(Amber Renee Dixon) A decline in Las Vegas tourism has one downtown casino owner getting creative, courting Canadian visitors while calling for changes to prediction markets and federal gambling policy.

We sit down with Derek Stevens this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪ -Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and other supporters.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon joining you from the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, visitation to Las Vegas in 2025 was down 7.5 percent compared to the year before.

International travel declined as well, also down more than 7 percent, with Canadian visitation helping drive that drop amid trade tensions, political rhetoric, and rising costs.

Derek Stevens, owner of three downtown casinos, sat down with Nevada Week at his newest property, Circa, to discuss tourism as well as other issues shaping gaming from prediction markets, to taxes on gambling, and what comes next for downtown Las Vegas.

Okay, Derek Stevens, independent casino mogul and the last of a dying breed in Las Vegas, according to Forbes.

[laughter] We're going to talk about that ahead, but the big story this week is about the amount of money that people spent on the Super Bowl, betting on the Super Bowl here in Nevada, the lowest amount in 10 years.

-Yeah.

-What do you think of that?

(Derek Stevens) Well, it's, it's not great.

I think there's a, like almost anything in life for a business, there's a number of factors.

We kind of knew it was going to be lower than years past, based upon some of the regular customers that we knew, some of their opinions, what they were doing, and then, yeah, matchup and other things like that all played into it.

-The opinions of some of your bettors, what were they saying?

-Well, I think pretty clearly the prediction markets ate into the legal amount.

And clearly, you know, some of the bigger players that we've seen have moved to Kalshi and have moved to Polymarket and moved to, you know, some areas where they're in this, I guess, I don't know, I would say gray area.

They believe it to be legal area.

We-- Well, we believe it to be illegal area.

But, clearly, prediction markets had something to do with it.

And then, to be fair, the matchup was lousy.

-So the prediction markets, that was the subject of our show last week.

And they've been around for a long time in politics, especially.

But in the sports business of betting, did you see this coming?

When did they-- It seemed like all the sudden, they're here?

-Well, no, we've been talking about it for a good year.

You know, it's an interesting-- it's an interesting play.

I mean, the prediction market groups, I'm certainly going to say they are shrewd.

They're smart.

They've done an end-around, and they figured out a way to be competitive, while not paying federal excise tax, while not paying any state income tax, while not paying for league fees, while stealing league data, while not supporting problem gaming.

It's just wild west.

And to play this end-around with a massive amount of legal hours going in to sue every state or counter sue and temporary restraining orders, I mean, let's be honest about this.

They're betting on sports, and they figured out a way to avoid every tax possible.

So, yeah, it can make you a little bitter about what they're doing.

But I don't, I don't dispute the fact that they are very shrewd about what they're doing.

But something's going to happen, because take, for example, in the state of New York, the state of New York last year had $1.1 billion of taxes paid on sports betting.

I think as the story gets out there more and more, I think legislators, I think Attorneys General are gonna have a bigger issue.

I think $1.1 billion in the state of New York have lost revenue because, under prediction markets, this goes to zero.

If you look at the state of Illinois, $450 million was paid to the state of Illinois, and taxes on sports betting goes to zero.

I tend to believe there's too much money that's going to be missing in action to think that these guys, these thieves, are just going to get away with this.

-So the federal government is going to be looking for money at some point, and then the regulation of it, the prediction markets would argue, We are already regulated federally because we are more of a financial transaction.

We're not sports betting.

-Yeah, well, if they're not sports betting, how come 94% of their-- of all their transactions are sports?

-How did you do here for the Super Bowl?

-Our handle was down a bit.

We won.

We had a pretty good-- we had a pretty good Super Bowl.

We took a little too much risk, partly because we took a couple of million-dollar bets on the Patriots, and we didn't have enough time to really offset it and get buyback.

So we went in, we took a little more risk than I would be comfortable with, but the house got lucky, effectively.

So Circa Sports had a good Super Bowl.

-And the professional gamblers who are using the prediction markets say they're getting a better value, right?

Is that how you understand it?

-Some are, I would say.

The one thing about prediction markets I think a lot of people don't, don't fully understand is that in a prediction market, someone's a bookmaker, and when you have a private equity person or a hedge fund or another group of sharp gamblers that become bookmakers, they post a number and they buy into it.

Prediction markets, the average person has no shot of winning.

If you go into a prediction market, remember, it always resolves.

That's-- We call it grading.

They resolve.

They resolve to zero.

Realize someone else on the other side knows a hell of a lot more than the person making the play.

The average person has no shot of coming out ahead in a prediction market.

-Okay.

Let's move to the Big Beautiful Bill.

It's impacting gamblers in that now they can only deduct up to 90% of their gambling losses.

