A record four of my 13 Las Vegas predictions for 2025 made last December came true during the year (sort of, anyway). This is truly astonishing given my list was mainly intended as satirical social commentary.

I’ll detail the four at the end this post. But, dear reader, before you sue, please remember that clearly labeled satire like this, particularly about future events, is protected free speech under the First Amendment. This is thanks to a unanimous 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the unlikely duo of Larry Flynt and Jerry Falwell, as well as the long-standing common-law notion that predictions are nothing more than non-actionable opinion.

So straight from the New to Las Vegas world headquarters, here I go again for 2026 with another baker’s dozen.

–The famous Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas opens an exhibit on Donald J. Trump entitled, “How Extortion Plays Out in Washington, D.C.: The Biggest Crime Is What’s Legal.”

–Hot on the success of its high-tech remastering of the 1939 movie classic “The Wizard of Oz” after cutting a quarter of the original running time, the Las Vegas Sphere announces plans for a re-do of another famous 1939 film, “Gone with The Wind.” To allow for more daily showings, the original 3½-hour running time is chopped nearly in half by paring scenes and dialogue, such as Rhett Butler’s famous final line down to simply, “Frankly,” and some of Scarlett O’Hara’s many pouts.

–Circulation of the Las Vegas Review-Journal continues to drop, reaching its lowest point since Howard Hughes began buying up mob-controlled Strip casinos in 1967.

–In a bold move characteristic of his brilliant business career making him the planet’s richest person, Elon Musk suddenly announces his Boring Co. tunneling project under Las Vegas is switching from low-margin transportation of tourists to high-margin minerals mining.

–Nevada becomes the first state to proclaim a “State Bet:” hitting on 18 in blackjack.

–More voter fraud cases are uncovered in Nevada, a surprising number of them involving Republicans, whose party long has complained about Democratic transgressions

–An investigation reveals that the stunning one-year 5% increase in graduation rates announced by the Clark County School District, the nation’s fifth largest by enrollment, was mainly due to a new definition of  “graduation.”

–Meanwhile, preparing for the real world, the Clark County School District becomes the nation’s first to require students to learn and pass a test about odds and odds-making.

–As the local economy improves, more cases emerge of embezzlers and thieves from elsewhere spending ill-gotten loot in Las Vegas.

–As betting on political races becomes legal through so-called “prediction markets,” ex-casino owner Trump, at a Las Vegas rally thinking it is actually 2024, says he’ll bet on himself. In a flashback he calls it a “sure thing, like peace in the Middle East and ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

–The national digital news outlet Politico names Las Vegas conservative political activist and blogger Chuck Muth to its national list of “100 right-o’s to watch-o in 2026.”

–Joe Lombardo easily wins re-election as Nevada governor. He does so after distancing himself even more from fellow Republican Trump, a convicted felon whose followers assaulted law enforcement during the January 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol. Says former-Clark-County-sheriff Lombardo at a Reno rally in July, “Can’t quite place the name.”

–By a wide margin, Las Vegas continues to have among the very worst ratio of primary care physicians per capita among major metro areas. This is part of a long-standing local medical infrastructure deficiency that forces some relocated retirees to move again in search of better specialist care.

And now, my four 2025 predictions that sorta came to fruition:

–I opined that the notoriously anti-common-man Nevada Legislature would continue a race to the bottom against Delaware by passing corporation laws making it easier to screw small shareholders. Indeed, that pretty much happened with the approval of Assembly Bill 239. Among other things, the legislation made it harder for small fry to challenge transactions or mergers on conflict-of-interest ground and limiting the fiduciary duties owed by the biggies to, well, not much.

–I suggested that Musk’s underground tunnel transportation project would run “into problems” by digging in the wrong direction. Okay, that didn’t happen. But Musk’s outfit was fined $500,000 for illegally dumping drill fluid into the local sewer system, which maybe is even worse.

–Facing an overwhelming Democratic legislature, Lombardo, I predicted, would veto “a record” number of bills that I put at 457. All right, I was a little high; the actual number was 87. But that still was the most since Nevada became a state in 1864 as part of an effort to rig the re-election of Abraham Lincoln.

–I predicted Trump would rename the nearby Hoover Dam for himself. I was only a little off. The Donald added his moniker to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the quasi-government U.S. Institute of Peace, both in Washington, D.C. So maybe I deserve half credit.

Follow William P. Barrett’s work on X by clicking here.

Follow William P. Barrett’s work on Threads by clicking here.

Follow William P. Barrett’s work on BlueSky by clicking here.