From a casino implosion to major fines, here are the top Las Vegas gaming headlines of 2024

Each year brings new challenges and opportunities for Nevada casinos, adding to the ever-changing and endlessly intriguing tale of gambling in the Silver State.

2024 was no exception.

From casino closings and implosions to messy regulatory scandals and multibillion-dollar deals, Nevada’s gaming industry added plenty of new chapters to its storied history in the last year.

Before the calendar turns to 2025, here is a look back at the top casino stories from 2024.

The Mirage is gone, Trop disappears

For many, 2024 will be somberly remembered as the year that two of the Las Vegas Strip’s most iconic casino properties shut their doors for good.

The Tropicana Las Vegas, which opened on the Strip in 1957, closed on April 2. The Trop’s two hotel towers were imploded on Oct. 9, accompanied by a drone show and fireworks in the pre-dawn hours.

The Rat Pack-era resort was razed to make way for a proposed Major League Baseball stadium that will be home to the relocating Athletics, formerly of Oakland. Bally’s Corp., which operated the Trop before its implosion, is also planning to construct a new casino-hotel on the site at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.

The other Las Vegas casino closing in 2024 was the world-famous Mirage, which turned out the lights for the last time on July 17. The Mirage — which many industry experts credit with ushering in a new age of Las Vegas megaresorts — shuttered so that Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas and the Guitar Hotel Las Vegas could take its place.

Hard Rock and its giant guitar-shaped hotel tower are not expected to open for a few years, although demolition of The Mirage and the new construction began almost immediately during the summer.

Nevada casino revenue up and down in 2024

Nevada casinos have enjoyed a prosperous post-COVID business boom unrivaled in the industry’s existence.

In 2023, Nevada casinos recorded $15.5 billion in gaming revenue. That was on the heels of a then-record $13.4 billion in 2021 and $14.8 billion in 2022.

The Las Vegas Strip remained the nation’s largest gaming market in 2023, generating more than $8.83 billion.

Despite some up and down months in 2024, commercial gambling in the Silver State will outperform every other legal jurisdiction in the U.S. by a wide margin, with casinos along the Strip leading the way.

That is not to say all is right on Las Vegas Boulevard.

The resort corridor’s gambling returns have been trending downward in the final months of the year, even as Nevada’s overall gaming revenue climbs upward. Beginning in July, the Strip posted three consecutive months of declining year-over-year revenue, the first time that has happened on the Strip since the start of the pandemic closures (March 2019 through May 2019).

Las Vegas is a sports town, no going back

Part of the reason Las Vegas casinos enjoyed such a strong start to 2024 was due to one of the biggest spectacles in sports delivering in a big way.

In February, Las Vegas hosted its first Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders. Following the game, local officials declared that Super Bowl 58 may have been the biggest special event in the city’s history.

The gaming numbers from February suggest casinos would love to see the NFL’s biggest game return. Casino gaming win was the best February ever and the fifth-best month in history for the Strip and sixth best for the state, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

But it’s not just domestic sports that are driving the narrative that Las Vegas has become a sports town.

In November, the second Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix took over the Strip, transforming the heavily traveled corridor into a high-speed racetrack. Although initial reports suggest the second running of the annual F1 race failed to match the prior year’s debut in Las Vegas, the casinos on the Strip welcome the influx of international visitors during a historically slow period.

Sibella’s shine begins to fade

Not too long ago, Scott Sibella was a rising star in the Las Vegas casino industry. The one-time president of the MGM Grand casino-hotel once appeared on a hit television show as an undercover executive, giving millions of viewers a behind-the-scenes look at casinos and endearing the industry to the public at-large.

Shortly after, Sibella took the head job at the yet-to-be-operational Resorts World Las Vegas property, shepherding the casino-hotel through its June 2021 opening.

When he was fired from Resorts World in 2023, it came to light that not all was as it seemed at either MGM Grand or RWLV under Sibella’s leadership. According to authorities, illegal bookmakers and other individuals with suspected ties to illegal gambling activities were regular customers at those properties.

In May, Sibella was sentenced after pleading guilty to a single count of failing to file required anti-money laundering compliance reports while president of MGM Grand. He received one year of probation and a $9,500 fine.

In August, state gaming regulators filed a complaint against RWLV, alleging that the property was a haven for criminal misconduct dating back to its 2021 opening.

Earlier this month, gaming regulators reached a settlement with Sibella in which the former casino executive will have his gaming license revoked and he will be barred from re-entering the industry for at least the next four years. The settlement makes clear that Sibella is being punished for what transpired at MGM Grand, not what allegedly occurred at RWLV and absolves him of any wrongdoing related to the latter.

Money-laundering issues plague casino compliance departments

Federal and state authorities brought the hammer down on several casino operators doing business in Nevada in 2024. The highly-publicized issues all revolved around anti-money laundering compliance failures.

MGM Resorts International and its most-recently acquired casino property, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, paid $7.45 million as a result of the Sibella incident. According to authorities, Sibella knew about Wayne Nix, a now-convicted bookmaker, and allowed him to gamble at MGM properties.

The NGCB complaint filed against Resorts World Las Vegas in August also alleges that another since-convicted illegal bookmaker named Mathew Bowyer gambled with impunity at the property. Two other individuals with ties to illicit gambling activities were also named in the complaint.

In an unprecedented action, the board also filed a complaint against Bowyer’s wife, Nicole, because she was his casino host. All told, Nevada regulators say Nicole Bowyer made over $667,000 directly from her husband’s gambling at RWLV.

The Nevada Gaming Commission has yet to adjudicate the RWLV complaints.

The biggest regulatory action in 2024 for alleged AML compliance failures involved Wynn Las Vegas, which forfeited over $130 million to settle criminal allegations that it conspired with unlicensed money transmitting businesses around the world to transfer funds for the financial benefit of the casino. As part of a non-prosecution agreement with the federal government, Wynn Las Vegas admitted that it illegally used unregistered money transmitting businesses to circumvent the conventional financial system.

Apollo buys IGT, Everi

Although analysts are always hinting at potential blockbuster mergers in the gaming industry, few ever actually materialize. That’s why the seemingly out-of-thin-air announcement that New York City-based Apollo Global Management was buying both International Game Technology and Everi Holdings caught the entire gaming world by surprise.

The $6.3 billion dual acquisition of IGT and Everi all but solidifies Apollo as one of the largest and most influential players in the gaming industry. Apollo is the current casino-hotel operator of The Venetian and The Palazzo on the Strip, and it now controls a market-leading digital system and game manufacturer.

Apollo will take the new entity private once the deal closes, which is expected in the third quarter of 2025.

New project slated for the Strip

The former Wet ‘n Wild waterpark holds a special place in the hearts of Las Vegas locals. The empty 27-acre lot where the amusement park once stood is a sore subject for many city residents.

For several years, would-be developers have talked about new construction projects at the site. One such proposal — the All-Net Arena — is currently the subject of litigation for defrauding investors.

Enter LVXP, an ambitious project that promises to feature the city’s tallest building and an NBA-ready arena. The 752-foot, 2,605-unit hotel and condominium project with an 18,000-seat NBA-ready arena on the north Strip received approval from Clark County officials earlier this month.

The team behind LVXP intends to break ground on the project in 2025.

Contact David Danzis at ddanzis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0378. Follow AC2Vegas_Danzis on X.