The Strat leaned into its policy change in August, when it unveiled the hashtag #STRATselfie on its table game felt. “As social media has become more prominent in everything, Las Vegas has adjusted,” Schwartz said. It would take most people just seconds to post a fun Boomerang video of a blackjack game to Instagram.

According to a June report from Pew Research, 81 percent of Americans carry a smartphone. Of the more than 42 million people who visited Las Vegas in 2018, nearly three-quarters said they gambled, according to a report from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.Īnd it’s getting much harder for casinos to restrict their guests’ urge to post vacation updates on social media. “People didn’t always want to be seen in a casino, especially politicians.”īut Lucas said that stigma is shifting, and more people are comfortable with gambling today. “There’s historically a stigma” against gambling, he said. And casinos “really valued discretion and privacy for their customers.”Īccording to UNLV hospitality professor Anthony Lucas, others didn’t want friends and family to know they enjoyed the act of gambling itself. Players “didn’t want private investigators taking pictures and blackmailing them,” he said. Schwartz said a handful of people wanted to stay anonymous in Las Vegas - especially if they were spending the night gambling away with someone who wasn’t their spouse - and the casinos were willing to help. The no-photography rules go back to “the old days of Vegas,” back when visitors wanted their trip to “Sin City” to be kept under wraps, according to David Schwartz, an instructor in UNLV’s department of history. “Most people are just wanting to capture themselves in a fun environment, and we can’t fault them for wanting to share.”

“People want to share their lives in a manner we didn’t have access to years prior,” said Sam Garritano, director of table games at Rampart Casino at the Resort at Summerlin, which changed its unwritten photo policy as social media grew more popular. According to casino operators, this change is an easy way for the resorts to promote themselves on social media while enhancing the customer experience.

Some - like The Strat and Four Queens - promote selfies and photos taken by guests. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) getting much more difficult to make sure what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas.Ī growing number of properties across the valley have grown lax on their rules against photography on the casino floor. A screen shows the new branding for Sahara Las Vegas hotel-casino, formerly SLS Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Thursday, Aug.

Casino 99 photos