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Watch Sin City The Real Las Vegas () free Season 1 Episode 1 online in HD on Dailymotion (2026).
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00:00So, I have a bit of a surprise for you.
00:02It's not that green limo, is it?
00:05That sexy green hump, it's not there.
00:07It's all for you.
00:16Woo!
00:18Las Vegas, a neon playground in the middle of a desert
00:22in the US state of Nevada.
00:26Known as Sin City,
00:27this has long been a place for gamblers chasing their luck.
00:315.7 million and some change.
00:35And tourists from around the world
00:37seeking shameless adult-only fun.
00:42But times changed.
00:44Visitors lost interest in gambling.
00:47Vegas needed a new look.
00:50Pool parties, DJs, concert venues
00:54and huge sports events
00:56now make up New Vegas.
01:00Almost three-quarters of the many billions of dollars
01:03pouring into the city
01:04are now spent on entertainment and hospitality.
01:08I'm Tia Dondi and I've come to investigate
01:11how this fresh new image is changing Las Vegas
01:14for those heading here to party.
01:15Welcome to the world's largest sports book.
01:18I have never seen anything like this.
01:21And to find out how the Vegas update
01:24has affected people who live and work here.
01:27She wasn't breathing.
01:28Are we trying to wake her up?
01:29Do we know what drug she's on?
01:30Oh my gosh.
01:31I remember just coming out of a complete blackness.
01:34They came and ran through my room
01:36and took what they wanted.
01:38In Sin City, the stakes are high.
01:41Who's holding all the cards?
01:43And at what cost?
01:44What is the city doing
01:46in the middle of this desert?
01:47It's exclusively built on losers' money.
01:50It's like the Hunger Games, basically.
01:52That's how we live here in Vegas.
01:54It's the casino owners and the celebrities.
01:57They get to live their lives peacefully
01:59while we're out here trying to survive.
02:11I'm with fellow Brit, Joel,
02:12in a limo on the Las Vegas Strip.
02:15I love this job.
02:17You've got loads of accessories.
02:18You've got...
02:19Yeah, the money gun over there.
02:20The money gun.
02:21Yeah. Can I use it?
02:22Yeah, of course. Shoot.
02:23Can I just...
02:23There we go.
02:25That's really fun, I'm not going to lie.
02:28You've got all the alcohol.
02:29Sometimes girls on here as well.
02:31Whatever you need.
02:31Really?
02:32Yeah, of course.
02:33There's no place like Vegas.
02:34I was working in central London.
02:37I had a friend who offered me a roll
02:38to sell party bus tickets in the Vegas Strip.
02:42I decided to quit my job,
02:44book a one-way ticket,
02:45and, yeah, the rest is history.
02:47When was that?
02:48That was ten years ago now.
02:51As a VIP party promoter,
02:53Joel is the perfect person to tell me
02:55how Vegas and its visitors are changing.
02:59We had some big clients in last year.
03:01One of my favourite ones,
03:02they were adult entertainment stars.
03:04We had topless bartenders,
03:06we had a DJ in there,
03:08we had a naked sushi table.
03:10The next day,
03:11they then hired a helicopter
03:12with a machine gun outside
03:13and we went and shot some targets
03:15in the desert up on a mountain.
03:16What?
03:17Yeah.
03:17Anything's possible in Vegas.
03:19That's quite surprising.
03:20I keep hearing about this new Vegas.
03:23Can you tell me a little bit about it?
03:24There's definitely been a rise
03:26of new pool parties,
03:27new nightclubs rising
03:29and then a lot of sports franchises
03:31which have popped up
03:32and it's attracted a lot of the Brits
03:33because, obviously,
03:34the Brits love sport.
03:35People tend to come to me
03:37and lean on me for my experience.
03:38They go, what would you recommend?
03:40And, honestly,
03:40the pool parties and the partying
03:41is number one at the minute for me.
03:43Really?
03:43That's what everyone come here for.
03:47In the past,
03:48gambling was what attracted most visitors.
03:52But traditional gaming revenue
03:54has been falling.
03:56To appeal to a new generation,
04:00the casino resorts have gone all out
04:02on entertainment.
04:10Before they open to tourists,
04:12I'm visiting a day club on the Strip
04:14that hosts pool parties.
04:16Hi, nice to meet you.
04:18Hello.
04:18Nice to meet you too.
04:19I'm Tyr.
04:20Jamil.
04:20What a place to work.
04:22Oh, man.
04:22It's a beautiful place.
04:24Every day is a party.
04:26Right now we're on our mezzanine
04:28and this is where our cabanas are staged.
