- 1 day ago
Watch Sin City The Real Las Vegas () free Season 1 Episode 1 online in HD on Dailymotion (2026).
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
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?
05:50Right.
05:51I would say upwards to a million-dollar day.
05:55It's the feminine energy
05:57Feminine energy
06:02Feminine energy
06:04Feminine energy
06:06Feminine energy
06:07Feminine energy
06:08Feminine energy
06:09There's a lot of people drinking, a lot of people dancing, it's completely packed, and it's a place to have
06:16fun.
06:26Dayclubs like this have helped Vegas generate $16 billion a year in revenue from entertainment and hospitality.
06:49Gambling still has its place though, and is worth more than $5 billion a year, but that's had a facelift
06:57too.
07:01These modern slot machines are designed to appeal to a younger crowd.
07:08I want $159!
07:11Gone are the buckets of coins.
07:14Now 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, so it's easy to see how in a few seconds, with a few clicks, you can
07:34lose 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.
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. Hi. 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, and that is who really are
09:28the 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.
11:08Hi, 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 were 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.
11:40And I remember waking up in my room about seven to eight hours later in a panic mode, just coming
11:46out of 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, I'm pretty sure we were drugged at the
11:57pool party.
11:58Thankfully, one of the lifeguards, he noticed that we had gotten separated, and she was being super intoxicated, like falling
12:04over, and the lifeguard just pulled her out.
12:07She was with two other men at the time.
12:09That's really, really scary.
12:11They ambulanced her to the local hospital, so I couldn't imagine, you know, how scared she was waking up in
12:18a 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 were carrying him in with him in the middle and walking around, you know, with wiggly legs, and then
12:48showed 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.
13:13So we ended up not going and filling 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, you're in Vegas, you know, what do you expect? You 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, so they posted about it
13:44online.
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.
13:57We 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 drinks 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, who are on call for
15:22nearly 3 million residents and over 40 million visitors a year.
15:26Hi, 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. We're going to go out and wait for calls for service.
15:52It'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, whether 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.
16:57Her 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.
17:24We just got alerted that there's a female who is possibly overdosing in her car.
17:32I 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 seem falling blue.
17:47She's hungry, bud.
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.
18:14They're hungry.
18:15Absolutely awful.
18:20T. 301 in route.
18:21Do you need those or just this?
18:22This is definitely the side of Vegas
18:24that you don't really realize exists
18:26until you see it yourself.
18:29Your heart rate of one of 124.
18:33All right, I marked your Narcant, both of them,
18:36on your monitor as a generic event.
18:45Well done.
18:48What happened?
18:49Do you want?
18:49Some kind of narcotic.
18:52Um, I'm not 100% sure.
18:54I mean, we can speculate that maybe she overdosed on something.
18:58Um, you know, the signs point to it.
18:59The fact that we gave her Narcan,
19:00she started to wake up with the Narcan,
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 OK? So she is, yeah.
19:16It was quite shocking to me, I think,
19:17when I came to Vegas, I had a perception
19:20that it was going to be, you know,
19:22this glamorous, fun, glitzy place,
19:25and I'm slowly starting to learn that,
19:29you know, there's a bit of an underbelly.
19:31There's definitely a dark underside of Vegas
19:33that most people, uh, you know, don't see.
19:44Just two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal.
19:48If, as Sam says, drugs like cocaine
19:50are frequently being cut with it,
19:52that's something I need to look into.
19:55Hello. Hi. Hi.
19:57Melanie Rouse is the Clarke County Coroner.
20:00She investigates drug deaths in Vegas
20:02and works on an opiate task force,
20:06assessing the impact of drug abuse
20:08in and around the city.
20:10When we first started seeing fentanyl in the market,
20:14we started seeing it adulterated drugs.
20:16So people would purchase one drug
20:18and end up with fentanyl in it,
20:20which ended up being fatal.
20:22A lot of tourists, do they come here,
20:24they buy drugs,
20:25and it ends up that there's fentanyl in their drugs?
