Caesars Entertainment to Bring Back Parking Charges This Month

Caesars Entertainment has announced parking charges are going to be reinstated at Las Vegas Strip properties.

For decades, one of the perks to traveling to Las Vegas was the free parking. Casino resorts offered free parking for many years, which was a benefit to travelers as they were already planning on spending funds to gamble, dine, on hotel stays and other entertainment. Parking fees were eventually brought in my big operators as a way to control the traffic flow into their facilities. When casinos shut down in March due to coronavirus and reopened in June, some decided to suspend parking fees, including Caesars Entertainment. This was done to bring in visitors. Now, the operator has announced parking fees are coming back, being reimplemented on October 30.

Parking Changes

Caesars Entertainment made the announcement this week that rates will be back in place by the end of the month. Free self-parking will still be offered, but only to Nevada residents, guests of the hotel and Caesars Rewards members who have Platinum or higher status. To reach this level, players must have 4,000 credits or more.

Tom Reeg, the CEO of Caesars Entertainment, commented on the change by stating that the updated policy will allow the company to take care of their best customers, the locals, hotel guests and members of Caesars Rewards. The change will provide such individuals with better access to properties in Las Vegas as they stay and play.

Any profits that are generated from the parking fees will be donated to charities. The charities selected will be those that support team members of Caesars and the local communities in need.

When the change to free parking was made starting in January 2016, it caused a huge issue in the region. Players were not happy about having to pay to park, when they had done so for free for so many years. This charge on top of new resorts fees were too much for some people and tourism dropped. Now, it seems the parking fees might be needed to stop unruly behavior from taking place at gambling facilities.

Why the Change?

It has been suggested that the change is being made due to the violence in the area. The Las Vegas Strip has been plagued with shootings and other violent activity for the past few weeks. Since early June, police have been handling calls involving robberies, shootings and assaults.

Analysts suggests that cheap hotel rates have brought in an unruly crowd and some resorts are combating this thought by increasing room rates. Wynn Resorts was the most recent operator to do this.

Dori Koren, the Metro Police Department Captain, spoke with the Clark County Board of Commissioners, stating that the parking fees may be Caesars way of telling people who are not coming to the area to gamble and dine that they are not welcome.

Non-residents who travel to the region and try to park at the Caesars Entertainment properties, will have to pay to park, unless they meet the Platinum rewards tier criteria of the rewards program. For one to four hours of parking, the cost is $12. For up to 24 hours, the cost is $15. The Flamingo, Bally’s Casino, Paris, Caesars Palace and Harrah’s are all part of this new charge.

It will be interesting to see if the change will have a positive or negative impact on the Caesars properties. Will players be safer as certain people avoid paying for parking? Or will the criminal activity continue as the parking fees are not too high to pay for? Only time will tell if this was a smart decision by the gaming operator or if it will backfire and cause visitor numbers to decrease.