04:31So are these sort of VIP booths?
04:33We get a lot of VIPs in here.
04:34Really?
04:35They range anywhere from 3 to 5K,
04:37just really depending on the day.
04:40Have you seen the party scene in Vegas change over time?
04:43Well, the beach clubs,
04:43they definitely have grown.
04:46My clientele ranges from, you know,
04:49athletes, actors, businessmen and women
04:52to your everyday party goers.
04:54So really the clientele here is people with money.
04:58Yeah, you'll see a lot of those guys.
05:05The average price of our day beds go anywhere from $500 to $2,000.
05:14It just really depends on what event is going on in town.
05:17And then if you really want to, you know, spend some money,
05:21we have our bungalows.
05:22You have your own waitress, your own TV, your own dipping pool,
05:28so you don't have to join the mass crowd that, you know,
05:32this pool brings.
05:33On a big holiday weekend,
05:35these bungalows can actually go upwards to $20,000.
05:40That's expensive, I would say.
05:41Yeah.
05:42For me anyway.
05:43Yeah, you'd be surprised at how many of those we actually sell.
05:46Do you have a rough idea of how much money a pool party can generate?
05:50I would say upwards to a million-dollar day.
06:09A lot of people drinking, a lot of people dancing, it's completely packed and it's a place to have fun.
06:26Dayclubs like this have helped Vegas generate 16 billion dollars a year in revenue from entertainment and hospitality.
06:48Gambling still has its place though and is worth more than 5 billion dollars a year.
06:55But that's had a facelift too.
07:01These modern slot machines are designed to appeal to a younger crowd.
07:08I want 159 dollars!
07:11Gone are the buckets of coins. Now you can pay through cashless mobile apps.
07:18Something research shows makes it easier to spend more money than intended.
07:25I lost. Now I only have 10 cents.
07:28All my money's gone.
07:30So it's easy to see how in a few seconds, with a few clicks, you can lose it all.
07:46At one time, the casino resorts were controlled by local businessmen and the Mafia.
07:51Much of New Vegas, though, is owned and operated by two corporate giants, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts.
08:02In Nevada, there is no income tax to fund services like roads or hospitals.
08:08Instead, the state is run largely on money from the casinos.
08:14A tax on the cash we spend partying and gambling is what props the city up.
08:20In 2024, these taxes added up to 1.2 billion dollars.
08:27The Las Vegas police are funded by the local authorities, but they get most of their money from property taxes
08:34paid by, you've guessed it, the casino owners.
08:39Hi, Brian, it's Tiff. I'm just outside the Plaza Hotel.
08:43I'd like to know how these huge taxes affect the power balance in the city.
08:47Hi.
08:48Hi. Pleasure to meet you.
08:50Brian Joseph is an investigative journalist who lives in Las Vegas and has written a book exposing a darker side
08:57to the city.
08:59How important are the casinos in Vegas?
09:01It's very well recognized in this town that the casinos are the most important thing here.
09:07The way that the state supports itself is primarily through casino revenues and the most important casinos are the ones
09:13on the strip.
09:14So you could definitely argue that the entire economy of the state is dependent on those few miles of the
09:19strip and it being continually a money generator.
09:22The rule of mob bosses has led to the rule of the casino bosses.
09:26And that is who really are the power players here.
09:29There are elected politicians. There are various administrators.
09:34They pale in comparison to the people who run the casinos.
09:37It's their money. It's their campaign donations.
09:39Without the support of casino leadership, you know, you're not going to move far in this town politically.
09:44As in, if you don't have the support of casinos, you're not going to be able to run for mayor
09:50or...?
09:50You're not going to win. You can run. I mean, this is the United States. You can always run, but
09:54you're not going to win.
09:55That's actually crazy to me that casinos can have such a stronghold over a place.
09:59Do you think that this new Vegas is sort of cleaning up its act?
10:03Vegas has a reputation to maintain as a place that tourists want to come.
10:08And so as a result, there's an incentive to sweep some rather unappealing things under the rug.
10:14And that all reflects the fact that Vegas is trying to maintain its image.
10:24And that image is threatened by criminal activity.
10:29I've seen a notice sent to the casinos in June 2025 from the Gaming Control Board and the Las Vegas
10:36Metro Police.
10:38It outlines their potential concerns over drug dealing, violence, sexual assault, theft and other crimes happening at pool parties and
10:47nightclubs.
10:48They acknowledge proactive steps taken to prevent incidents, but threaten disciplinary action for venues with persistent problems.
