The Las Vegas Strip just posted its ugliest December in years, and the excuses are piling up faster than empty cocktail glasses at a $5 blackjack table.

Nevada's total gaming win for December 2025 came in at $1.44 billion, down 1.55% year-over-year. But the real pain was concentrated on the Strip, where casinos pulled in $827.7 million—a 6%-plus nosedive from the $881.3 million they booked in December 2024.

The Quick Hit

• What happened: Strip casinos lost 6%+ in December revenue, falling from $881.3M to $827.7M
• The damage: Baccarat cratered almost 21% to $156.7M; full-year Strip growth was under 1%
• Why you should care: Vegas had its fewest visitors in four years, and the Strip is feeling it
• The move: Locals casinos are printing money—Boulder Strip up 9%, Laughlin up 10%

A Perfect Storm of Suck

Strip operators can point to a bunch of factors, and for once, they're not entirely full of shit.

Start with the 43-day federal government shutdown that threw travel plans into chaos. Then add the steepest decline in international visitors the city has seen since the post-COVID recovery. Canadian tourists organized boycotts. Asian high-roller traffic dried up. And New Year's Eve landed on a goddamn Wednesday, which is about as useful for generating casino revenue as a craps table with no dice.

Las Vegas visitors dropped 6 percent in 2025, and the December numbers are just the cherry on top of a shit sundae. The city hosted its fewest tourists in four years, and all those empty hotel rooms translated directly into empty casino floors.

Baccarat Got Absolutely Murdered

The baccarat numbers are staggering. Revenue fell almost 21% to $156.7 million in December. For a game that accounts for a massive chunk of Strip revenue—especially from international high rollers—that kind of drop is a five-alarm fire.

When your baccarat pits are empty, it means your whales aren't showing up. And when your whales aren't showing up, your revenue reports look like the one we're reading right now.

But Wait, the Locals Are Crushing It

Here's where the story gets interesting. While the Strip was getting its ass kicked, the rest of Nevada was having a party.

The locals market jumped 4%. Downtown was up 5%. The Boulder Strip surged 9%. And Laughlin—Laughlin!—posted a 10% increase. If you told someone that Laughlin outperformed the Las Vegas Strip in December 2025, they'd assume you were drunk. But here we are.

The takeaway is obvious: regular degenerates with jobs and mortgages are still gambling their asses off. The problem isn't demand for gambling. The problem is that the Strip priced itself out of reach for everyone except international whales—and then the whales stopped coming.

MGM's Mixed Bag

MGM Resorts' Strip operations tell the story perfectly. Full-year 2025 net revenue came in at $8.4 billion, down 4%. Earnings dropped 8%. The flagship brand of the Las Vegas Strip had a worse year, period.

But MGM's Q4 net income was $294 million, up from $157 million in the prior year. How? Their China operations carried them. MGM's Macau properties picked up the slack that Vegas couldn't handle. When your domestic flagship needs to be bailed out by Macau, that's a sign things need to change at home.

MGM is betting on 2026 being better. The MGM Grand renovation is completing, and they're expecting a return to growth. Given that BetMGM posted record 2025 numbers on the digital side, the company isn't exactly struggling—it's just the physical Strip properties that need a kick in the ass.

The Record That Doesn't Feel Like One

Despite the Strip's struggles, Nevada casinos still hit a record $15.8 billion in total statewide revenue for 2025. The state has never generated more gambling revenue in its history. The Strip's share of the pie is shrinking, but the pie keeps growing.

The Strip's problems aren't going away overnight. International travel takes time to recover, Canadian boycotts don't end because MGM renovated some rooms, and Vegas casinos got hit with $32 million in AML fines on top of everything else. Strip operators have plenty of homework to do.

The Bottom Line

The Las Vegas Strip had a rough December and a mediocre 2025. Revenue dropped, tourists stayed home, and baccarat whales found somewhere else to play. But Nevada as a whole set a record, and the locals market is thriving. The Strip isn't dying—it just needs to stop pretending it can charge resort-fee prices in a discount-demand market. Adjust or get left behind.