In Vegas News a couple of weeks ago, I shared some information from the 2025 Nevada Gaming Abstract report, which provides a look inside the accounting of every casino in the state. Income, expenses, and revenue are broken down by region, similar to the monthly reports.
However, there’s much more information available in this report. For example, it includes how much money casinos spend on complimentary expenses. This isn’t available in the monthly reports.
Last year, the Vegas Strip and downtown Las Vegas casinos had more than $3 billion in comp expenses.
Mainstream media gets caught up with net income, which is affected by accounting methods and tax rules. I’d rather look at specific items in the report that reflect the visitor experience.
When it comes to TravelZork, that means looking at comps. These are detailed as both income and expenses.
The latter provides a more accurate picture of what comps cost a casino. The report shows how much money casinos spent on comps for hotel rooms, food, beverages, and other amenities, such as show tickets and spa treatments.
Their expense is a more accurate representation of the actual value you’re getting. For example, a room night might cost the casino $50, but the retail rate could be 10 times that price on the Vegas Strip.
Let’s take a look at the Las Vegas Strip area and downtown casinos, since that’s where most tourists stay. Again, these figures reflect the casinos’ cost, not the retail value.
Comp Breakdown Comparison
Vegas Strip area casinos are typically more expensive than those elsewhere, so don’t get tied up with the dollar figures. The percentage of comp expenses paints an interesting picture.
Las Vegas Strip (~$3.0B total comp value)
- Rooms: $1,716,006,653 — 57.0%
- Food: $586,505,707 — 19.5%
- Beverage: $574,656,754 — 19.1%
- Other: $124,907,437 — 4.2%
Downtown (~$162.8M total comp value)
- Rooms: $64,102,590 — 39.4%
- Food: $28,247,944 — 17.4%
- Beverage: $57,705,430 — 35.4%
- Other: $12,768,653 — 7.8%
Comp rooms are always at the top of the list for visitors looking to save money when visiting Las Vegas. It also shows the difference between the two touristy areas of Las Vegas.
The majority of tourists stay at hotels on and around the Las Vegas Strip. It makes sense that room comp expenses account for a larger share there than downtown, which attracts more locals visiting throughout the week.
Caesars often touts occupancy rates of 95% or higher. While the company doesn’t disclose how many of those occupied rooms are complimentary, the Gaming Abstract shows that room comps remain one of the industry’s largest promotional expenses. This could be an easy expense for Tilman Fertitta to reduce when he takes over Caesars.
Another difference between the Strip and downtown casino expenses is beverages. Downtown casinos spend almost as much on comp drinks as they do on hotel rooms.
Moreover, comp drinks cost these casinos roughly twice as much as comp meals. That’s kind of amazing, but it’s not too surprising given downtown’s reputation as a popular destination to partyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. 🎉🥳
The comp expenses support what many of us see when visiting Las Vegas casinos on the Strip and downtown.
It also shows that Strip casinos devote the largest share of their comp expenses to hotel rooms, while downtown casinos spend a much larger share on beverages. This isn’t groundbreaking news, but it supports the way many TravelZork readers see Las Vegas comps.
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Marc grew up on the mean streets of the South Bronx. He's the rare combination of Yankees and Jets fan which explains his often contrarian point of view. He learned about gambling at a young age working down the street from a bookie who took action on anything from the mainstream sports to the last three digits of the purse for certain horse races. Yeah, that's a thing. Today Marc is a freelance writer and social media consultant which allows him to work anywhere there's a wifi signal. This allows him to work from the sportsbook at Red Rock Resort or the food court at The Venetian where you’ll find fast and free wifi. Writing about steak, booze, gambling and Las Vegas is a tough job but somebody has to do it.