The revenue numbers for January are out, and they are not good, if you are in the casino business or are supported by it. From Bloomberg:
Casino gambling revenue dropped 15 percent on the Las Vegas Strip in January and tumbled 19 percent in Atlantic City last month as the U.S. recession curbed spending on travel and betting.
Casino proceeds on the Strip, the biggest U.S. gambling center, slumped to $510.4 million in January, Nevada’s Gaming Control Board said today in an e-mailed statement. That extended the worst annual decline on record, as Las Vegas began the year with thousands more hotel rooms and fewer visitors to fill them.
Betting proceeds at Atlantic City, New Jersey, the second- biggest U.S. casino center, fell to $310.3 million. Revenue from tables at the seaside town’s 11 casinos fell 20 percent to $96 million, while slot-machine play contracted 19 percent to $214.3 million, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission said today in an e-mailed statement.
Visits to Las Vegas are expected to decline 3 percent to 4 percent this year, Rossi Ralenkotter, chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, said in a Feb. 4 interview. Passenger flight capacity remains almost 15 percent less than a year ago, he said. Meanwhile, developers are preparing to open more than 13,000 new hotel rooms in 2009.
Las Vegas Strip, Atlantic City Gambling Keeps Falling Update1 – Bloomberg.com.
Too bad you can’t bet the “don’t” on casino stocks. You’d be making out pretty well.
As I’ve said before, the spin that editors put on gaming revenue increases and decreases is telling. When gambling revenues go up, people are losing more money, which is usually not cause for celebration. Somewhere, people have to be cheered that their compatriots have gotten less unlucky in casinos. Many of them, it seems, are making the guaranteed break-even play and staying at home.
With visitation and airline capacity off, things are going to get quite interesting on the Strip when that extra room inventory comes online. That’s interesting, as in they’d better figure out a way to attract more people to Las Vegas, or you’ll have some big problems.