Before it was 100%, right?

-Yeah.

-For our viewers who don't gamble and who hear 90% versus 100% and think maybe that's not a very big deal, what would you say?

-Well, I could say on the outsider, when you just read the headline, I would agree.

I think this hasn't got enough publicity, because it doesn't seem like that just on the surface.

But it is.

It is actually a very big deal.

So over the course of a year, you have historically always been able to offset your losses against your winnings.

If you break even, you break even, and that's it.

Under the current set of regulations, you can only take 90% of your losses.

So on a day when-- or on a year when someone wins 170 times in the course of a year at 100 bucks, that's $17,000.

And let's say they lose 170 times, so they're 50/50.

So they lose 17,000.

For that individual, it feels like they broke even.

But under the current tax law, they can only deduct 90% of that 17,000.

So that leaves them with $1,700 of fear of what they have to pay, what they have to pay their income tax on.

So that's where something radically changed here with the, with the Big Beautiful Bill.

It was inadvertent, and I'm sure-- -You think so?

You don't think anyone knew what was-- -No.

-How did it get through like that?

-Well, how do a lot of our bills get through?

I mean, they're this big, and they're getting rushed through in the middle of the night on July the 3rd.

-Someone had to say, 90%, we're changing this.

-Remember, this didn't get to be a hot topic, even after the Big Beautiful Bill.

It only came out a few days later, once everything was read.

And when I say this is inadvertent, I think it's clearly inadvertent.

And I think you can see that now when you have bipartisan support in the House, bipartisan support in the Senate to eliminate this 90% deduction.

Everyone wants this eliminated.

So in a very perverse way, we almost went to a government shutdown last week.

Through that settlement, you cannot have a tax component with the settlement that saved the government shutdown.

So in many ways, if the government did shut down, we would have been able to potentially overcome this issue.

It's going to be one of these times in the next couple-- I would say in the next couple months, the-- I feel pretty good that our legislators are going to get this fixed, because no one wants this.

So I still am a strong believer that this 90% deductibility will get adjusted here pretty quickly.

-You've been working with Representative Dina Titus on this, as well as Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.

You did have President Trump here at Circa, following his inauguration.

And I wonder, have you been able to reach out to him or someone at the White House?

-Well, just because he walked through doesn't mean I have him on a text.

I could call Dana White.

Dana's got him on a text, but not me.

No.

I mean, that was a, that was a different deal.

I mean, four days into a Presidency, and you have a standing President that wants to announce a new piece of legislation called No Tax on Tips.

And he wanted to select the city that tips were the most important in our country, in the United States.

He selected Las Vegas.

There were a few venues that were available, and it was-- Obviously, this was last-minute notice.

I mean, this was like a 48-hour notice here, right?

So when the opportunity came up, I thought it was pretty great and an honor to have an acting President come out and want to bring up this piece of legislation.

Remember, at that time, we had no idea if this was just a crazy idea.

-Right.

-But it worked and it passed.

-Are you still happy with having done that?

I mean, when you allow him into your casino, I guess some people would think that shows you are showing you support him.

-If Joe Biden would have come up with it, I would have had this-- I would have had a Democratic President.

It's not really-- I've never really been too political on it.

I'm a business person, so, yeah, there's some business elements that I like.

But I'm also, there's a lot of elements that I don't like.

But to have an acting President come up with a piece of legislation that could have a dramatic impact on the employees of Circa and the D and Golden Gate and all of the employees in Las Vegas?

No Tax on Tips is a big deal, so I was happy to do it.

-Conversely, if that part is not changed about the taxes, that could impact all these workers as well.

You may see less business.

-That's why we-- One good thing happened on tax, and another inadvertent thing had bad, badly on tax.

But I feel comfortable that our US House Reps and our US Senators are going to get this fixed.

-What do you think when people point to political tensions between the US and other countries as a reason that tourism has declined in Las Vegas?

-Well, I think, I think, you know, in today's day and age, you'll see, you'll see a lot of things that impact tourism.

I'm a big believer that where the dollar is strong, it has a negative impact on a number of things.

I grew up in a-- I had a manufacturing business.

Strong dollars are not what I like.

I like a weak-dollar policy.

And then in this particular business, in gaming and hospitality, I'm a big believer in a weak dollar as well.

There's a reason why.

-Is there a way to make that easily understandable?

I don't understand why a weaker dollar.

-A weaker dollar-- Right now, the dollar is pretty strong, and you can get 158 yen to the dollar.

Well, it wasn't that long ago, you'd only get 110 yen to the dollar.

So that means if you and I go to Tokyo, we're gonna get a much bigger bang for our buck with our dollar.

That's why we're seeing so much tourism of Americans visiting Japan.

