The 2025 Las Vegas economy is not on the same roll that it was in recent years, coming out of the worst of the pandemic. This has implications for the entire U.S. economy, especially places that also depend on visitors who are willing and able to spend discretionary income. When things are uncertain, among the first places people pull back on spending is travel and hotel stays. That means if there are signs of this happening, Vegas will like feel it first — and intensely.

Ray Lujan is a native Las Vegan who’s been working in food service for decades. He’s a member of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, and he’s also in real estate. This is all to say he’s got a front-row view of the city’s economic pulse. He spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio during a recent reporting trip to Las Vegas. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Ray Lujan: I work in a fine dining restaurant. So a couple of days a week, it seems a lot slower, a lot slower. I know my brother is a bellman at one of the top hotels in town, and he's seen the traffic just been cut down tremendously as well. So we've been talking about that.

David Brancaccio: What are you and your brother seeing? Like, who's not showing up who was showing up?

Lujan: Well, how do I put this? We have — the hotel that I worked at — big Latin conventions, right? Big, like, promoters. Promoters come in. Canceled. Just canceled the events. We have another event that comes. It's like the Irish, and it's a big convention. And the people that show up, they've come back year after year, so get to know them. You're like, “Hey, how you doing?” And then, “What happened to the other guy?” They said, “No, they canceled, because they're upset (about) Donald Trump's tariffs and the way they're being talked about,” right?

Brancaccio: And you also have this crackdown on immigration, so some people feel not as comfortable just getting on the road and crossing state lines.

Lujan: I work with a guy that I worked with for over 30 years that was deported. He got picked up at the airport. He had an incident over 25 years ago, right? He got all cleared up through the courts, but I guess there was something at the end — like didn't make a court appearance, probation. There was some little part of it — got deported back to Mexico. I have another bus boy that I work with, his wife — he's a citizen, but his wife is from Mexico. She had a baby here, and then I guess she went in to go get checked or something, and they swooped her up and deported her back. So he had to leave for four months, and leave the restaurant for four months, pay his rent here in town, and go back to Mexico, get her all set up, you know, to make sure she was healthy, make sure everything's OK. And these are the people that are getting rounded up.

Brancaccio: You have no problem with a criminal who is not a citizen getting deported after prison time.

Lujan: That's the guy you're supposed to be sending back, right? Those are the people. Hey, listen, I'm all for it, right? But the mom that just had a kid, a guy that's worked here 30 years in the States, I mean, what's going on?

Brancaccio: These are very intense personal stories about families. Do you think that immigration crackdown is affecting the wider economy here in Las Vegas?

Lujan: I have a lot of friends in the real estate and what happens if somebody gets swooped up? He just walks away from his property. He just walks right away from it, right? He's not going to pay rent on it. Or if he gets swooped up, maybe he’s a lawn maintenance guy, maybe he's a dishwasher in a restaurant or something, not a criminal, paying his bills. So that affects the economy.

Brancaccio: What about you? If there are fewer people coming in, fewer tips, are there some things you can't buy that you might have bought?

Lujan: It cuts down on my travel. You know, I'm at an age where I like to travel, right?

Brancaccio: So your discretionary income, right? You have to make the decision that other people make to come to Vegas. Maybe you want to go somewhere else.

Lujan: Yes, exactly, exactly. Or you want to take the kids to Disneyland, right? Used to take the kids Disneyland every year. And now you have to say, “Well, I took them to Disneyland, I took them to Legoland, I took them to Universal Studios.” And now I say, “Well, maybe we get to do one.”

Brancaccio: So what's the secret to success in your line of work?

Lujan: Don't gamble. (laughs)

Brancaccio: I'm on your side on that. You don't drift over to the machines?

Lujan: No. I mean, if somebody comes into town, I will go and take them around a little bit, and I'll play a poker machine. But no, I'm not, that's just not something that I do.