Harrah’s Entertainment confirmed it is preparing another round of layoffs and hourly reductions at its Las Vegas properties.

Company officials late Thursday declined to say how many workers will be let go.

They said the company will work closely with all employees who will be affected.

“The country is experiencing a historically difficult economic period,” said Jan Jones, senior vice president of communications and government relations for Harrah’s. “The gaming industry, as nearly all consumer business in the country, has been negatively impacted by the difficult circumstances of the economy.”

The casino operator, which owns and operates Paris Las Vegas, Bally’s, Bill’s, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Harrah’s, Caesars Palace and Rio locally, has already cut nearly 1,500 Las Vegas jobs this year, according to an article published last month by Reuters.

The decision comes as revenue and visitor volume to the Strip continue to drop.

Gaming revenue on the Strip has declined 6.5 percent year-over-year through July, according to the latest figures available from the Gaming Control Board. Visitation to the Strip fell 4.6 percent in the same month.

“Business levels for the Las Vegas gaming market are down,” Jones said. “These circumstances require us to carefully evaluate our business to insure that we are operating within current business volumes.”

Harrah’s is not alone in continuing to cut jobs and adjust employees’ hours as businesses across the valley continue to adjust to the economic downturn.

Bill Lerner, a Las Vegas-based gaming analyst for Deutsche Bank, said some properties have been closing off gaming table pits for extended hours, cutting restaurant hours and even closing rooms in hotel towers.

“All of those carry employment,” Lerner said. “Over the last two to three weeks, the behavior of visitors to Las Vegas has changed noticeably. They’re spending very differently, and less, than they were prior to that. It’s 100 percent related to the things people are watching on CNN and CNBC with the economy and the credit environment.”

MGM Mirage, which owns 10 properties on the Strip, has cut nearly 1,500 jobs this year locally, according to the Reuters article.

Gordon Absher, MGM Mirage’s vice president of public affairs, confirmed that number.

He added, “We are continuing to deal the downturn in the economy just like every other city, market sector and household in America.”

Company officials wouldn’t give exact staff counts.

Station Casinos conducted another round of layoffs in early September, saying the number of employees who were affected represented “a very small percentage” of the workers at its 17 properties.

The locals gaming company has hired most of the staff for its new Aliante Station, which opens Nov. 11, company spokeswoman Lori Nelson said Friday.

However, some of the positions were offered to workers who were affected by the reductions last month.

Newly laid-off workers will enter a job market that is already stressed.

Las Vegas’ unemployment rate hit 7.1 percent in August, the highest rate since July 1993 when the rate was 7.2 percent, according to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

Jobs in the hotel-casino industry fell by approximately 600 in August despite the 1,100 new jobs provided by the opening of the $250 Eastside Cannery on Aug. 28.

Jacob Oberman, director of gaming research for CB Richard Ellis, said the housing market will need to rebound before consumer spending returns and the job cuts slow.

More employment help is coming. Wynn Resorts Ltd. is hiring 5,300 workers for Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, scheduled to open in December.

Next year will see the opening of the $1 billion M Resort, which will employ about 2,000. Nearly 6,000 workers will be needed for the $2.9 billion Fontainebleau, and 12,000 will be hired for the $9.2 billion CityCenter project, slated to start opening late next year.

Credits: Review Journal

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In Las Vegas these days, even billionaires are getting their credit checked. On Sept. 30 Las Vegas Sands (LVS) founder Sheldon Adelson announced that he would ante up $475 million from his personal fortune to buy preferred stock in the company, which will pay 6.5% interest over five years. Adelson’s notes will convert at $49.65 per share, a considerable climb from the $31 at which they currently trade. The move shored up Las Vegas Sands’ balance sheet. Without the extra cash, the owner of the marble-lined Venetian resort, with its Canyon Ranch spa and indoor gondola rides, would have found itself in violation of its bank loan agreements.

It’s like that all over Sin City right now, as the casino industry there faces the steepest slump in its history. In July, casino revenues on the city’s famed Strip fell 15%, to $820 million. They are down 7% citywide so far this year. Shares of many top casino operators have sagged 70% from their peak last year. Las Vegas Sands’ stock dropped 13% on Oct. 1, after Standard & Poor’s said that despite the cash injection, the company remains under review for a possible downgrade because of weak business conditions and a potential slowdown from Sands’ Macau operations.

Next door to the Venetian, mogul Stephen Wynn has been busy negotiating with his bankers. With profits at his flagship Las Vegas resort down 28% in the second quarter and a new $2.3 billion casino hotel due to open in December, Wynn paid $4 million in fees and persuaded his grumbling bankers to change the covenants on his loans in mid-September. The moves allow Wynn Resorts (WYNN) to maintain a higher debt-to-cash-flow ratio without having to pay higher interest rates to lenders. “We wanted to make sure the banks didn’t have too high an expectation for us,” Wynn explains, “just in case things get worse.”
Delayed Projects

Wynn’s old company, MGM Mirage (MGM), is busy trying to raise the additional $500 million it needs to complete a $3 billion bank financing for its giant CityCenter project on the Strip. The $9.2 billion resort, due to open in December 2009, is the largest private construction project in the country. MGM and its joint venture partner, the investment firm Dubai World, may end up kicking more of their own money into the project. But the partners may face more hurdles next year if they can’t sell all the condominiums they hope to at the site. UBS (UBS) casino analyst Robin Farley figures CityCenter will still have as many as one-third of its 2,600 condominiums unsold by opening day, meaning the cost to MGM and its partner will rise by another $600 million.

