Golden Gate Eliminates All Table Games, Fire at Strip Resort and $442K Jackpot Win

Las Vegas' Oldest Casino is Eliminating All Live Dealer Tables

In a shocking move, Golden Gate Casino, a fixture in downtown Las Vegas for the past 119 years, has announced that they are eliminating every live dealer table game on the property.

Once the transition is complete, live dealer table games at Golden Gate will be replaced by electronic table games and additional slot machines. This change is expected to be completed in roughly a month, approximately at the middle of September 2025.

The Golden Gate Casino, located at 1 Fremont Street, originally opened in 1906 under the name Hotel Nevada. The name changed to Golden Gate Casino in 1955.

Golden Gate has changed hands many times and is currently owned by Derek Stevens, the downtown Las Vegas casino giant that also operates Circa and The D. Stevens has said that all table games employees at Golden Gate Casino will be offered positions at his other two downtown properties.

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is On Fire at Strip Casino

It was just like that famous song. Yes, the roof was on fire.

At least that was the case at the Las Vegas Strip's Sahara Casino early on Tuesday evening.

According to the Clark County Fire Department, they received calls that the low-rise roof at the Sahara Hotel was on fire shortly after 5 pm local time.

Firefighters discovered smoke billowing from the roof and managed to quickly extinguish the fire, which appeared to be related to construction debris at the site.

No injuries were reported and the official cause of the incident is currently under investigation.

Huge Drop in Canadian Visitors to Sin City

You have probably seen it all over your social media accounts. If you work on the strip and are a tipped employee, surely you have already seen it in your paychecks. Las Vegas tourism has gone down the tubes this year.

I just got back from a Las Vegas trip this week, and while there was significant activity on the strip and downtown, it was nothing like past years. In fact, I had no security line at all for my return flight.

None. Zero. Not one soul ahead of me waiting to be screened.

Year-over-year numbers show a 7% decrease in overall tourism to Las Vegas, but the numbers get even more depressing when we look at the Canadian numbers.

Prior to the COVID pandemic, roughly 20% of Las Vegas' visitors came from outside the US, and a large portion of that total came from Canada.

However, new data shows that, compared to 2024 numbers, there are 18% less seats on planes originating from Canada.

Eighteen percent. That's brutal.

Could it be the tariffs, or could it be that $47 double Red Bull and vodka my friend ordered last week at a Las Vegas Strip casino bar?

Las Vegas Sphere Reports 120K Tickets Sold for Wizard of Oz

If you like the Wizard of Oz and you've seen their impressive social media campaign on Facebook, you are probably one of them.

One of what? Ticketholders to the Wizard of Oz show that is coming to the Sphere later this month.

The Las Vegas Sphere has reported that over 120,000 tickets have already been sold for the Wizard of Oz, according to Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan.

According to Dolan, 7% of Las Vegas visitors go to the Sphere, however that number will be over 10% once the high-demand Wizard of Oz show opens in a few weeks.

According to Sphere Entertainment, their goal is to make viewers feel like they were present at the studio when the original movie starring Judy Garland was made.