A locals casino is a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

designed primarily to attract residents of the area in which it was built rather than

tourists Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

or vacationers. The term is most commonly associated with casinos in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, United States, to distinguish them from casinos that target mostly tourists in a central area. Locals casinos tend to operate under slightly different business models than those frequented by tourists, most notably having lower

house advantage Games available in most casinos are commonly called casino games. In a casino game, the players gamble cash or casino chips on various possible random outcomes or combinations of outcomes. Casino games are also available in online casinos, whe ...

s. Locals casinos may also have amenities to appeal to tourists, such as lodging, truck parking, and expanded dining options. Many traditional tourist casinos have tried to appeal to locals, sometimes offering more generous comps for local residents, and providing community-oriented amenities such as shopping options and movie theaters that are the typical hallmarks of locals casinos. Due to conventions related to calculating casino revenue, the term is sometimes used generally and casually to describe any casino outside of the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...

, whether or not its primary clientele are locals or tourists or both.

Overview

Locals casinos can range from locations with fewer than 15 machines such as

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

s, bars or lounges with no lodging, to resorts that have hundreds of machines and hotels with hundreds of rooms. Larger locals casinos in the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Stat ...

include the

M Resort M Resort Spa Casino is a boutique hotel, spa, and casino in Henderson, Nevada. It is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Penn Entertainment. The property includes a casino and a 16-story tower with 390 rooms. The M Resort i ...

, South Point, Silverton, the two Arizona Charlie's casinos, all or most of the casinos owned and operated by

Boyd Gaming Boyd Gaming Corporation is an American gaming and hospitality company based in Paradise, Nevada. The company continues to be run by founder Sam Boyd's family under the management of Sam's son, Bill Boyd (born 1931), who currently serves as the ...

, and all or most of those owned and operated by

Station Casinos Station Casinos, LLC is an American hotel and casino company based in Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin South, Nevada, and founded by Frank Fertitta Jr. Station Casinos, along with Affinity Gaming, Boyd Gaming and Golden Entertainment, dominate the ...

Attracting residents

In order to attract residents to

gamble Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three eleme ...

, locals casinos try to differentiate themselves from tourist-oriented casinos to benefit gamblers. For example, locals casinos usually have a different mix of games or offer games not typically found in tourist-oriented casinos in the area, such as

bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

. Additionally, they offer

table game Table game may refer to: * Table game (casino), games of chance that are played against the casino and operated by one or more live dealers * Tables game, a class of board game that includes backgammon * Tabletop game, games that are normally play ...

s with lower minimum bets, as well as lower denomination

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s and

video poker Video poker is a casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine. History Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like moni ...

. In addition, table games rules are frequently adjusted to decrease the

and the payout percentage on slot and video poker machines is increased; locals casinos are well known for offering more full-pay video poker machines and even machines that pay more than 100%. Locals casinos will typically offer comps, such as free meals at the casino's restaurants, at a higher rate than tourist-oriented casinos. Additionally, many locals casinos have promotions such as payroll check cashing, frequently accompanied by some type of free play bonus, to get patrons into the casino. In

, this is usually expanded with special promotions to cash

tax refund A tax refund or tax rebate is a payment to the taxpayer due to the taxpayer having paid more tax than they owed. By country United States According to the Internal Revenue Service, 77% of tax returns filed in 2004 resulted in a refund check, ...

checks from the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

. Locals casinos often act as community centers and frequently include non-gambling entertainment such as

bowling alley A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a Meetinghouse, clubhous ...

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

ice skating rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

s and

child care Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

centers.

Revenue of casinos

The revenue of locals casinos in

Clark County, Nevada Clark County is located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,265,461. Most of the county population resides in the Las Vegas Census County Divisions, which hold 1,771,945 people as of the 2010 Census, across ...

, is normally calculated by taking the revenue of Clark County and subtracting the revenue of the four tourist areas (

the Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city ...

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

, Laughlin and

Mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...

). This is the only realistic calculation available since the

Nevada Gaming Commission The Nevada Gaming Commission is a Nevada state governmental agency involved in the regulation of casinos throughout the state, along with the Nevada Gaming Control Board. In 1959, the Nevada Gaming Commission ("Commission") was created by the pass ...

does not provide more detail. However, this calculation will include some properties like Gold Strike,

Hoover Dam Lodge Hoover Dam Lodge is a hotel and casino near Boulder City, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Richard Craig Estey ( Nevada Restaurant Services). It was previously the Gold Strike until it was largely destroyed by an accidental fire on June 16, 1 ...

Primm Valley Resorts Primm Valley Casino Resorts (formerly known as Primadonna Casino Resorts) is a group of three hotel-casinos in Primm, Nevada, along Interstate 15 in Nevada, Interstate 15 at the California state line. They are owned and operated by Affinity Gaming. ...

and all of the various casinos in Laughlin and

as "locals casino" even though they have many guests who are visiting the area.

Overview

Attracting residents

Revenue of casinos

References

Further reading