20:28Is that something that you've seen before?
20:29We have seen that.
20:30Um, typically what you will find
20:32is that people that are purchasing drugs here
20:35may not know exactly what they are getting.
20:37We see what is commonly called M30s.
20:40So those are pills designed
20:41to look exactly like morphine tablets look,
20:44but really they're fake pressed
20:46and they contain fentanyl.
20:48You're also gonna see those in Xanitabs.
20:50They look just like a Xanax bar,
20:52but they often contain fentanyl.
20:53And then you also have methamphetamine
20:55that is often adulterated with fentanyl.
20:58What we've now seen is a shift
21:00where fentanyl has become people's drug of choice.
21:02So people are actually going out
21:04and seeking to use fentanyl,
21:05knowing that it's a dangerous substance
21:07and knowing that it can cause death.
21:09Does that tend to be tourists
21:11or people who live in Vegas?
21:12I would say it's a combination of both populations.
21:15So it is people that reside here
21:16as well as people that come here
21:18and seek to obtain drugs.
21:20We had over 600 opiate-related fatalities
21:23that occurred from October of 23 to August of 24.
21:28Compared to the rest of the states in the US,
21:30how does Vegas rank in terms of drug-related deaths?
21:34What we're experiencing across the country
21:35seems to be a decline in drug-related fatalities.
21:39Unfortunately, that's not a trend
21:41that we're seeing here in Southern Nevada.
21:43Ours is still increasing.
21:55I want to find out just how widespread
21:57the use of drugs are on the party scene.
22:02Willem is a former club promoter...
22:04Hi, nice to meet you.
22:07..who knows more than most about the darker side
22:09to partying in the city.
22:12Is the demand quite high in Vegas, would you say, for drugs?
22:16Absolutely.
22:17Mm-hm. Yeah.
22:19Vegas is an interesting place because of our tourism.
22:22For some years, I was a strip club promoter.
22:25OK.
22:25So I was sending groups to the strip club.
22:28And, you know, if you had a group of ten guys
22:30that 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,
22:38depending 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.
22:45The Australians, really?
22:46That surprises me. Yeah.
22:48What about the Brits?
22:49The Brits? Um, yeah, definitely.
22:52The Brits... Yeah.
22:53They, um... They like cocaine.
22:56Yeah. There's... There's a lot of drugs here.
22:58Mm-hm. Yeah.
23:02Willem's own struggle with drugs
23:04began as it has for millions of Americans,
23:07when 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? Mm-hm.
23:33What sort of drugs were you selling,
23:35if you don't mind me asking?
23:36Heroin, meth, um, cocaine, ecstasy, Xanax.
23:43I would sell to friends, other people that were in my circle
23:46that were using, um, and then, yeah, tourists.
23:52I've been sober for, uh, two years now.
23:55How long were you using for, would you say?
23:58For over... over 20 years.
24:01I got to Vegas when I was a sophomore in high school,
24:04and I was addicted by the time I was a senior, so, 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 this trip.
24:24So, as a teenager or a young person, drugs 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.
24:41But 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.
25:08Within about a year of starting to use fentanyl,
25:12I found myself homeless.
25:14Wow.
25:15I ended up on Las Vegas Boulevard,
25:17homeless for almost two years,
25:19a 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.
25:41Since 2021, it's been the leading cause of death
25:45for Americans aged between 18 and 45.
25:49In Vegas, fentanyl's impact is 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.
26:04We are literally just steps away from the tourist corridor.
26:08You know, Mandalay Bay is right across the street.
26:10This 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 of my addiction.
26:26We got arrested here multiple times.
26:29We watched people overdose,
26:31saved some people from overdosing here.
26:35With how dangerous fentanyl is,
26:37and for those types of drugs to 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 are 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.
27:22A 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 Bowe's boxing gym offers support to young residents of Vegas.
27:35Drugs 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.
27:45Anybody recognize this?
27:46What's this, guys?
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, it's fentanyl.
27:56This killed one of our kids.
27:58Had everything going for him.