10:59They say they want to protect Nevada's reputation as a safe and enjoyable tourist destination.
11:07Hi, Josh. Thank you so much for meeting me today.
11:11Josh claims he was a victim of a crime at a hotel on the Strip.
11:17We thought, hey, let's go to a pool party, let's see some live music, you know, have some fun.
11:24We're just finishing our first drink.
11:28Music's playing, starting to get a little busier, and I start to feel a little woozy.
11:36And then that's when things went south.
11:40I remember waking up in my room about seven to eight hours later in a panic mode, just coming out
11:46of a complete blackness, not knowing where my stuff is.
11:49What happened to your girlfriend?
11:51She finally calls like, hey, I woke up in the hospital bed.
11:55I'm pretty sure we were drugged at the pool party.
11:58Thankfully, one of the lifeguards, he noticed that we had gotten separated and she was being super intoxicated, like falling
12:04over.
12:04And the lifeguard just pulled her out. She was with two other men at the time.
12:09That's really, really scary.
12:11They ambulanced her to the local hospital.
12:14So I couldn't imagine, you know, how scared she was waking up in a cot in the hallway.
12:21Josh's father, Ralph, was also in Vegas with him.
12:26They asked the hotel if there was any CCTV of Josh returning that evening.
12:32The cameras captured him being walked to the hotel by two women he didn't recognise.
12:39I was like slumped over in between both of them.
12:43They're carrying him in with him in the middle and walking around, you know, with wiggly legs.
12:48And then showed him go into the room and then came out like four and a half minutes later.
12:53So you were robbed by these two women?
12:55Yes. I had some clothes missing, some cash.
12:59They came and, you know, ran through my room and took what they wanted.
13:02And you could see their faces in the CCTV?
13:04Yes, yes.
13:05That sort of thing could be used and brought to the police.
13:08They said they weren't able to release it to us.
13:11They just let us see it. So we ended up not going and feeling out an actual police report.
13:17Really? Why?
13:18They say that police, they just mark it up as a typical day in Vegas that they don't take it
13:24that serious.
13:25They're just like, oh, you're in Vegas, you know, what do you expect?
13:28You know, there's really nothing you can do.
13:30And did you ever get in touch with the hotel that was holding the pool party?
13:34Yeah, they declined to comment.
13:37The family were frustrated and felt that the incident was being swept under the carpet.
13:42So they posted about it online.
13:45After this experience, I did get a lot of people sharing their same similar story.
13:53Oh, wow.
13:54Oh, yeah, they're novels.
13:56A similar thing happened to my friend.
13:58We know who drugged us.
14:00There was a group of several guys involved.
14:02It was a very organised operation.
14:05Another gentleman was out here for his 21st birthday and they got his bank account for $3,000.
14:11You know, one lady woke up at the hospital and all of her gold and jewellery were gone.
14:15It's so scary.
14:17It was.
14:18It's really scary.
14:20We asked the Las Vegas Metro Police if they had any data on the number of drink spiking reports they
14:26receive.
14:29But they declined to comment.
14:34We also put the issues raised in this documentary to the Nevada Resort Association.
14:41But no one responded to our letter.
14:59As a city known for its party scene, Las Vegas is no stranger to illegal drugs like cocaine and MDMA.
15:08And while these can lead to overdoses and even death, there's a much more dangerous drug in the mix, too.
15:15I'm heading out with Guardian Elite, a private ambulance team supporting the city's emergency services,
15:21who are on call for nearly 3 million residents and over 40 million visitors a year.
15:27Hi, Sam. Nice to meet you. I'm here.
15:29Hey, Sam.
15:30We've got our medical gear. We've got a monitor.
15:32They're on the front line of a fentanyl epidemic, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent and deadly than heroin,
15:40and hitting American cities like Las Vegas hard.
15:44We're going to go into downtown Las Vegas.
15:46We're going to go out and wait for calls for service.
15:51It's 361. I'll be available for the day.
15:59A call happens here in Vegas probably every 30 seconds.
16:03Every 30 seconds?
16:04Yeah. As a city, we respond to several hundred thousand calls for service every year.
16:08So do you guys work alongside the 911 ambulance services?
16:12You know, sometimes the 911 system gets so overloaded that they have to call us in for backup.
16:19Sam's also carrying medicine called Narcan, which reverses the effect of an opioid overdose.
16:29Do you see a lot of drug overdoses here?
16:33We do. I mean, Vegas is a very party town, so we'll see a lot of alcohol issues, a lot
16:39of drug issues.
