# Parking in Las Vegas **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049 "2016-05-17T23:42:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049/21 "2016-05-22T05:09:28Z")
May I ask where you are located? The reason I do so is that I am in Arizona where parking is most often free, even in the big cities. But in some places, like the East and West coasts, I find that people are more likely to pay for parking and accept it. The fact of the matter is that we are–for good or bad–a car-based society. I dare say that Las Vegas is not geared to the pedestrian. Phoenix definately is not. And I am not railing against all parking fees. I pay them in downtown Phoenix when there is no choice. And I agree that employees should not block customer-convenient spots. But at a casino? A line too far, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049/22 "2016-05-22T11:59:41Z")
> [@Lare](#): > > May I ask where you are located? > > The reason I do so is that I am in Arizona where parking is most often free, even in the big cities. But in some places, like the East and West coasts, I find that people are more likely to pay for parking and accept it. > > The fact of the matter is that we are–for good or bad–a car-based society. I dare say that Las Vegas is not geared to the pedestrian. Phoenix definately is not. > > And I am not railing against all parking fees. I pay them in downtown Phoenix when there is no choice. And I agree that employees should not block customer-convenient spots. But at a casino? A line too far, IMHO. I’m sure that Las Vegas in general is not geared toward pedestrians. But I’m also pretty sure that a fair amount of people will continue to visit the casinos even if there is a separate charge for parking. It may mean that people don’t go from an MGM casino to a Caesar’s casino - but the casinos don’t really want you to do that , anyway. It may mean that when I fly from NYC to Vegas , I don’t bother renting a car and therefore don’t leave the strip to go outlet shopping or to an off-property restaurant for dinner, but they don’t want you to do that either. (this is actually what I’ve been doing lately- I’ve found it’s not worth the money to rent a car when I go certain places because the only time we use it is between the airport and the hotel) And like everything else, when something is free, it really isn’t. It just means everyone pays for it whether they use it or not. Harrah’s in AC used to charge a resort fee , and a separate free for wifi. They raised the resort fee and now wifi is included. Great for the people who want and used to pay for wifi - they now pay less. Not so great for the people that didn’t, because they now pay more. Same thing for fitness centers, checked baggage and anything else that can be either charged for separately or included - if it’s free, it means everyone is paying for it whether they use it or not. It’s easier to see in some situations ( like when the fee is raised and additional services are included) and it doesn’t mean that when a charge is newly instituted the price goes down but someone’s always paying for it- the question is only whether everyone is paying or only those who use the service. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049/23 "2016-05-22T12:18:01Z")
That’s a point, unlike the accursed “resort fee” that is docked to everyone regardless of whether you use any of its alleged goods, the parking fee at least is a charge you only pay if you park. (And yet in the end everyone ended up charging the hated resort fee – the stockhoders and bankers of those who held out got on their case like “WTF are you doing leaving money on the table? We invest in you to profit not to be nice guys” ; and the people booking travel kept booking on the basis of lowest quoted room rate w/o considering the fees so being the nice guys wasn’t helping the business.) ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049/24 "2016-05-22T14:20:11Z")
Why would you rent a car just to drive around the strip? There’s the Deuce, the monorail and Uber. I’m guessing they are doing this because demand for parking is dropping, so may as well convert it into space that generates more revenue (more Casino floorspace) or at least make money off it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049/25 "2016-05-23T07:42:25Z")
> [@jjakucyk](#): > > The thing is that this “cost of doing business” is something that preferences some people over others in ways that have adverse consequences. The “casino in Vegas” situation may be a bit of an unusual case, but all the other everyday businesses like grocery stores, clothing shops, banks, offices, whatever, have this hidden subsidy given to drivers when the parking is “free.” Yes, the cost of building and maintaining those parking spaces is built into the cost of the goods and services provided, but it’s perverse in that those who take other means to get there don’t get any discount for walking, taking the bus, a taxi, or bicycling there, and the people who do that are usually poorer to boot. > > I just get irritated when I hear people whine about parking, especially a supposed lack thereof, which usually amounts to little more than laziness and entitlement. The need to price parking (or anything) comes from scarcity. Parking meters for instance aren’t about revenue generation, they’re about ensuring that people don’t park at scarce spaces in high demand locations longer than they have to, allowing for turnover that helps ensure there’s always some spots available for those who need them. The employee working at the shop for 10 hours shouldn’t be parking right out in front blocking dozens of customers for instance. There could be something similar going on in the casino garages too. When there’s no real price (a user fee) attached to a good or service, it gets abused and can cause problems that are difficult to predict or correct otherwise. Ditto what **Lare** said about many places having free parking. Making your employees park relatively far away, or behind the store, is easy enough to do. And I’ll mention that casinos on the strip, or on Fremont Street, aren’t the only ones in Vegas. There are tons of casinos scattered about with plenty of free parking. No glitzy shows or cute architectures, but casinos on the Strip wouldn’t want to drive customers to them. High rollers will obviously get parking comped anyway. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049/26 "2016-05-24T17:39:23Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Why would you rent a car just to drive around the strip? There’s the Deuce, the monorail and Uber. I’m guessing they are doing this because demand for parking is dropping, so may as well convert it into space that generates more revenue (more Casino floorspace) or at least make money off it. I wouldn’t bother renting a car in Vegas but-- and I realize this only applies to a small subset of Vegas patrons – some people do drive there. ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049/27 "2016-05-25T00:09:03Z")
I don’t rent a car to drive around the Strip. I rent to go to the job site, then out to places like Red Rocks in my off time. Well, at least I used to. I don’t have that job any more so now it would be my personal vehicle that I drove up rather than flying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parking-in-las-vegas/755049.md?page=1)