Each year, about 42.5 million people visit Vegas, and that number is constantly on the rise. And who can blame them? The lights, the people, the unregulated fun... all of it lends to a city with no rules that basically is a party 24/7.

However, what most people don't know is that there's a dark side of Vegas lurking beneath the lights. That's what we're here to talk about today so that you might rethink heading off to Vegas on your next vacation.

Before you read on, we want to put a few trigger warnings here. If you are triggered by rape, child abuse, domestic violence, or addiction, you may want to stop reading now. Otherwise, read on to learn more about the dark side of Sin City Las Vegas!

Addiction

While a bit of gambling is all well and good (and can in fact create a sense of community), it's an addiction that spirals out of control for many. Vegas encourages this addiction because the gambling industry is one of the largest in the state. It generates a lot of revenue, so police and local governments tend to turn a blind eye to gambling addictions.

However, gambling is by far the least destructive of all common addictions in Vegas. Alcohol addiction runs rampant in Sin City, and it puts many people on the streets as well as in abusive situations. Additionally, alcohol isn't well regulated in Vegas, which means that there are minors that drink excessively as well as adults. This, of course, leads to more intense lifelong addiction that people struggle to break.

Drug addiction is also common in Vegas. Abuse of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and other hard drugs is commonplace in Vegas. This is criminalized in ways that alcohol abuse obviously isn't, but that doesn't make it any less prevalent of an addiction. Police crack down pretty brutally on those who use drugs, though, and many of these people are abused by the authorities as well as society.

Homelessness

It's estimated that 14,000 people are homeless in Vegas at any given moment. This likely evokes images of people sleeping in bus stops and on the sides of streets, and probably comes as a surprise to you if you've visited Sin City before. You certainly saw very, very few homeless people during your time there, so where did they go?

Homeless people in Vegas are actually banned from sleeping on the streets, and crooked cops arrest them constantly and brutalize them. As a result, a huge homeless underworld exists in a place that's invisible to tourists in the flood tunnel system under the city. It's a dark and painful place to live, and diseases are easily spread there.

Basically everyone in these pipes uses hard drugs, too, and the majority of those people carry guns. As you can imagine, it's a very violent underworld.

One interesting thing to note, though, is that people in the tunnels have actually built homes for themselves there. These people furnish their spaces with actual furniture that others have left in the trash. They often also have trinkets and shelves to hold books and make their spaces feel more comfortable!

Prostitution

Prostitution has been legalized in Nevada, but that doesn't mean that the industry there doesn't exploit the women (and men) working in it. While sex work is well and good when it's consensual and the worker is enthusiastic about doing it, many people in Vegas have been forced into it because of financial situations and addiction. Worse, others have been forced into it because of pimping and human trafficking.

Many tourists who go to Vegas do so to take advantage of the legalized prostitution there. Many of them don't even know that the escorts and hookers they hire aren't consenting enthusiastically since they're trained to act excited in order to avoid abuse and punishment.

The Racist History

While racism is a prevalent issue all throughout the US, it's particularly bad in Las Vegas. This city was one of the worst during the Jim Crow era, with violence against black people at an all-time high.

Today, there's still a strong racial bias among the people in Las Vegas. Certain bars and nightclubs are especially unwelcoming to black people, who also have very little representation in the city government due to gerrymandering and other issues. Black people also constitute the majority of those on the streets due to the housing crisis, which is incredibly sad.

Terrible Tourist Behavior

Tourists come to Vegas to 'sin,' which is totally fine when they're just gambling, drinking moderately, and having consensual sex. More often than not, though, this isn't what happens.

Drunken men beat their wives in hotel rooms much more often than you'd expect, usually as "punishment" for losing money at casino games. There are also instances of tourists disrespecting hotel staff by smearing feces in hotel bathrooms (for what reason, we have no idea) and performing unspeakable acts in public areas.

There's also an inordinate amount of violence against sex workers in Vegas. Prostitutes are 60 to 100 times more likely to be murdered than women who aren't sex workers, which is a horrible statistic in and of itself. However, because of the issues with addiction and violence that Vegas has- and the high proportion of sex workers there- prostitutes have an extremely high chance of being beaten, raped, or murdered.

The Sin City: Las Vegas

While Vegas is inarguably a city of glamor and glitzy neon lights on the surface, it's the host of a much darker underworld.

Now that you know the dark side of Sin City Las Vegas, it's time to get some alternative ideas for a good time rather than taking a trip there. visit our free games section to begin playing fun casino games from the comfort of your home. There are even more games here than at a Vegas casino, so you'll still get the variety you crave! When you do gamble online, you can rest easy knowing that you aren't supporting any of the painful industries that help fund problems like addiction and sex trafficking.