16:40You know, one of the problems with drugs that we find here is that, you know, you may think you're
16:45doing something,
16:45whether it be ecstasy or cocaine, but a lot of times these drugs are cut with something else.
16:52I recently had a case where we were called to evaluate a female at a festival, became unresponsive.
16:58Her friend told us she was doing cocaine, but typically cocaine won't do that to you.
17:02We also woke her up with some Narcan, and so we highly suspected that the cocaine was laced with fentanyl.
17:07That's terrifying.
17:11As the sun starts to set, we'll start seeing the downtown area start coming alive.
17:15Right now is the busy time where we tend to see more call volume.
17:23Please break engine one fire defense.
17:25We just got alerted that there's a female who is possibly overdosing in her car.
17:33I hope she's okay.
17:37Just up here.
17:38I feel it's that car right there.
17:40We're the first at the scene.
17:41Oh, my gosh.
17:42Hey, what's going on?
17:43She wasn't breathing.
17:44Are we trying to wake her up?
17:45Her lips have fallen blue.
17:47She's on 35.
17:48I know what it look like.
17:50Okay, she's got a pulse.
17:52Do we know what drug she's on?
17:58Yeah, she's got a pulse, not breathing.
18:01She's cyanotic, apneic.
18:03She's got pinpoint pupils.
18:05Wake up.
18:14It's absolutely awful.
18:22This is definitely the side of Vegas that you don't really realize exists until you see it yourself.
18:29Your heart rate of 124.
18:33All right, I marked your NARCAMP, both of them, on your monitor as a generic event.
18:43Copy.
18:46Well done.
18:48What happened?
18:50Some kind of narcotic.
18:53I'm not 100% sure.
18:54I mean, we can speculate that maybe she overdosed on something.
18:58You know, the signs point to it.
18:59The fact that we gave her NARCAM.
19:00She started to wake up with the NARCAM.
19:02The fact that she had pinpoint pupils.
19:04She had, you know, cyanotic lips.
19:06Possibly heroin, possibly fentanyl.
19:08But we didn't find any drugs in the car.
19:10She didn't have the needle in her arm.
19:11So we really don't know.
19:13Is she breathing now?
19:14Is she okay?
19:14She is, yeah.
19:15Yeah.
19:16It was quite shocking to me.
19:17I think when I came to Vegas, I had a perception that it was going to be, you know, this
19:23glamorous,
19:24fun, glitzy place.
19:25And I'm slowly starting to learn that, you know, there's a bit of an underbelly.
19:32There's definitely a dark underside of Vegas that most people, you know, don't see.
19:44Just two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal.
19:48If, as Sam says, drugs like cocaine are frequently being cut with it, that's something I need to look into.
19:55Hello.
19:57Melanie Rouse is the Clark County Coroner.
20:00She investigates drug deaths in Vegas.
20:03And works on an opiate task force, assessing the impact of drug abuse in and around the city.
20:10When we first started seeing fentanyl in the market, we started seeing it adulterated drugs.
20:16So people would purchase one drug and end up with fentanyl in it, which ended up being fatal.
20:22A lot of tourists, do they come here, they buy drugs, and it ends up that there's fentanyl in their
20:27drugs?
20:28Is that something that you've seen before?
20:29We have seen that.
20:31Typically, what you will find is that people that are purchasing drugs here may not know exactly what they are
20:37getting.
20:37We see what is commonly called M30s.
20:40So those are pills designed to look exactly like morphine tablets look.
20:44But really, they're fake pressed and they contain fentanyl.
20:48You're also going to see those in Xanitabs.
20:50They look just like a Xanax bar, but they often contain fentanyl.
20:53And then you also have methamphetamine that is often adulterated with fentanyl.
20:58What we've now seen is a shift where fentanyl has become people's drug of choice.
21:02So people are actually going out and seeking to use fentanyl,
21:05knowing that it's a dangerous substance and knowing that it can cause death.
21:09Does that tend to be tourists or people who live in Vegas?
21:12I would say it's a combination of both populations.
21:15So it is people that reside here as well as people that come here and seek to obtain drugs.
21:19We had over 600 opiate-related fatalities that occurred from October of 23 to August of 24.
21:28Compared to the rest of the states in the US, how does Vegas rank in terms of drug-related deaths?
21:33What we're experiencing across the country seems to be a decline in drug-related fatalities.
21:39Unfortunately, that's not a trend that we're seeing here in southern Nevada.
21:43Ours is still increasing.
21:55I want to find out just how widespread the use of drugs are on the party scene.
22:02Willem is a former club promoter.
22:04Hi! Nice to meet you.
22:06Nice to meet you.
