LAS VEGAS — For the gaming and tourism industries, news will be a mixed bag coming up in 2026.

The construction outlook is weak — but the city could still have its best convention year in history.

Air passenger traffic is down — but Harry Reid International Airport officials are still planning ahead for more airport gates as well its long-term goal of building a new reliever airport south of the city.

In the gaming industry, regulators are looking at tweaking rules on notifying the Nevada Gaming Control Board if someone on the state’s List of Excluded Persons tries to enter a casino. Meanwhile, a longtime member of the list, also known as the Black Book, is trying to become the first person ever removed from the list while still alive.

And regulators are also girding for a court battle as prediction markets continue to try to take action on sports outcomes, a practice regulators believe to be taking bets on sports without a license.

It’s unclear how sports wagering would change if courts rule in favor of the prediction markets.

Local resorts added around 1,276 hotel rooms in 2025, most of them nongaming destinations. The most visible addition: AC Hotel Symphony Park, near the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas, a 322-room high-rise.

The only substantial gaming property to add rooms was Henderson’s M Resort, which added a 384-room tower in December.

Few new hotels in ’26

Next year, there are even fewer additions planned, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Delta Hotels by Marriott is due to open a 284-room property on West Flamingo Road in February; the 149-room Courtyard by Marriott South is planned at Las Vegas Boulevard South and Wigwam Avenue in June; the 119-room TownePlace Suites Southwest at West Sunset Road and South Jones Boulevard is due in October; and 175 rooms are planned at Hylo Park sometime in 2026 at the site of the former Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho in North Las Vegas.

Casino companies dedicated most of their capital budgets to renovations and refreshes in 2025 and the same is ahead for 2026. In 2025, updates were made at MGM Grand, The Venetian, Rio and Orleans; next year, upgrades are scheduled at Palazzo.

The next major Strip project isn’t due until 2027, when Hard Rock International finishes off its overhaul of the former Mirage property.

Conventions are coming

Despite the lack of projects, group business and conventions and trade shows should be robust in 2026 as the Las Vegas Convention Center opens its three refurbished exhibition halls up to the standards set by the $1 billion West Hall.

Construction crews have been working the better part of the last two years to bring the North, Central and South halls up to West Hall levels. When CES arrives in January, it will be the first trade show to take advantage of the upgraded convention digs, enhanced with new wayfinding technology, information screens and a new all-weather corridor enabling conventioneers to walk to and from exhibit halls without having to go outdoors.

The $600 million upgrade will enable the Las Vegas Convention Center to host more shows with the entire 2.5 million square feet of exhibit space available for the first time.

Airport’s future

Although passenger traffic was down at Reid International in 2025, airport officials are gearing for the future.

As of October, passenger traffic was down 5.1 percent to 46.3 million at Reid with domestic traffic down 5.2 percent and international off 4.5 percent. Full 2025 statistics aren’t expected to be released until the end of January.

Construction is expected to continue in 2026 with the addition of 26 new gates in Terminal 1. Construction crews already have begun upgrading access at the airport with new escalators being installed near baggage claim and one of the first phases of expansion won’t affect operations at the airport because they’ll occur in a part of the airport that is unoccupied. A new wing of gates is being extended to the area formerly operated as the old Terminal 2 international and charter terminal.

Airport officials plan to modify transportation around Reid’s terminals by building roads designed to prevent bypass traffic from mixing with interterminal movements.

Reid also is improving the airport experience with the addition of airport lounges.

Southwest Airlines, the busiest commercial carrier at Reid, already has announced a strategy of developing new airport lounges around the country and within the C gates, where most Southwest flights arrive and depart, JPMorgan Chase & Co. in December opened a two-story Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club in the C gates.

Reid’s expansion and renovation isn’t the only project on the Clark County Department of Aviation’s plate.

Work will continue in 2026 on an environmental impact statement and a resource management plan amendment for the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport planned about 35 miles south of Las Vegas in the Ivanpah Valley east of Interstate 15.

Federal Aviation Administration project manager David Kessler is overseeing reports by the FAA, the Bureau of Land Management and Clark County for the new airport.

Much of the research and investigative work will occur in 2026, but it won’t be made public and become the subject of public hearings until 2027.

Gaming regs, court cases

The gaming industry, rocked with scandals and money-laundering violations in 2025, is making efforts to tweak regulations involving the List of Excluded Persons.

While regulators mull over Excluded Persons matters, a bigger issue involving sports betting remains in front of them.

Court rulings, possibly as high up as the U.S. Supreme Court, await regulators in several states because of legal confrontations with prediction markets.

KalshiEx LLC in March sued Control Board and Commission members that have attempted to block it from conducting business in the state.

Kalshi contends that its offering of sports prediction contracts is allowable because it is overseen by the federal Commodities Futures Trading Commission, that it says outweighs all state gaming regulations.

Nevada regulators contend that Kalshi and companies like it must be licensed for sports betting in order to offer sports prediction contracts.

Courts across the country are hearing arguments from prediction market companies and state gaming regulators.

In Nevada, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Gordon dissolved a preliminary injunction that had allowed Kalshi to offer sports contracts until the case was decided in court. While Control Board Chairman Mike Dreitzer said the board had reached agreements in principle with Robinhood and crypto.com to cease operations in the state pending a court hearing, Kalshi said it would continue to operate in Nevada as it appeals Gordon’s ruling.

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