reflect weaker destination business throughout the Las Vegas market,” Smith said, adding that Boyd’s customers “generally don’t go and play on the Strip.”
At the end of March, Boyd expects to open Cadence Crossing in Henderson. The property will replace the aging Joker’s Wild, which will be demolished. The casino is expected to draw from the potential 10,000 residents moving into the nearby neighborhoods.
DeCree suggested Boyd and Red Rock’s Las Vegas properties would see a boost from the “no taxes on tips” policy that was included in last summer’s federal tax package, “given the concentration of tipped employees and the number of retirees living in Las Vegas.”
Smith suggested Southern Nevada consumers will have more discretionary income as a result of the tax legislation.
“The real strength of our business is from the true residents,” he said. “When business on the Strip has ebbed and flowed, we haven’t really seen an impact to the overall locals market.”
Cortez Masto says prediction markets’ overseer lied to Congress
The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — the government agency that oversees prediction markets — said last week that the agency will assert its authority over sports-based event contracts, even if that risks a legal showdown with states.
Those remarks were a 180-degree turn from responses that commission Chair Michael Selig gave to the Senate Agricultural Committee in November when asked about sports betting.
“It is an interpretive question that is working its way through the courts, and so I will respect the decisions of those courts,” Selig told the committee on Nov. 19. “I also am very interested to work with this committee to the extent that there are views that we need to change anything in the statute. This is ultimately a question for the courts.
Those comments did not sit well with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).
Although not a member of the committee, she took umbrage with Selig’s remarks, given that Nevada is one of nearly two dozen states and tribal gaming authorities that have filed federal lawsuits seeking to block prediction markets from offering sports wagering contracts (the term companies use to describe the business) in their jurisdictions.
In a statement to The Indy, Cortez Masto said his more recent comments “prove he lied to Congress.”
“Beyond that, he is profoundly wrong,” she wrote. “Prediction markets are facilitating illegal sports gaming across the country, and it’s past time for the CFTC to do its job and enforce both its own rules and the will of Congress.”
Profitable year for Atlantis owner, but company expansion not yet on the table
In an interview with The Nevada Independent last summer, Monarch Casino & Resorts CEO John Farahi said the company would take its time in expanding beyond Reno’s Atlantis Casino & Resort and Monarch Black Hawk in Colorado.
“There are not that many markets available to enter,” Farahi told The Indy last year. “Frankly, the industry has consolidated to a point that you don't have that many opportunities.”
He is still taking his time.
CBRE Equity Research analyst Max March wrote in a research note last week that Monarch is “actively reviewing potential acquisition targets, albeit with a highly selective approach.” He suggested Monarch might be considering developing 20 acres it owns next to Atlantis.
Monarch, which carries zero debt on its balance sheet, said revenue increased 4.4 percent in 2025 to $545.1 million.
What I'm reading and watching
🏈 New Rule: Super Bet Sunday — Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO
Get past the host’s mispronunciation of Nevada, but interesting observations on gambling and a somewhat accurate history lesson of expansion involving Nevada.
🎰 Faces of Gaming: Jeffrey Compton – Visionary, communicator, arts lover, entrepreneur — Tom Osiecki, CDC Gaming Reports
I’m indebted to Jeffrey. He revived my journalism career when he named me CDC’s executive editor in 2018 and he was supportive when I joined The Indy three years later.
News, notes and quotes
🎆 Fremont Street Experience names Atkinson as CEO
Cliff Atkinson’s unemployment was short-lived. Roughly two months after his tenure at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, Atkinson was named CEO of the Fremont Street Experience, the downtown entertainment venue. Fremont Street Experience Chairman Mark Brandenburg said last week that Atkinson’s background would be instrumental as the location continues to evolve. As president of Virgin, Atkinson oversaw a comprehensive operational transformation at the off-Strip resort. Previously, he was president of Fontainebleau Las Vegas before it opened and held senior leadership positions with Strip properties operated by MGM Resorts International.
☎️ Ooops. Mix-up pushes MGM into early financial results disclosure
MGM Resorts International moved up its fourth-quarter earnings conference call by a week after a portion of the company’s financial results mistakenly were included in the earnings for BetMGM. MGM Resorts and Entain Plc each own 50 percent of the sports betting and online gaming business. “Curiously, MGM pre-announced [fourth quarter] in the back of the BetMGM release with no commentary, showing a strong [fourth-quarter] beat on better than feared Vegas and Macau,” Truist Securities gaming analyst Barry Jonas told investors. MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle didn’t say much about the mix-up a week ago.