22:07Who knows more than most about the darker side to partying in the city.
22:12Is the demand quite high in Vegas, would you say, for drugs?
22:16Absolutely. Yeah.
22:18Vegas is an interesting place because of our tourism.
22:22For some years, I was a strip club promoter.
22:25Okay.
22:25So I was sending groups to the strip club.
22:28And, you know, if you had a group of ten guys that wanted to go to the strip club,
22:32they're going to party, you know what I mean?
22:34So the tourists are willing to pay a lot of money for the drugs,
22:37depending on what part of the world they come from.
22:40Was there, like, a particular kind of group that stood out?
22:43Australian bachelor parties, yeah.
22:44The Australians, really? That surprises me.
22:48Yeah.
22:48What about the Brits?
22:49The Brits? Yeah, definitely.
22:52Yeah.
22:53They like cocaine.
22:56Yeah.
22:57There's a lot of drugs here.
22:58Yeah.
23:02Willem's own struggle with drugs
23:04began as it has for millions of Americans
23:06when he was prescribed opiate painkillers by his doctor.
23:13This city has been a rollercoaster for me personally.
23:17I became addicted to heroin.
23:19And when you develop a habit that's costing you $1,000 a day,
23:24usually selling drugs is the best option, unfortunately.
23:29So I used to sell drugs here in Vegas.
23:32Did you?
23:32Mm-hmm.
23:33What sort of drugs were you selling, if you don't mind me asking?
23:35Heroin, meth, cocaine, ecstasy, Xanax.
23:43I would sell to friends,
23:44other people that were in my circle that were using.
23:48And then, yeah, tourists.
23:52I've been sober for two years now.
23:55How long were you using for, would you say?
23:58For over 20 years.
24:00I got to Vegas when I was a sophomore in high school,
24:04and I was addicted by the time I was a senior.
24:07So, yeah.
24:09Would you say that it's quite easy
24:10to get addicted to drugs in Vegas?
24:12Have you seen that happen to a lot of people?
24:14It's easy to get addicted to drugs anywhere.
24:16But with the amount of tourism that we have
24:18and the amount of money that flows through the city,
24:20there is a higher demand for drugs on the strip.
24:24So, as a teenager or a young person,
24:27drugs are an issue here.
24:30Willem says he never sold fentanyl,
24:32but its arrival in Vegas turned his life upside down.
24:38There's a fentanyl issue across America.
24:42But Vegas definitely got hit hard.
24:46It was showing up in cocaine and, you know, other drugs.
24:51People that were not intending to use fentanyl,
24:53they were OD'ing and dying.
24:56I transitioned from heroin to fentanyl in 2019, 2020.
25:02I was functional on heroin for 20 years,
25:05but when I started using fentanyl,
25:07my life completely fell apart.
25:09Within about a year of starting to use fentanyl,
25:12I found myself homeless.
25:13Wow.
25:15I ended up on Las Vegas Boulevard homeless
25:17for almost two years, year and a half, two years.
25:26There's a lot of low points over a 25-year addiction.
25:32This was definitely one of my low points.
25:36America's opioid crisis kills tens of thousands of people a year.
25:40Since 2021, it's been the leading cause of death
25:45for Americans aged between 18 and 45.
25:49In Vegas, fentanyl's impact has felt across the city,
25:53even around the glitz and glamour of the Strip.
25:57We are just off Las Vegas Boulevard at the Diamond Inn Motel.
26:03We are literally just steps away from the tourist corridor.
26:08You know, Mandalay Bay is right across the street.
26:11This was a convenient place to buy and use drugs, you know,
26:15that was right next to where, you know,
26:18you could easily go and make money.
26:21This is where I spent the majority of the last couple of years
26:26of my addiction, got arrested here multiple times,
26:29watched people overdose,
26:30saved some people from overdosing here.
26:35With how dangerous fentanyl is and for those types of drugs
26:39to be in such close proximity to the tourists,
26:43that's a dangerous combination.
26:46There's a misconception about drug addicts.
26:50The people that are out here on the streets
26:52are not terrible people.
26:54Addiction is a monster.
26:56Society has kind of brushed them aside.
27:09With drug deaths in Nevada rising,
27:12fentanyl clearly poses a massive problem for the city.
27:17I'd like to know what life's like for young people growing up here.
27:22The champion is willing to do what no one else is willing to do.
27:26That means keeping my mind, body and spirit clean.
27:28As well as physical training,
27:31Steve Bow's boxing gym offers support to young residents of Vegas.
27:35Are drugs and alcohol good for you guys?
