Who Visits Las Vegas, and Why, and What Do They Do, . . .

. . . and Where Are They From, . . . and Everything Else About Them.

"The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority says it has a pretty good idea who visited the destination last year: 45-year-old married people making $40,000 or more, with one-third of them coming from neighboring California.
They came in pairs and left the kids — if any — at home, spending $281.88 on food and drinks, $149.77 to shop and budgeting $530.11 each to gamble, more than they have in the past five years. They stuck largely to the Strip, opting not to venture to downtown Fremont Street's casinos. They had little interest in comedy shows. But if they had side-trips in mind, plenty planned to see the Grand Canyon up close during their visit.
All in all, 96 percent said they had a good time"

" . . . about 12 percent, say they're coming primarily to gamble.
Once visitors were in town, 71 percent made a bet or two, flat compared to last year and a drop from 80 percent in 2010 and 77 percent in 2011, according to the survey."

Ref: Las Vegas Sun News

12% say they come to gamble primarily? Only 12%? DonDiego supposes this figure is a mite low, . . . maybe there's still a stigma attached to gambling. In any case the low figure might help to explain why casinos are getting a mite stingier with their games, . . . like "tightening" blackjack rules and "lowering" video poker pay tables; gambling is less a factor in overall revenues/profits..

Anyway, the The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Annual Survey of Visitors for Calendar Year 2014 is now available for those interested in anything having to do with Las Vegas Visitors.

Las Vegas Vistor Profile - 2014

Interesting Stats

Thanks, Rick

Stats based on polls. Yeah, that's a way to get accurate information.

When my wife is asked, by anyone, why she goes to Vegas her answer is always " I have a good client based in Vegas so I go for meetings. I also like the many great restaurants and the shows." We go to Vegas 4 to 6 times a year, she might meet with her client there once a year but it's more of entertaining them than a meeting. She hasn't been to a show in over two years. She will however, put in 4 to 5 hours a day in the casinos and has a gambling budget of at least twice mine. She goes to gamble. So do I.

An interesting stat would be how many drinks do people average per day (or per hour)......

A real interesting stat would be how many who visit Vegas like paying the ripoff "resort fees". We know the answer...

I suppose it makes sense that a survey by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority would only show 12% of its respondents openly admitting that gambling was their primary reason for visiting Sin City. After all, if they drew their respondents from people who were attending some kind of convention at their facilities, then their primary reason for being there would be business- or convention-related. At least that would be their STATED reason; I'm sure I wouldn't publicly admit that I want to go on a degenerate gambling tear while I'm supposed to be on a business trip.

Having read the “Kansas Gets Mean” thread, I’m wondering what percentage of Las Vegas visitors are welfare recipients who are there to squander their welfare benefits on sin and gummi bears.

DonDiego, to answer your question, my wife and I live in MI and are in our 60's, no kids at home, make a little over 100,00, go to Vegas 3 or 4 times a year. We stay there 5 to 7 days if we fly, and one to two weeks if we drive. Our rooms and food are generally comped. We used to stay downtown, but since they put up the two zip lines, it takes away the pleasure of seeing the FSE, which we really enjoyed. Plus the last couple of years, the area has become crowded with costumed people looking for handouts, some border on being obscene. So lately we've stayed off the strip, Sam's Town or Gold Coast for our visits. We play mostly Video Poker, but will switch to slots. I think we gamble about 6 hrs. a day and that's a conservative estimate. During the day we take the bus from Sam's Town and go Downtown, and at Gold Coast we'll take the bus to the Orleans and onto the Strip or we walk to the Palms and Rio. I hope this answers some of your questions, and just to let you know, we just got back from our 2nd trip of the year 4-16-15.

And Forkie and Mally assured us that the "costumed people looking for handouts" on Fremont doesn't chase away business.

Well they were wrong about at least one thing. They all bring their kids.