A bad bet: Vegas taxi fees.

• Author: Shackford, Scott
• Position: Citings - Overcharging taxi services in Las Vegas, Nevada - Brief article

Taxi and limo services fiercely fought to keep ride-booking services like Lyft and Uber out of the great gambling city of Las Vegas. As in other places, cabbies there are hostile to competition that's seen as a cheaper, more accessible, and friendlier alternative to what they have to offer. Ultimately, their protectionist impulses were defeated.

A recent audit helps explain why customers in Vegas desperately wanted alternatives. The Nevada Taxicab Authority, which regulates the industry for the government, discovered that taxis in the city were overcharging their customers to the tune of $47 million a year. That's a lot of spins at the roulette table.

One of the big offenders was a credit card processing fee of $3 per trip, which is much higher than banks typically...