{"id":385191,"date":"2026-01-01T18:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385191\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T18:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:11:15","slug":"are-ozempic-and-glp-1-drugs-draining-las-vegas-thrill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385191\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Ozempic and GLP-1 drugs draining Las Vegas’ thrill?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rising usage of GLP-1<\/a> medications among Americans is well-documented as people turn to them to lose weight. A recent post<\/a> from billionaire Matthew Prince has garnered attention for his claim that drugs like Ozempic are contributing to a decline in visitors to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Prince believes those drugs kill addictive and indulgent behaviors, essentially everything that gave Sin City its famous nickname.<\/p>\n

An expert Straight Arrow News spoke with said that the theory is certainly possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how much these drugs are impacting, specifically, Las Vegas, but the concept I agree with,\u201d Dr. Eduardo Grunvald, medical director at the University of California, San Diego Center for Advanced Weight Management, told SAN.<\/p>\n

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How GLP-1s work<\/p>\n

Drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy were clinically approved to treat Type 2 diabetes. However, people and pharmaceutical companies began to realize that these drugs can help people lose weight.<\/p>\n

In essence, these drugs help make you feel full and less hungry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really what these hormones, these drugs are doing,\u201d Grunvald said. \u201cThey are making you feel that sense of satiety for prolonged periods of time, and hence you eat less and lose weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

A study<\/a> earlier this year showed those same drugs could even mitigate alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n

Grunvald said the same way the drugs prevent indulgent eating, they could be doing the same for other addictions. Not just by curbing the initial want but also the satisfactory \u201creward\u201d feeling people get afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose same systems are also hijacked when you have addictive behaviors, right?\u201d Grunvald said. \u201cSo, whether it be alcohol or drugs or less common things like gambling, right? All those behaviors give you a reward. And what we think is happening is that because you\u2019re suppressing those same systems in the brain, you get, number one, less desire for those things, and also less reward from those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grunvald said he\u2019s seen it in his patients, especially with alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat my patients tell me is that they just lose that desire to have that drink, or even if they do drink, they don\u2019t have the same intensity of that reward from drinking alcohol,\u201d Grunvald said.<\/p>\n

Vegas tourism decline<\/p>\n

While there are no direct studies linking the use of GLP-1s to behaviors in Las Vegas, there is plenty of data on the decline of Vegas tourism.<\/p>\n

Flight passengers to Vegas decli<\/a>n<\/a>ed<\/a> 10% in November despite the city hosting the Grand Prix. That marked the 10th straight month of declining numbers at the airport.<\/p>\n

Occupancy at Vegas hotels dropped<\/a> dramatically in the summer months, showing the largest dips of any top 25 market in the U.S.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of theories<\/a> on why the numbers are dropping so significantly, including Prince\u2019s thought that indulgence-curbing drugs are part of the decline.<\/p>\n

Other possible concerns include rising prices and resort fees in the city, along with ongoing inflation and worries about the overall economy.<\/p>\n

International visitation numbers are also down significantly, potentially in part due to the Trump administration\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

GLP-1s and Vegas<\/p>\n

There\u2019s currently a thread<\/a> on TripAdvisor titled \u201cEnjoying Vegas when your GLP-1 medications kill the thrill.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original poster said his GLP-1 medications have taken away the desire to gamble, drink and smoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas anyone else experienced this?\u201d the poster wrote. \u201cI\u2019m way too young to spend all my free time in my hotel room returning emails. The bright side: My A1C looks great and I\u2019ve lost 100lbs. Just looking for tips on how to bring the Vegas magic back when the things I once loved are no longer appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The short answer to that poster\u2019s question is yes.<\/p>\n

The thread received numerous responses from people experiencing the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe side effect of taking away joy in things I was once passionate about (like Vegas) has been an adjustment,\u201d another post reads.<\/p>\n

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Vegas, of course, relies<\/a> heavily on gambling, drinking and eating for revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese drugs are going to \u2014 in some people, not everybody \u2014 going to affect the drive to partake in those behaviors,\u201d Grunvald said.<\/p>\n

As the usage of these medications continues to increase and the government works<\/a> to make them more affordable, further studies will be required to see how much it\u2019s impacting Sin City.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether that affects other things like gambling and the other sinful behaviors that we think of with Las Vegas, that I think remains to be determined,\u201d Grunvald said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rising usage of GLP-1 medications among Americans is well-documented as people turn to them to lose weight.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-385191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}