That's why we have so much tourism going elsewhere, because the dollar is too strong.

Inversely, if we were Japanese to come and visit--whether it's Las Vegas or for the United States' perspective, Honolulu is a much bigger location for Japanese to come and visit the United States--it's going to cost them that much more.

Before if they were to spend, you know, $1,000, it would cost them 110,000 yen.

Now it's going to cost them 160,000 yen.

It just means, it means that the United States is too expensive, and it exacerbates how expensive it is.

So that's the issue with a strong dollar.

I think it would be great for tourism if the dollar was a little bit weaker.

And obviously, in the last couple days, last couple weeks, we've been in the news about what we did with Canada-- -Yes.

Please explain "at par."

-At par.

And right now, if you're, if you're Canadian and you have a $100 bill here, $100 of US of a bill--could be for a restaurant, could be for a show--it's going to cost you like 140 Canadian.

So what we're trying to do is give Canadians a discount and say, No, we'll take your Canadian money at even, at par.

So for $100 Canadian, you get to have $100 worth of US, whether it's entertainment, food, beverage, drinks, hotel rooms, whatever you want.

And I think that was, was a key element of why we want to do it.

Clearly, Canadian visitation has been down pretty dramatically.

But at the end of the day, Canada is both our best friend and our best ally and has been for years and decades.

And I think the exchange rate is a big to-do with it, but clearly political tensions are a big to-do with it as well.

And you know, for a Canadian to be called someone that's going to be part of the 51st state, that upsets them.

So I kind of felt it was my responsibility to say, Okay, what can we do as far as welcoming Canadians back?

It's something that I think saying you're welcome is an important component to that.

You just can't assume it.

Just because our countries and our leaders are in a fight, and, you know, I think as time goes by, we look over the course of the last year, over the course of 100 years, I view this as being a small spat between two very integrating countries that have so much that they play off of.

I mean, growing up in Detroit, watching the Ambassador Bridge and the tunnel; and in Sarnia, Ontario, to Port Huron, Michigan, the Blue Water Bridge; the manufacturing interaction; the agricultural interaction; the cultural interaction--Canadians are our best friend.

And for me, growing up, I mean, my father went to the University of Toronto.

I've got family in Windsor, friends in Windsor, Leamington, Toronto.

I'm hoping that we could get through this fight that we're having between countries soon, because US is better being friendly with Canada, and Canada is better being friendly with the United States.

-What is your take on tourism right now?

And let me remind you of something you told Fox News in August.

You said, In six months, I would tend to believe that Vegas tourism and our economy overall will be in a much better place.

-Well, I would say, when we ask about how is Las Vegas doing and how is tourism doing, I think that question is a bit complicated.

Let's not forget about the fact that in December, Las Vegas just finished the largest gaming year in history, $15.8 billion of gaming revenue, all-time record.

All-time record.

So you could say, Okay, how can you say Vegas is dead?

-Strip revenue down, though.

-Strip, but the state revenue up to 15.8 billion of gaming revenue up from 15.5 the year before.

So broke a record.

So you could say, Okay, things are booming.

But on the other hand, you could say the actual amount of number of people visiting, tourism is down.

The number of vehicles coming in on the 15, that was down 1.7% in December.

So vehicles coming in from Southern California, that's been down.

Clearly, what we're seeing at the airport is down.

Airport, maybe you could say, Well, maybe that has something to do with, you know, the lack of a major airline in Spirit.

Spirit was the number two.

And Spirit's who provided all the inexpensive flights, so that brought in a lot of people to Las Vegas.

So I think what we're seeing, this is a result of this K-shaped economy where any like, the top half of the economy seems to be doing pretty well.

The bottom half is not doing well.

And this is where inflation is really kind of taking a big chunk out of the bottom half, which is a tough scenario to be in.

-And your clientele is where?

It's in the middle of all that, right?

-No, no.

Everybody that comes to Vegas is in the top half.

Let's be honest about it.

I mean, Vegas, if it does 40 million a visit, 40 million of visitation, or whatever the number you want to utilize, anybody that comes to Vegas is effectively in the top half.

That's the reality.

And I think some of that has to do with the fact that Vegas has gotten expensive for the average person, and it's having a bit of an impact.

But the spenders are coming.

That's for sure.

-You were on the cover of Forbes recently as the last casino mogul, a dying breed in Las Vegas.

Compared to Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson-- -No.

Those are big guys.

I'm just, I'm still the guy just running a local casino.

Or not a local, I'm running a downtown casino.

-Three properties.

-Yeah.

-You've got the Legacy Club upstairs, where you have busts of Steve Wynn, Benny Binion, Jay Sarno.

Why include all of those guys?

