Resorts World Las Vegas Eliminates All Free Parking

Posted on: May 24, 2024, 10:12h. 

Last updated on: May 24, 2024, 10:24h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas.

Resorts World announced on Thursday the end of free parking even for its rewards club members. As of June 1, only club members who have attained a new “Elite Tier” status or above can park without paying.

Resorts World’s parking garages, once free for all to use, are now a perk of spending at the property. (Image: vegasfoodandfun.com)

Elite requires players to earn 3,000 tier credits from dining, shopping, or gambling at Resorts World.

For all non-Elites, self-parking will cost a flat $18.

When the glitzy $4.3 billion integrated resort, owned and operated by Malaysia-based Genting Group, opened on the Strip’s unhappening north end in June 2021, it promised perpetual free parking to all.

Resorts World broke that promise two years later, reserving free parking only for patrons enrolled in its Genting Rewards loyalty program, regardless of their spending record with the property.

Final 4

As of June 1, the only Las Vegas resorts to still offer free parking will be TI, Circus Circus, Casino Royale, and the Sahara.

The Sahara’s parking is still free. For now. (Image: KSNV-TV/Las Vegas)

However, upgrades to the Sahara’s two garages earlier this month, which, according to the resort’s website added “the latest technology to improve your safety and experience,” have cast doubt on how much longer this will be the case.

The Sahara’s website now reads that parking is free “for hotel and property guests.” This suggests that the aforementioned new technology may have been installed to prevent people from parking there to visit the adjacent Wynn and Encore, which only offers free parking for three hours to anyone not registered at their hotels.

In case you’re not keeping count, the last time we updated the list of Strip resorts with free parking, it included the Tropicana, which is currently being demolished. The next time, Casino Royale may also go the same way, since plans are being made to replace it with a 699-foot tower.

Free self-parking also remains available on the Strip at the Fashion Show Mall and the Shoppes at Mandalay Palace. Aria’s Shops at Crystals also offers free valet parking.

A bank of parking ticket machines at New York-New York on the Las Vegas Strip. MGM Resorts, New York-New York’s owner, became the first Las Vegas resort chain to charge for parking in 2016. (Image: travelzork.com)

Fee For All

Free parking was a staple of the Strip from the day it began until 2016. That was the year MGM, which operates the Bellagio, Aria, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Park MGM, Mirage, New York-New York, Luxor, and Excalibur, became the first casino company on the charge for the Strip tradition.

For a year or two, most competitors kept their self-parking free as a selling point. Eventually, all caved. Longtime holdouts Wynn and Encore finally relented last year, blaming pressure from The Sphere.

That you once parked for free at all Las Vegas Strip casinos will be a story you tell your grandchildren one day, just like the stories you tell them about drinking in them for free and (if you’re old enough), once getting your room comped because you gambled $100.