Westgate Las Vegas Ends Free Parking … Or Does It?

Posted on: February 11, 2025, 02:29h. 

Last updated on: February 11, 2025, 03:23h.

Corey Levitan Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Westgate Las Vegas, the house that Elvis built and one of the last bastions of free parking left in Las Vegas, says it’s now charging for what casino execs have come to see more as a privilege than a right. So far, however, its $10 per 24 hours of self-parking policy is limited to theory and not practice.

All Park and No Bite?

As our own Vital Vegas has discovered, three of the last free-parking dominoes to supposedly fall — Westgate, OYO and the Strat — aren’t enforcing parking payments … at least not yet.

All three resorts have farmed out the management of their garages to Metropolis Parking Services. This Nashville-based middleman adds layers of inconvenience to the equation by requiring self-parkers to scan a QR code … which links to a website/app … where bank-card information must then be entered.

However,  despite signs warning, “Enforced 24/7” and “Payment required before exiting,” neither statement is currently true.

Again, as per Vital Vegas, the gates at all three casinos will open regardless of whether a payment has been made, and none of the casinos has been reported to be towing or ticketing violators.

And that’s something you would definitely see reported on X!

Westgate Crashing

One sign at the Westgate reads: “Just drive out, we will automatically charge your account and send you a receipt.” However, as Vital Vegas again points out, how can Metropolis charge an account that you refuse to create?

This leads to speculation that perhaps Metropolis is scanning license plates and will deny entry to any scofflaws attempting to return. However, Vital Vegas doubts it, writing that even “if half of guests ignore the request for payment, that’s still a good amount of found revenue for Westgate.”

Our friends over at the Las Vegas Advisor speculate that, eventually, machines will be installed at the exits of all three properties that require the insertion of validated tickets and/or physical bank cards to lift the gates, “but for now, let your conscience be your guide.”

Even though $10 for an entire day is less than half the price charged by most Strip casinos these days, if you’re parking at Westgate — unlike at OYO or any other Strip-adjacent properties — there is no competing casino directly across the street to walk your business over to.

In case you can’t tell, we are not huge fans of forcing customers of casinos to pay in order to patronize them. And, with only a few dominoes left standing in this sad game, every one to fall becomes more significant than the last.