As tourism slips, Reno casinos borrow from Vegas, lean into non-gaming points of interest

Don’t inform Lenore Davis that Reno isn’t a playing city. 

The San Francisco Bay Area resident nonetheless prefers Northern Nevada’s older casinos regardless of her proximity to California tribal properties.

“Honestly, I wish they had never happened,” Davis stated of her residence state’s $12 billion Indian gaming market. 

Tribal on line casino competitors has been cited as the principle trigger behind Reno’s total gaming income decline, which has sunk by greater than 12 % since 2000 and led to the closure of older casinos together with the Sundowner and Golden Phoenix. 

A brand new wave of Northern California tribal casino expansion this yr despatched up the warning flag to Reno gaming operators. However, by way of the primary eight months of 2025, Reno gaming income is up greater than 4 % in comparison with final yr, and visitation is up nearly 2 %, whilst tourism nonetheless lags pre-pandemic site visitors.

Davis, who has been coming to Reno because the mid-Nineties, stayed at Fitzgerald’s till the resort closed in 2008, ultimately turning into the non-gaming Whitney Peak Hotel in 2014.

“We still come to Reno twice a year, staying Thursday through Sunday,” Davis stated on a Friday morning in September whereas playing on a dragon-themed slot machine on the principle flooring of the getting older CalNeva Casino.

But loyal clients akin to Davis have gotten rarer, difficult a Reno market that’s far more depending on gaming as a part of its income combine than the Strip. To counter the development, inspiration is coming from the Las Vegas playbook. 

Two tasks to revive getting older resorts within the downtown space are underway, and the event of a ten,000-seat sports activities area 3 miles east of Virginia Street is indicative of how non-gaming companies are serving to increase operators’ backside strains. 

Over the subsequent few years, billions of {dollars} will likely be spent to create massive leisure venues whereas including eating places, bar enhancements, nightlife points of interest and transformed resort rooms.

For Jacobs Entertainment CEO Jeff Jacobs, who rebranded the Sands Regency into the J Resort in 2023 and opened a 20,000-capacity pageant grounds — a block south of the hotel-casino — non-gaming choices are one of the best ways to develop Northern Nevada’s prospects. By the time he’s performed, Jacobs expects to spend greater than $1 billion to create an arts and leisure district that can embody eight sq. blocks in downtown Reno. 

“Rather than going head to head with the existing big boxes in a mature market, we’ve decided to grow with non-gaming amenities that will attract non-gaming customers,” Jacobs stated in an interview. “We’re focused on driving room nights, whether they’re gamers or not, until we build up our book of business.”

Reno casinos are nonetheless far more depending on gaming income than their Strip counterparts.

According to the Gaming Control Board’s annual Gaming Abstract, which measures all types of income generated throughout a fiscal yr, Strip resorts in 2024 collected whole income of $21.9 billion. Gaming accounted for $5.7 billion of the general determine — 26 %. That identical yr, Reno resorts collected $1.5 billion in whole income, with $647.9 million coming from gaming — 43 %.

Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve stated in an interview Friday that she has lengthy sought financial diversification for town, however she by no means realized how a lot gaming income carried the general load. 

She stated new builders coming into Northern Nevada are bringing alongside a broader imaginative and prescient.

“You would see in a portfolio the arts and culture and food and tourism. It’s all these different sectors,” Schieve stated. “That’s really now what’s happening. You have these outside visions that I think see the potential that maybe a lot of people missed for many years.”

Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Mike Larragueta hopes Reno can mirror the Las Vegas mannequin. He stated a renewed effort to reopen the historic Harrah’s Reno as a non-gaming resort and workplace advanced would take away a blight on the middle of downtown, adjoining to the Reno Arch.

Harrah’s Reno closed in 2020. An effort to rebrand the constructing because the non-gaming Reno City Center collapsed in 2022 when the homeowners filed for Chapter 11  

“The Harrah’s property is a big footprint, and having a chain link fence around a major property like that in the heart of your city is not digitally appealing,” Larragueta stated. “A city’s center is always going to be a draw for visitors.”

Meanwhile, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport is greater than 18 months right into a 10-year, $1 billion growth venture and skilled its busiest month in 20 years throughout August with greater than 489,000 passengers. The airport served 4.8 million passengers in 2024, its highest site visitors rely in practically twenty years.