27:37No, Coach!
27:38We've lost two kids in the last few months, right,
27:42to fentanyl overdose and they have died.
27:44Anybody recognize this?
27:46What's this, guys?
27:47Vapes!
27:48It's a vape.
27:49What are drug dealers doing with vapes?
27:50You want to guess?
27:52Make it all color and shine.
27:53You don't know what's in here.
27:54I'll tell you.
27:55It's fentanyl.
27:56This killed one of our kids.
27:58Had everything going for him.
28:00Starts like this and ends like the poor homeless people
28:03that you see outside everywhere.
28:05The choices that you're going to make over the next couple years
28:08are going to be critical.
28:09If you need help, come talk to me.
28:12Talk to your parents.
28:13We're here.
28:14I'm a counselor, man.
28:15You're upset and depressed.
28:16You know what you do?
28:17You come hit the bags as hard as you can.
28:20Are you ready?
28:21Yes, Coach!
28:22Let's go!
28:23Hit those bags right now.
28:24Go!
28:36What do you know about how dangerous fentanyl is?
28:39Fentanyl is probably the most dangerous drug there is.
28:41Have you seen a lot of people taking it?
28:43Yeah.
28:43People die.
28:47You walk down the street, you'll see people just sitting just stiff,
28:50can't move because they're off the fentanyl.
28:56Nothing good comes...
28:57It tore up my family.
28:58Really?
28:59Fentanyl tore up my family.
29:00My uncle passed away from that.
29:02That's not me, you know?
29:03I want to stay away from that and I want to make something of myself.
29:11It really helped a lot of kids.
29:13Introduce them to boxing, talk about good grades, staying away from drugs and alcohol,
29:19making good choices so they have a good life.
29:20So it's almost like a boxing rehabilitation program.
29:25Yes, that's exactly what it is.
29:26I would say 90% of my job is counselling and mentoring.
29:30I'm not trying to find a champion boxer, I'm trying to find champion people.
29:36Make sure you get those hands up, I'm coming.
29:39Beautiful.
29:41Poverty is a risk factor for overdoses from opioids like fentanyl.
29:46Despite the billions of dollars pouring in on the strip,
29:49one in eight Vegas residents live below the poverty line,
29:5320% higher than the national average.
29:58As a 15-year-old, it was easy for me to go get a firearm, a pistol.
30:01As a 15-year-old, then it was for me to go get a job.
30:03Is that something that you did?
30:04Yes.
30:05I went down the wrong path.
30:07I went into the streets, did drugs, alcohol, the party life,
30:10and I just gave up in life completely.
30:12I sobered up eight years ago from everything,
30:14and I chose this gym because Coach Bo,
30:17he does stuff for troubled kids that I didn't have.
30:20I watched my best friend overdose in front of me when I was 15.
30:23He was 14 off of Xanax pills.
30:25We fell asleep and we woke up and he was blue.
30:27Blue to the face.
30:28I'm so sorry, that must have been really hard.
30:32A lot of the kids you've seen that were here
30:33went through similar things as me.
30:35That's how it is here in Vegas.
30:36Either we're losing a friend from gang violence to prison to overdosing.
30:40I think people have a perception of Vegas,
30:42which is that it's very glamorous.
30:45There's a lot of glitz, there's a lot of money pumped into it.
30:47They like to focus everything into the entertainment
30:50so they can bring money in.
30:52They don't care, they leave us to the side.
30:53It's like the Hunger Games, basically.
30:55That's how we live here in Vegas.
30:56It's the casino owners and the celebrities,
30:59they get to live their lives peacefully while we're out here trying to survive.
31:03And a lot of kids are suffering because of it.
31:08They're ready to put your hands in, let's go.
31:10One, two, three.
31:12Blow boxing!
31:13Excellent class today, guys.
31:14You gave me chills, man.
31:16Appreciate your hard work.
31:18Incredible young people.
31:26The casino industry pay billions in taxes,
31:30supports charities,
31:32and runs foundations set up to benefit local communities.
31:39But with drug deaths rising,
31:42it's clear the city still has big challenges to overcome.
32:02Round-the-clock parties and global music stars
32:05aren't the only big plays Las Vegas has made to attract new visitors.
32:12Looking forward to what's going to be great week of rugby over there.
32:16Look out, Vegas.
32:17Sport is at the heart of the city's new image.
32:21Let's do it, baby!
32:23From the Super Bowl...
32:25Bro, as a kid, I dreamed about these moments
32:27that I'm actually out here.
32:30To Formula One...
32:31The high demand for tickets has proven that this is an event no one will forget.
