LAS VEGAS—The 11 restaurants at the South Point hotel and casino here lose between $1.5 and $2 million a month. The owner wouldn’t have it any other way.

One of the biggest money losers, serving about 3,000 people a day, is the buffet. Breakfast starts at $16.95. Two Bloody Marys are included. The restaurant used to offer unlimited drinks, but stopped after a customer fell over drunk.

“You can come to Vegas and do whatever you want,” said general manager Ryan Growney, wearing a black cowboy hat. “In the buffet, you can eat whatever you can imagine.”

This city used to have lots of cheap, all-you-can eat venues like the South Point’s, money-losing restaurants that brought people in the door to gamble. Many closed after the pandemic, victims of social-distancing requirements and the changing economics of a city now dominated by affluent travelers eager to splurge on fancy meals.

In March 2020, professors writing an academic paper on customer satisfaction evaluated more than a dozen buffets on the Strip. Only four of those remain.

The buffet at the South Point keeps getting busier.

South Point’s director of food operations said there is ‘no shortage of craziness’ at the buffet, where a family once tried to bring their parrot. DAVID BECKER FOR WSJ

People start lining up at noon before Friday’s seafood night, $52.95 and up, starts at 3 p.m. A line snakes all the way around the casino floor on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, when veterans and their spouses eat free. Sometimes people snag a $1.50 hot dog from a cart on the casino floor while they wait.

A family once tried to sneak a pet parrot into the buffet, tucking it into a wagon next to their small child. Hotel security made them remove the parrot, though the humans were allowed to return and eat. “There is no shortage of craziness,” said Michael Kennedy, the director of food operations.

Lucky for its fans, South Point owner Michael Gaughan is perfectly content to continue hemorrhaging money on food.

Gaughan, 83, grew up in the city and remembers the late-night “chuck wagon” at the Flamingo, which his father once owned a stake in, a precursor of the modern Vegas buffet.

He is now one of the few individual casino operators in town in an era when most hotels are owned or operated by publicly traded conglomerates, private-equity firms and real-estate investment trusts. So he does what he wants.

And Gaughan insists using food as a loss leader still works for the South Point, which is more reliant on gambling than the city is overall. Most customers are locals, not affluent tourists here to see a show at the Sphere. Parking is free.

“The buffets get people in,” he said. “They get value for their money and they stay around and play.”

Budget hotel Circus Circus, owned by billionaire Phil Ruffin, has gone to great lengths to keep its buffet afloat. It lowered prices to $19.95 and up to attract more diners, and cut its operating hours to stem losses. It’s open only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday unless there’s a big event in town.

DAVID BECKER FOR WSJ

DAVID BECKER FOR WSJ

The buffet at the South Point serves about 3,000 people a day. DAVID BECKER FOR WSJ

The executive chef has to be thrifty to make it all work. Unordered prime rib from the hotel’s steakhouse goes into a stew at the buffet the next day. Other items are from vendors’ closeout specials. Serving breakfast instead of lunch allows the restaurant to lean on cheaper items like eggs and potatoes.

The buffet turns a profit of $50,000 to $80,000 a month in the peak summer season, said general manager Shana Gerety.

A cheap buffet is still an essential stop for some tourists. Abraham Asael Faviãn Campech visited Excalibur’s buffet before a recent BTS concert and piled three plates high. Sushi sat on top of pizza. French toast nestled next to two sausages. The 31-year-old Mexican tourist walked out with a cone of vanilla and chocolate swirl soft serve.

“I don’t do this every day,” he wrote in Spanish on Instagram of his $32.99 brunch.

Meanwhile, the expensive buffets in town are thriving, a reflection of the city’s high-end tilt.

Caesars’ Bacchanal charges $87 and up per person and has a perpetual line. Caesars says it is the highest-grossing restaurant in America. “It’s more like a restaurant with nine open kitchens,” said Sean McBurney, the company’s chief commercial officer and Las Vegas regional president.

On a Tuesday night in May, prospective diners were told it would be about an hour’s wait to eat at the Wynn buffet, which starts at $80 per person for dinner. The line included strollers with multiple children and one dog. On the busiest days, the wait can be three to four hours long.

Jimmy Chung, 34, and two friends were taking a break from playing slots to try the buffet. If they lost a lot of money, they had half-joked, they would eat at McDonald’s. But they were roughly even so they coughed up for the meal.

Most visitors at the South Point are locals. DAVID BECKER FOR WSJ

The night before, the three visitors from the San Francisco area spent about $220 for dinner. At least with the buffet, they could eat what they wanted—and be guaranteed to be very full.

Chung’s favorite dishes were prime rib and tri-tip that a chef seared to his preferred doneness. Another cook made him a crepe. The consultant finished with a sampling of tiny desserts.