Her District Is Struggling. Her Portfolio Isn't.
Las Vegas tourism just had its worst year since the pandemic. Visitor numbers fell 7.5% in 2025, down to 38.5 million people, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal's report on the year-end numbers.
Ask a casino worker on the Strip how business is going, and you'll hear the same thing: fewer hours, fewer tips, more worry.
Las Vegas's unemployment rate climbed to 5.2% in April 2025, one of the highest marks among the country's big cities, driven mostly by cuts in leisure and hospitality jobs, according to Moneywise's report on the tourism slump.
The Las Vegas metro area lost 4,700 jobs between September and November alone, with leisure and hospitality taking the biggest hit, according to state employment data.
A housekeeper at Harrah's told public radio that some days are hard just to get through. A food runner at the Westgate said the casino floors themselves have gone quiet, and friends across the industry are wondering what it means for the long haul.
Casino companies are feeling the tourism slump in their stock prices. Workers are feeling it in their hours and tips. Rep. Lee's trust felt something else: good timing.
While her hometown industry took the hit, her money was already out the door.
Five Casino Stocks, One Trust
On March 14, 2025, Lee's trust, held through Fidelity, sold shares in four Nevada gaming companies on the same day: Century Casinos, Golden Entertainment, MGM Resorts, and Wynn Resorts, according to the disclosure filing posted by the Clerk of the House.
The fifth stock is where the real money was. Between March, June, and July of 2025, that same trust sold Full House Resorts stock across multiple transactions, adding up to as much as $1.5 million.
Nine separate Full House transactions appear in Lee's 2025 trading log alone, according to Casino.org's report on the trade. Crucially, these were not ordinary market moves—this included a direct, private transaction between Lee and her ex-husband, Dan Lee, who serves as the company's CEO.
Full House reported a disappointing second quarter on August 8, and the stock dropped about 25% almost overnight. The congresswoman maneuvered a seven-figure exit from the very company her ex-husband runs, timed right before the stock cratered.
The selling didn't stop when the calendar turned. She sold another batch of Full House shares on April 21, 2026, then again on June 1, then again on July 1, according to filings reported by MarketBeat and Benzinga.
What Her Office Says
This week, the House passed the Stop Insider Trading Act, 232 to 198. Lee was one of only 13 Democrats who voted yes. The bill would stop members of Congress from trading individual stocks while in office.
Lee's office said these are shares she received in her divorce settlement, and she's moving out of individual stocks into diversified index funds. That's an explanation for why she's selling. It doesn't explain why this particular sale went straight to the company's own CEO instead of onto the open market.
And it doesn't explain why the same congresswoman who voted against No Tax on Tips, and called the relief “temporary crumbs” for Nevada's tipped workers, is now positioning herself as their advocate while her own trust quietly protected its money before her district's industry took a hit.
A History of Late Disclosures
This isn't the first time Lee's trading has raised questions. Over 200 of her stock trades, worth up to $3.3 million, were filed late or improperly disclosed between February 2020 and May 2021.
I support banning members of Congress from trading stocks… My opponent @RepSusieLee, on the other hand, is quickly taking the award from Nancy Pelosi for best stock trader west of the Mississippi…
— Marty O'Donnell (@MartyTheElder) April 23, 2026
Her office blamed the delays on clerical errors and said they were being corrected in consultation with the House Ethics Committee.
That history matters here. Lee's trust has logged 1,259 stock trades across 298 companies since she took office, totaling $12.42 million in volume, according to MarketBeat's congressional trading tracker.
That's not a lawmaker who dabbles. It's someone whose office has to keep explaining, year after year, why the paperwork didn't keep up with the trading.
The Bottom Line
Thousands of hospitality workers across the valley lost their jobs or their hours, waiting for a rebound nobody can promise them.
Susie Lee didn't wait. Her trust systematically unloaded Nevada casino stocks, insulated her wealth through a private deal with her ex-husband, and cashed out weeks before the stock collapsed.
She's still selling as recently as this month, from her index fund. Then, she went back to Washington and voted for a law that's supposed to stop insider trading, even though it wouldn't have touched the sales she just made.
Lee's constituents deserve a representative who's in this economy with them, not one who sells short on Southern Nevada while finding the exits first.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