32:36UFC...
32:37The return of the notorious Conor McGregor in Las Vegas, Nevada.
32:41Boxing...
32:42This is the biggest fight in a decade.
32:44...and even ice hockey.
32:46You wouldn't call Vegas a traditional hockey market,
32:49but the building's filled with fans every night.
32:51In less than ten years,
32:53Vegas has gone from having no professional sports teams...
32:56Go Knights, go!
32:58...to becoming a host for some of the world's biggest sporting events.
33:04...which generate almost $2 billion a year for the city.
33:15And where there is sport, there will be a market for sports betting too.
33:20Which the casinos have embraced in full Vegas style.
33:26Circa is one of the newest in town.
33:28They say they have the world's largest sports book, or bookies.
33:32Welcome to Circa.
33:34There's a lot to look at, right?
33:40This is a three-storey, thousand-capacity venue...
33:43...facing a huge 145-foot wide screen...
33:47...that broadcasts multiple live sports from across the world.
33:53I have never seen anything like this.
33:56It's massive.
33:58Mike Palm is president of operations here.
34:02We've been operating six years here.
34:04We've seen our sports business really expand exponentially over that time...
34:08...as it's become more mainstream.
34:10It's now a big regulated industry that you have most of the casinos involved in.
34:15Would you say that sports betting has become more popular than classic gambling?
34:20I think it's different for different companies.
34:22I think table games is sort of phasing out because it's very labor-intensive.
34:27And as we continue to increase the minimum wage and the cost of healthcare...
34:31...the cost to employ a worker raises so much that it really cuts into the margin of table games.
34:37So sports, which can be done in a big setting like this, but also on our phones, right?
34:42We have these big beautiful books, but still over 80% of the bets come from mobile.
34:46Obviously, the infrastructure cost is less once you get by the tech of having to employ so many people.
34:52So I think sports is rising as table games is declining.
34:55A recent poll the American Gaming Association showed close to 60 million Americans said they placed a wager on a
35:02sporting event in the last year.
35:04That number, even five years ago, would have been 30 million.
35:06So obviously that's a big increasing market.
35:09We see the influence of folks that came from playing daily fantasy sports, like fantasy football, now converting into sports
35:16bettors.
35:17And by mixing sports with the city's pool party culture, Circa have created what has to be the most glamorous
35:24bookies in the world.
35:29Stadium Swim is a day club that's also a bookies with a 40-foot outdoor screen.
35:38It's the DJ and people are day drinking and having fun and people are in a pool and they're watching
35:43all the beautiful bodies.
35:45At the same time, the kiosks are down there to make your bets or if you have a phone account.
35:50NFL Sundays, 3,000 people up there.
35:523,000 up there?
35:54And they pay 10,000 for a cabana.
35:56Wow.
35:56They pay 5,000 for a seat in a sports book on an NFL Sunday.
35:59People say that's an outrageous price.
36:02I would say yes, but if they pay it, is it? I mean, that's what the demand is.
36:08The casino's own betting app lets visitors place bets on their phones from the poolside.
36:16Gambling on digital devices has become the norm.
36:2070% of all bets on sport in the world were made from a mobile device in 2023.
36:29Slicker tech and sports are just two ways Vegas is revamping gambling in the city.
36:36But as one in 12 Americans who bet either have or could develop a gambling problem, there's a flip side
36:43to the fun.
36:46They say in the 12-step group that I go to, there's only three options for a gambler who doesn't
36:50stop.
36:51It's prison, insanity or death.
36:53Celebrities are promoting their favourite sports book or casino everywhere you look.
36:57Rob Minick is an ex-gambling addict turned campaigner.
37:02Sports betting was his gateway to a life-changing addiction.
37:06Now, he warns others of the dangers.
37:09And I hope that you don't go down the same path that I did.
37:13When I started, I was just gambling with my friends on just fantasy football.
37:17And early on, it kind of went well.
37:19Like, there were some wins along the way, but I wanted things faster than my friends did.
37:23And I wanted more action.
37:24And within a month, I was already doing regular sports betting.
37:27And in America, that's three years underage.
37:29And I was lying about my address, my age, trying to just get as many bets in as I could.
37:34And I wouldn't stop until the middle of the night.
37:36It was a compulsion after a month.
37:39As you develop a problem, what happens is you start to isolate.
37:42And you start to lie about it to friends and family.
37:44I mean, the number of times I would run off to the bathroom to check on bets or place bets.
37:48It was incredible.
37:49And there was a certain shame to that.
37:50But I couldn't stop.