But the most important splash got here Tuesday, when Grand Sierra Resort broke floor on its $435 million, 10,000-seat sports activities and leisure area that’s anticipated to be the primary part of a $1 billion redevelopment of the two,000-room hotel-casino. 

The area, which is able to change into the house courtroom for the Nevada Wolfpack males’s basketball workforce and is receiving public funding, is predicted to attract headline entertainers and different sporting occasions which have usually bypassed Reno. But the two-year growth gained’t embrace an growth to Grand Sierra’s on line casino flooring.

“The arena will create more demand for the entire Reno market,” Grand Sierra General Manager Shannon Keel stated in an interview earlier than the groundbreaking. “If our property is full and we can’t sell any additional rooms, that’s going to be a win-win for our competitors to fill their rooms.”

Reviving town’s middle 

Mark Huse, who oversees operations of Caesars Entertainment’s three downtown Reno resorts, generally known as The Row — Eldorado, Silver Legacy and Circus Circus — stated the corporate views the brand new tasks not as competitors, however as welcome additions to the market.

As with many properties within the Caesars chain, The Row has elevated its non-gaming facilities, including Gordon Ramsay-branded eating places along with long-established eating places, akin to La Strada and Brew Brothers on the Eldorado. The resort and eating places have been launched by the Carano household, who took control of Caesars in a $17.3 billion acquisition in July 2020.

“We have a lot of customers who come here for different reasons,” Huse stated. “It’s all about creating options. Our customers have discretionary dollars and we need to help them decide how to spend them.” 

The former Harrah’s Reno was bought this yr by Boise, Idaho-based Ahlquist Commercial Real Estate Development and has been rebranded as Revival Reno, turning the property’s former room towers into a mixture of boutique resort and workplace area.

In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal in July, Ahlquist CEO Tommy Ahlquist stated he was splitting the venture into completely different items with completely different homeowners chargeable for growth. 

“It gives you tons of flexibility,” he stated.

Last month, Las Vegas-based hospitality operator Fine Entertainment announced it could remodel 180,000 sq. toes of property close to the Reno Arch into greater than half a dozen eating places, taverns and nightlife points of interest. 

Fine officers declined to touch upon the venture. The firm will add a number of manufacturers which are well-known in Las Vegas, together with PKWY Tavern and The George Sportsmen’s Lounge, whose unique location is a part of the Durango Casino Resort’s sportsbook.

Huse stated Caesars’ three casinos would profit from the foot site visitors from Revival, particularly from the workplace and resort elements. The Row operates a mixed 4,060 rooms, 225,000 sq. toes of on line casino area, and 50 eating places, bars and lounges.

“We have different entertainment choices, and we think that works well with the changing building across the street,” Huse stated. 

A sports activities area for Reno

Two years in the past, Grand Sierra proprietor Alex Meruelo introduced {that a} sports activities area could be the centerpiece of a deliberate $1 billion venture for the hotel-casino, which sits on 150 acres. The property, constructed by gaming pioneer Kirk Kerkorian, opened in 1978 because the MGM Grand Reno. 

The venue noticed opposition from a number of Reno resort operators earlier this yr when Grand Sierra sought public financing from town by way of tax increment financing (TIF) to pay for a portion of the world’s growth prices. Critics don’t take into account the world blighted sufficient to qualify for the financing, and a few say TIF preparations might be overly opaque and hold tax {dollars} away from municipal governments, which nonetheless have to supply providers to the area. 

The naysayers quieted as soon as town accepted an estimated $68.1 million in funding. Jacobs stated he was the one native on line casino operator that didn’t oppose the general public financing.

“I’ve done a lot of urban development. I know how difficult it is,” Jacobs stated. “I think it’s good for the market to have a 10,000-seat arena.”

Grand Sierra officers touted renewed help for the venue final Tuesday. The firm stated greater than 500 attended the groundbreaking for the 300,000-square-foot venue within the Grand Sierra parking zone. The preliminary two-year building will embrace a 2,800-space parking storage, a group ice middle and a central plaza connecting the world with the resort. 

As a part of the general plans, which embrace an expanded aquatic golf facility and worker housing, Grand Sierra may add a brand new resort tower sooner or later.

The area, which can have suites and hospitality golf equipment, is predicted to be prepared for the 2027 faculty basketball season. Nevada college students who attend the video games through buses from the college can have a chosen entrance. 

