October numbers down

This doesn’t look good. From http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1032927320081210:

Las Vegas Strip casinos won $475 million from gamblers in October, a drop of 26 percent from a year earlier, the state's Gaming Control Board said on Wednesday.

Statewide, Nevada casinos' take from gamblers fell 22 percent to $905 million for the month as the U.S. economic recession continued to cut into consumer spending.

The revenue decline suggests that the Las Vegas gambling market will weaken further in the fourth quarter as airline flight capacity is reduced, consumer spending worsens and housing prices/unemployment continue their negative trends, Morgan Stanley analyst Celeste Mellet Brown said in a research note.

Las Vegas Strip Oct gambling revenue down 26 pct | Markets | Markets News | Reuters.

I’ve personally seen the reduced airline capacity–in early January, I got bumped from my outbound and inbound Vegas flights because USAirways is limiting its schedule. So there is definitely cause for some gloom.

On the bright side, though, NFR looks to be generating some strong business. I had a hard time even finding a parking space at the South Point last week, and there have been an awful lot of folks with cowboy hats all over town since the rodeo started. Also, gas prices really started to drop in November, so we may get more drive-ins. But a sustained one-quarter drop in revenue would be a real nightmare for everyone here.

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