Las Vegas Casinos Grapple With Flash Floods

It's monsoon season on the Strip

Las Vegas
Flash flooding surprised gamblers earlier this week in Las Vegas.
George Rose/Getty Images

When you’re gambling in a Las Vegas casino, you might expect coins to begin pouring out of a slot machine, but the idea of water pouring onto the casino floor without an end in sight is a bit more unexpected. This week, however, several casinos on the Strip experienced exactly that β€” flash floods that turned a normal night’s recreation into a disaster in waiting.

On Thursday night at around 9:30 local time, the Los Angeles Times reported, heavy rains began to fall on the Strip. This continued for three hours, and the resulting floods put several people in need of rescue. Among the casinos affected were Circa Resort & Casino, Planet Hollywood and Caesars Palace.

The seven people requiring rescue weren’t the only ones affected by the flooding. The floods also caused flight delays, over 20 car crashes and several fires.

As you might expect, Las Vegas does not traditionally get a lot of rain in July. On average, according to National Weather Service data, the city gets just .04 inches of rain in an average July. As the Los Angeles Times notes, the rainfall in a three-hour period represented an inch of rain β€” or about one quarter of what Las Vegas can expect to receive, on average, in a normal year.

The city is currently in the midst of its monsoon season, which is scheduled to run through September.

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