Keel stated Grand Sierra plans to rent an skilled common supervisor to function the world, which is predicted to host 95 occasions yearly. The venue is predicted to draw entertainers and sports activities contests that lengthy bypassed Reno as a result of there wasn’t an acceptable venue out there.

“We’ve looked at our property in a way that we have something for every customer,” Keel stated. “There are so many different options that we can bring to the property.”

Nevada Athletic Director Stephanie Rempe stated in an interview earlier than the groundbreaking that the world may very well be a ticket to internet hosting NCAA March Madness first and second spherical regional playoff video games.   

“Ticket sales logistics and the division of proceeds with Grand Sierra are still being finalized,” Rempe stated. “It’s hard to determine what it will cost to play in the arena. We’re working with GSR to make sure we’re all on the same page as we move forward. This is a win-win for the school and the resort.”

Decades within the making

Jacobs stated he first bought the thought for creating an arts and leisure district for Reno whereas working the Gold Dust West Casino close to downtown. He spent 5 years shopping for and demolishing roughly 80 downtrodden properties, making a location for the district that goals to attract each locals and vacationers, though the trouble has drawn protests from activists who say it’s eliminating a number of the few residences accessible to a number of the metropolis’s poorest residents. 

Schieve credited Jacobs with paying for the removing of buildings that have been “long past their shelf life,” and transferring the residents to extra appropriate situations. She defended Jacobs 17 months ago when the matter got here up throughout a Reno City Council assembly.

“It’s always been a challenging property,” Schieve stated of the world that bordered a lot of Jacobs’ hotel-casino. “Now we finally have a developer who has a proven track record. If you go look at his existing projects, they are phenomenal. I think that gives you a benchmark and an idea of who can make a project happen.” 

Jacobs accomplished the same entertainment-type venture in Cleveland 40 years in the past with the identical objective as Reno — to draw guests and locals again to downtown.

The outside pageant grounds are a part of the Reno Neon Line that features greater than a half-mile of lighted sculptures, a lot of which have been constructed for Burning Man.

“We also have works created for us by internationally acclaimed artists, including two new pieces to be installed in the Spring with our north expansion opening,” Jacobs stated.

The rework of the 700-room J Resort is continuous with a brand new entrance and extra facilities. 

“Most of our customers are local,” Jacobs stated. “I’ve been reluctant to do heavy marketing in the Bay Area until I have a front door.” 

He added that the growth needs to be full by summer season 2026. 

Once the J Resort growth is full, Jacobs will focus consideration on a $300 million growth to his on line casino in Black Hawk, Colorado, earlier than persevering with work on the J Resort, together with a brand new convention area, an indoor/outside pool, a spa and extra resort rooms.

Positive indicators on the gaming entrance

Larragueta stated any growth in Reno, be it a brand new venture or the renovation of an older location, is sweet for the group. The guests authority stated the market has averaged greater than 3.8 million annual guests over the previous 4 years because the pandemic decimated the journey trade in 2020. However, within the 4 years previous, Reno averaged 4.2 million guests. 

Stephen Ascuaga grew up in Northern Nevada gaming. His late father, John Ascuaga, based the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, rising the small property into a well-liked resort that catered to guests and locals.

Now working as the company director of enterprise growth for the privately owned Peppermill Hotel & Casino, Ascuaga outlined the quite a few renovations and expansions the South Virginia Street on line casino has undertaken through the years. The property has grown from a small espresso store within the Seventies to a vacation spot hotel-casino with greater than 1,600 rooms, 10 eating places and greater than 100,000 sq. toes of conference area. 

Despite turning into considered one of Reno’s bigger resorts, Ascuaga stated the shopper base continues to hold a neighborhood taste.

“We’re always a mix of tourists and locals. On most weekdays, our customers are 60 percent local,” Ascuaga stated. “On weekends, it’s flipped the other way. That’s a reason why we’ve added amenities, such as a spa and the pool area. We’re a regional draw. People come to get away.”

Ascuaga stated Peppermill operators “are big fans of what Jeff has done at J Resort” and imagine the Grand Sierra area will increase enterprise all through the Reno market.

“Northern Nevada has diversified, and it’s taken time,” he stated. “Honestly, we all want a healthy downtown Reno.”