28:01Starts like this,
28:02and it ends like the poor homeless people that you see outside everywhere.
28:05The choices that you're going to make over the next couple years are going to be critical.
28:09You need help?
28:10Come 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, can't move because they're off the fentanyl.
28:56Nothing good comes, it 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, making good choices so they have
29:20a 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.
29:40Poverty is a risk factor for overdoses from opioids like fentanyl.
29:45Despite the billions of dollars pouring in on the strip, one in eight Vegas residents live below the poverty line.
29:5220% 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, and I just gave up in life completely.
30:12I sobered up eight years ago from everything and I chose this gym because Coach Bo, he does stuff for
30:18troubled kids that I didn't have.
30:20I watched my best friend overdose in front of me when I was 15, he was 14 off of Xanax
30:24pills.
30:25We fell asleep and we woke up and he was blue, blue to the face.
30:28I'm so sorry, that must have been really hard.
30:31A lot of the kids you've seen that were here went 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, which 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 so 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, they get to live their lives peacefully while we're out here trying to
31:02survive.
31:03And a lot of kids are suffering because of it.
31:08Put your hands in, let's go.
31:10One, two, three.
31:12Go 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, supports charities and runs foundations set up to benefit local communities.
31:39But with drug deaths rising, it's clear the city still has big challenges to overcome.
32:02Round the clock parties and global music stars aren't the only big plays Las Vegas has made to attract new
32:09visitors.
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.
32:25As a kid, I dreamed about these moments and 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.
32:36The return of the notorious Conor McGregor in Las Vegas and Nevada.
32:41Boxing.
32:42This is the biggest fight in a decade.
32:44And even ice hockey.
32:46You wouldn't call Vegas a traditional hockey market, but the building's filled with fans every night.
32:51In less than ten years, Vegas has gone from having no professional sports teams.
32:56Go Knights, go!
32:58To becoming a host for some of the world's biggest sporting events.
33:04Which 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.
33:33Welcome to Circa.
33:34There's a lot to look at, right?
33:39This is a three-storey, thousand capacity venue.
33:43Facing a huge 145 foot wide screen.
33:47That broadcast 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.
34:01We've been operating six years here.
34:04We've seen our sports business really expand exponentially over that time 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,
34:31the 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.
34:47Obviously 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.
35:07So obviously that's a big increasing market.
35:09We see the influence of folks that came from playing daily fantasy sports, like fantasy football,
35:14now converting into sports bettors.
35:17And by mixing sports with the city's pool party culture,
35:21Circa have created what has to be the most glamorous bookies 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?
36:04I 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.
36:30Slicker 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 Minnick 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 got another half a million here.
38:31We're looking at roughly nine and a half million.
38:35This 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 Ty.
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.
39:45I love debauchery.
39:46I love, like, chaos.
39:47And so you came to Vegas.
39:49You started gambling.
39:50Were 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.
40:05They would give me helicopter rides anywhere I wanted.
40:08They gave me a Maybach with a chauffeur.
40:09They 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 the table as long as possible.
40:23The casinos do a lot of things.
40:25Some are obvious and some aren't.
40:27There's no clocks.
40:28They are constantly keeping the temperature cold to keep people awake.
40:31Give you free alcohol to keep everybody making bad moral decisions.
40:36If 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.
41:20And now I'm banned at almost every casino in the world.
41:23Is that legal?
41:24Is 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.
41:50So 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.
42:35There's 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.
42:48And 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.
43:16I'm getting north of the city.
43:18There's a lot of people.
43:24I have to keep them in.
43:25There's noFiers.
43:25So we're going to have to keep us up and know us.
43:26It's just a very interesting thing.
43:26In my opinion that's just a small area where we are in the city.
43:26It's going to be a small area where it's like we're going to make it.
43:27I'm going to go outside.
43:27And I'm going to go outside.
43:29You're going outside.
43:33I'm going to go outside.
43:36But I'm going to go outside.
43:36I'm going to be outside.
43:37What are you going to do?
Comments