West Town

How to play West Town

Through July, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA) reported that visitor volume has rebounded only 0.5%. 2026 followed a difficult 2025, where visitation crashed 7.5%.

Far fewer travelers are arriving in the casino town by air this year. Harry Reid International Airport reported 30.2 million passengers through July—a 6.9% drop from the same period in 2025—with international traffic down nearly 9%.

The LVCVA and Harry Reid International Airport have not yet released their August reports. Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas isn’t expecting a major rally.

About West Town

“We expect non-sports categories such as economics, politics, crypto, and entertainment to gain share over time,” says the analyst.

Prediction market operators are on legal losing streaks, confirming that Beynon is onto something when he says the regulatory environment is the biggest risk facing the industry.

“We continue to view regulation as the largest risk to prediction markets,” says the analyst. “While industry growth remains robust, adverse legal outcomes could materially impact sports contract availability and long-term adoption.”

How to play West Town

The board is hoping that the proposal drafts or more or less finalised, though there will likely be input from stakeholders during the comment period and at the hearing. One group that typically weighs in on such matters, the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers, did not respond to a request for comment by Friday’s deadline for publication. Depending on the amount of feedback or potential objections from the Nevada Gaming Commission, the new standards could be adopted and published by year’s end.

Overall, it’s been a busy stretch for the board since the start of 2025. In that time the regulator has issued five multimillion-dollar anti-money laundering fines to entities on the Las Vegas Strip, an unprecedented run of sanctions for America’s gambling capital.

Four of the investigations – those involving Resorts World Las Vegas, MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and the Venetian – centred around AML violations related to illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, who was placed on the state’s exclusion list in April. The other case involving Wynn Las Vegas did not pertain to play from Bowyer.