And why don't you think you're among them?

-No, no.

Well, I can-- Let me answer your first question.

First, you know, I love the fact that Jay Sarno came up with Caesar's Palace.

I mean, and you read the book Grandissimo, and you read his mind, his thought process, on how that happened.

Just amazing.

And then he developed Circus Circus, which is, in and of itself, how do you go from Caesar's Palace to Circus Circus?

Crazy.

And then look what Bill Bennett did in like Egypt and Luxor.

And then you got Venetian.

All the themed elements that happened to Vegas.

It made Vegas a place you would never find anywhere else in the world, that helped define Vegas as this location beyond belief.

And it drew so much tourism, and it was great for America.

I felt that, you know, in 2016, '17, '18, when we were starting to concept Circa, I thought it was time that we celebrate Las Vegas.

I remember being here.

I came to Las Vegas on the 100-year anniversary of Vegas in-- I came to Vegas in 2006, and I remember going to a press event, a cocktail event.

Oscar Goodman had this oversized Martini, held like a gallon of Bombay gin in, and the showgirls.

And I thought, that was 100 years in the making, and what a city this has become.

So fast forward, you know, fast forward another 10 years, I thought, you know, I think maybe I want to celebrate, I want to celebrate the history of Las Vegas.

And we're in the right location.

We're on downtown.

We're on Fremont Street.

We're actually within Fremont Street on the very best location.

Golden Gate is where it started on 1 Fremont Street.

So that's right across the street.

But on the corner of Fremont and Main, let's build something that celebrates the history of Vegas, all of Vegas.

And then when we flew drones up, I thought Legacy Club was far and away the best view of Las Vegas you could ever find of the entire valley, whether you're looking up from Henderson, Seven Hills, all the way out to The Bend.

And above, you're looking out to Red Rock mountains, and you look out to Centennial Hills.

You look out to Aliante.

You look out to the Speedway.

There's, there's no place anywhere in Vegas you could see all these mountains and see these unbelievable sunsets and unbelievable sunrises.

And I thought, why don't we do something to celebrate a handful of the people that made this valley what it is.

Gaming is obviously a big play, but not all gaming.

I mean, Howard Hughes and Kirk Kerkorian and, you know, Bob Stupak.

A lot of people think I have Bob Stupak's bust up there because he was the, because he was Vegas World and the Strat.

I mean, that's not really it.

Stupak was the first person that really ever combined a hotel stay and a flight.

He was the first guy that put these combinations together.

It was pretty amazing.

You could say he was the first Expedia almost.

It was really, really interesting stuff.

And then the bankers and Hilton and all that.

So I wanted to celebrate Las Vegas.

I love this city so much that I just thought it was time.

Why don't we make sure we don't lose-- Time goes by pretty quick.

Decades fly by.

Let's not lose some of the history of what made this city so amazing.

-Last thing.

In the revitalization of downtown Las Vegas, you are a huge part of it.

So was Tony Hsieh, the owner of Zappos, he has since passed away.

He owns how many properties around here?

And what do you think about where those stand?

What comes next?

-Yeah.

I was pretty good friends with Tony, and I loved, I love his innovation, his vision, and everything he brought to the table.

But, you know, enough time has gone by.

I've talked to his brother.

I've talked to his dad.

Right now they're stuck in a handful of legal issues.

I think I know exactly where I stand.

I think a lot of other business owners around downtown feel this way as well, that it's time for something to transact.

We cannot allow these motels and these other buildings to just get taken over by Mother Nature.

This is a tough, a tough environment here in the heat and the wind of Las Vegas.

We need transactions to occur, because we need to have new owners, new entrepreneurs, new people with new ideas to come in to help create great things to happen.

You know, Tony with what he did to develop the concept of Fremont East, it's phenomenal.

Now it's great to see what's happening in the Arts District and just down Main Street.

Really amazing.

So it's good to see all this, all these new entrepreneurs coming in.

Every time I go down Main Street and I see all the new bars, restaurants, and shops, you know, I'm thinking to myself, although Tony had really nothing to do with that, he really kind of planted a seed over with Fremont East and made something happen.

But now we got-- but now we're at a time where we can't allow the past to become a burden.

Now we've got to transact.

I want somebody new to own the Gold Spike.

I want somebody, somebody new to own a lot of these motels and hotels and bring some new, new entrepreneurial enthusiasm to downtown Vegas, because that's what he brought was a whole lot of enthusiasm.

And now we're looking for the next person.

-Derek Stevens, owner of Circa, the D, and Golden Gate, the oldest casino in Las Vegas, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

-Amber, great to see you.

Thank you.

-And thank you for watching.

For any of the resources discussed in this show, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek, and I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

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