Something a little different ...



From Cy Ryan at the Las Vegas Sun: Report: Casinos lost money for second time in history

The state Gaming Control Board today released its “Gaming Abstract” for fiscal year 2009, which ended June 30, showing a net loss of $6.7 billion among the 260 major casinos in Nevada.



Clubs along the Las Vegas Strip, which makes up 53 percent of the gambling revenue in Nevada, registered a $4.1 billion loss.

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The only other time Nevada gaming companies reported a loss was in 2003, of $33.5 million, said Frank Streshley, chief of tax and licensing for the board.

Total revenues were down from $25.0 billion in fiscal 2008 to $22.0 billion in fiscal 2009. Gambling was off 12.7%, room revenue off 16.6% (hotels are getting crushed everywhere), but beverage sales were flat!Rooms occupied (number of nights) declined from 42.8 million in 2008 (occupancy rate of 86.8%) to 41.6 million in 2009 or 82.2% occupancy rate. The average daily rate (ADR) declined from $119.46 in 2008 to $102.46 in 2009.In addition to the $3 billion decrease in revenue, the casinos saw a $4.8 billion increase in Other G&A expenses - probably from write downs of bad investments. Also casino payroll employment was off 12.3% or almost 25,000 employees.The two pillars of the Las Vegas economy have been gaming and construction. Construction is dead - and will be for some time because of all the excess capacity. And gaming is struggling too.