Short Form Documentary Tackles Big Las Vegas Questions
A new short form documentary from digital media outlet More Perfect Union grapples with some of the biggest Las Vegas questions: Why has tourism dipped? Is there anything to the “Vegas is dead” narrative? Why is F1 ruining Las Vegas? WTF is a “K-shaped economy”?
Who better to answer these questions than a chef, a rideshare driver, an Elvis impersonator and, frankly, us?
So many questions, yet so little sharing of the documentary so far, probably to fluff up our story. Look, this blog is still free, so just deal with it.
The new documentary, already racking up an impressive number of views on YouTube, is hosted by affable everyman (and producer) John Russell.
We spent about six hours chatting with Russell at Ellis Island’s new rooftop patio and somehow managed to never once say anything about his mullet, mostly because we didn’t want to be edited out of the documentary.
Oh, all right, here it is.
The video is very well done and touches upon a number of subjects that have dominated the Las Vegas conversation for months.
The 7% visitation dip in 2025, while gambling revenue went up a smidge, has “experts” baffled, mostly because they aren’t really experts; they are hacks. Many are just repeating headlines they’ve read from journalists who are also, often, hacks, who are repeating what they’ve heard from news releases written by public relations people. Public relations people are absolutely not hacks because we hope to be invited to media events again someday, especially if they involve meeting singer Dua Lipa.
Fun fact: “Dua” means “love” in Albanian. “Lipa” means “lemon tree.” This is one of those fun facts where, whenever you hear the name Dua Lipa, you will not be able to avoid thinking about Dua Lipa in a fond embrace with a lemon tree.
The situation in Las Vegas is actually quite nuanced, and opinions vary widely about why our town is facing its current challenges.
High prices are mentioned often, but that’s a red herring. Economic uncertainty, misguided decisions by the federal government and commoditization (the availability of legal gambling across the country, along with the ease of wagering online) are the real culprits.
As mentioned in the documentary, we blame F1.
The ultimate message is things are changing in America, and as America goes, so goes Las Vegas.
The sky isn’t falling, but Las Vegas needs to address the issues it can address in a more serious way. Token gestures aren’t going to move the needle or shift public perception.
The big casino companies in Las Vegas have painted themselves into a corner (for example, they don’t own their land or buildings anymore, and rents and labor costs aren’t going down), and they need to find a way out.
Catering more to high-end customers makes sense to a degree, as one whale is worth 1,000 visitors who are buying their booze at Walgreens. Please don’t do that; it’s not classy. Which, by the way, was one of the most controversial opinions we’ve posted in 2026 for some reason. The most controversial: Tip.
But that K-shaped customer strategy doesn’t feel like a sustainable business model. Las Vegas has a lot of rooms to fill. Las Vegas has always bent over (sometimes backwards) for affluent visitors, but there was always a place for the rest of us.
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Big thanks to More Perfect Union, “an Emmy-winning, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to build power for working people,” for inviting us to take part in their documentary.
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