37:51Because to me, as I developed the addiction, it wasn't just about feeling adrenaline anymore.
37:57It was just about feeling okay.
37:58My brain had literally rewired itself to the point that I only cared about getting that next bet in.
38:06The Nevada Resorts Association say casinos have all signed up to the Responsible Gaming Initiative
38:12and take a proactive approach to identifying and helping problem gamblers.
38:24But what about when someone's gambling becomes a problem for the casino?
38:29We've got another half a million here.
38:31We're looking at roughly nine and a half million.
38:34This is Mickey Mace, a notorious Vegas gambler who claims to have won over $32 million.
38:43Valentine's Day, 5.7 million and some change.
38:47He helps megastars like Drake and Lil Baby win big.
38:5125 hands.
38:52Only lose one.
38:54Thanks for my man.
38:55His exploits attracted over a quarter of a million followers on social media.
39:00And at first, won the goodwill of the casinos.
39:04But he claims when he won too much, he fell out of favour with the casinos,
39:09who no longer welcome him on the strip.
39:14I've come out to the desert to meet him.
39:28Hello.
39:29How you doing?
39:30Good, thanks.
39:31How are you?
39:32Good.
39:33I'm Tyr.
39:33Nice to meet you.
39:35Mickey, what a pleasure.
39:37What did you come here for originally?
39:39I was just living the young, rich bachelor life looking for things to do.
39:43Like I love to gamble, I love debauchery, I love like chaos.
39:47And so you came to Vegas, you started gambling, were you winning big?
39:51The end of my career I was winning a net profit of a million dollars a week.
39:55A million dollars a week?
39:56Right.
39:57And how do the high rollers in Vegas live?
40:00My lifestyle as a high roller in Vegas was quite lavish.
40:04They would give me private jets, they would give me helicopter rides anywhere I wanted.
40:08They gave me a Maybach with a chauffeur, they gave me a Rolls Royce with a chauffeur.
40:11I lived for free in these private villas.
40:13Who's they?
40:14The casinos.
40:15They gave all of that to you?
40:16Correct.
40:17They'll do anything really to accommodate you staying in that building specifically at
40:21the table as long as possible.
40:23The casinos do a lot of things, some are obvious and some aren't.
40:27There's no clocks, they are constantly keeping the temperature cold to keep people awake,
40:31give you free alcohol to keep everybody making bad moral decisions.
40:35If you go into any of the casinos today, you'll see that every hallway is just slightly curved.
40:41And the reason for that is they want to subconsciously direct you to certain places to spend money or lose
40:45money.
40:46So you think that casinos are designed to help people to lose?
40:50100%.
40:50But I saw through it and I kept winning.
40:53There was a tipping point and each casino had their own threshold for financial pain.
40:58And as each one ticked away, I'd get banned one at a time from each casino.
41:02So you sort of went from being the casino's best client to not being allowed back in at all?
41:09I was actually never a good client.
41:11I was their most hopeful client.
41:13The amounts that I was winning, they assumed over long term I'd give all that money back and then some.
41:19But that never happened. And now I'm banned at almost every casino in the world.
41:23Is that legal? Is that a thing?
41:25Yeah, it's private business and they could refuse service for any reason or no reason.
41:29These casinos were built exclusively on losers.
41:31This whole city is built in the middle of the desert.
41:34As far as you can see, there's nothingness.
41:37What is the city doing in the middle of this desert?
41:41It's exclusively built on losers' money.
41:49So far in Vegas, I've seen how the casino industry have successfully transformed the city.
41:55And why this new image would be so appealing to a younger generation of tourists.
42:03But I've discovered a darker side too.
42:06How crime and the lethal drug fentanyl have infiltrated the party scene.
42:11And claims that protecting its image might be keeping the real Las Vegas under wraps.
42:17Next time, I'm going to dig a bit deeper.
42:20They don't want the violence to be known of what goes on here.
42:25This is our area bro, I told you.
42:27I discover a side of Vegas most tourists won't see.
42:31We serve 800 trays of food a day.
42:35Is someone in there?
42:36They're checking it out.
42:37I go underground to meet people living beneath the city.
42:42How do you find it living down here?
42:44Out of sight, out of mind.
42:46Out of sight, out of mind.
42:47And I find out how the city's rebrand...
42:50Like, it's not safe for us right now.
42:53...has impacted its famous sex industry.
42:56What they're doing is really pushing sex workers further underground.
42:59And that's a perfect storm.
43:02There's kind of a saying we have.
43:04People come to Vegas to kill sex workers.
43:07**clap**
43:35**
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