More good news for the state budget: fewer people are coming to Las Vegas, and they’re gambling less. From Bloomberg:
Las Vegas Strip casino gambling revenue tumbled 16 percent in November, its 11th straight monthly decline, because the global recession and a reduction in the number of flights to the city deterred visits.
Gambling proceeds from the Strip fell to $437.7 million from a year earlier, Nevada’s Gaming Control Board said today in an e- mailed statement.
Las Vegas in 2008 will deliver its biggest annual gambling decline since data started being compiled in the mid-1980s as consumers limit purchases. People may further seek to reduce debt and spending as their net worth falls and job losses accelerate, analysts say.
Statewide, revenues were down 14.8%. It certainly looks bleak. Sometime in February, after the December numbers come out, I’ll crunch everything for the breakdown over at http://gaming.unlv.edu, and we’ll be able to see just how bad the year was.