The tough financing environment has prompted some operators to delay projects. In August, Boyd Gaming (BYD) shelved its $4.8 billion Echelon resort after encountering difficulties financing a mall and two hotels with joint venture partners. Nine floors of the main tower had already been built. In mid-September the company renegotiated a contract with Morgans Hotel Group (MHGC), which was to build versions of its Delano and Mondrian hotels on the site, lengthening by 15 months the date financing was required and returning $30 million in deposit money. “It was certainly the right thing to do,” Boyd Chief Executive Keith Smith says of the postponement. “Things have gotten worse. You wake up every morning trying to find additional sources of revenue.”

Casino operators are trying to lure gamblers with discounts and other promotions. Anthony Curtis, who runs Las Vegas Advisor, a magazine and Web site for bargain-hungry Las Vegas visitors, says the discounting is most evident in room rates, some of which are down as much as 30% from last year. Casinos are throwing in other perks as well. MGM’s high-end Mandalay Bay Resort was offering midweek rates of $109 per night that included such extras as two-for-one spa treatments and breakfast at its House of Blues restaurant, as well as a free round-trip airline ticket for a return Vegas trip if three nights are booked. “They’re all getting relatively creative,” Curtis says. “It’s a nervous time here, no doubt.”

Reached on Sept. 29, shortly after the House of Representatives voted down the proposed $700 billion bailout package, Wynn was furious—but not because Congress failed to pass the proposal. “I am totally disgusted as an American by the leadership shown by both parties,” he said. Wynn thinks Washington should force bankers to renegotiate loans to troubled homeowners, much as they have for the big Las Vegas operators. “Those assets should stay where they were created,” Wynn screamed. “Bankers will say tomorrow, ‘O.K., let people stay in those homes.’ [Home prices] will go back to $250,000. The people that live in them will pay what they can afford.” And then, just maybe, they’ll plan Las Vegas vacations again.

Credits: Business Week Daily

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Hollywood, Bollywood and Dollywood. How confusing. However, Las Vegas is fast becoming Hollywood East, or L.A. East or however you wish to express it. Let’s face it, we’re becoming some version of Hollywood — even down to the traffic, house prices and style.

The young, hip, Hollywood set flocks here for our hotels and casinos that cater to them and the easy, breezy club culture. It hasn’t been that many years ago that clubbing meant joining the locals slot club and a fancy after-hours place wasn’t one that was particularly mainstream.

Now any casino hotel worth its salt has a club, where after 10 p.m. you can’t afford to go unless you have a trust fund.

Home prices are through the roof, sometimes to the point of excluding locals from buying. Gaming isn’t the only draw as it once was; now we have world-class shopping and dining — and that attracts yet another moneyed crowd.

When the glitzy, glamour-crazed California folks visit long enough, they soon realize the benefits of living in one of the greatest cities on Earth — and they want to move here and bring their lifestyle and style with them.

Las Vegas is just now enjoying a renaissance as far as design and style go. When I first landed in Las Vegas in the early ’80s, the design style wasn’t quite Southwestern, but a combination of that plus a Western, country style that didn’t have a lot of pizzazz. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was nothing particularly wrong with our style back then, but it didn’t have the punch it does today.

Style is definitely personal, and the influx of Californians, along with 5,000 or 6,000 others who arrive here each month, brings with it a more sophisticated design style. This is not meant to put any longtime, local style mavens down, it’s just a fact. “The times they are a-changin.”

So, exactly where are we today in the style department? For my money, Las Vegas can compete with any city, here in the United States or abroad, in the interior design world. There is definitely talent here; over the past 20 years, design experts from all over the globe have discovered Las Vegas and have chosen to either make it their home or at least leave their stamp on other people’s homes.

We’ve grown up to fit into the global design world and it is evidenced in models, show houses and upscale homes around the valley. Not only are we importing talent, Las Vegas also is home to several design schools turning out talented local folks every semester.

The long and short of it is that Las Vegas “has arrived” on the design scene and shows no signs of wavering. Along with our many talented designers, the appearance of the World Market Center Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Design Center has changed our style and design outlook forever. It will only get better, and Las Vegas will never again be considered short on style.

In keeping with our more sophisticated look, you can check out these awesome new pieces from Excelsior Designs. With this look, we could be in Hollywood, or right here in home sweet home Vegas. It’s easy to get the look and the look is easy to be with. Glitz and glamour have found us and show no signs of going away.

Credits: Review Journal

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With July’s 13 percent decline in statewide casino revenues on the books, 2008 is headed toward recording the worst ever year-over-year percentage decrease in Nevada gaming win since authorities began collecting such data more than two decades ago.

Through July, gaming revenues statewide are down 6.6 percent compared to the first seven months of 2007. On the Strip, gaming revenues are down 6.5 percent.

In 2001, statewide gaming revenues fell 1.3 percent compared with 2000, the largest ever year-over-year drop.

The Gaming Control Board began recording monthly and annual revenue figures for casinos in 1984.

“With seven months of the calendar year already in, it really doesn’t bode well for a positive finish,” said Frank Streshley, the control board’s senior research analyst. “Only two of the months left in the year, October and December, are considered really strong months.”

July’s sagging gaming revenues were not the only falling numbers.

Visitation to Las Vegas fell 4.6 percent in the month while gaming tax collections were off 24 percent.

Statewide in July, casinos collected $997.3 million in gaming revenues compared with $1.146 billion in July 2007, according to control board numbers released Wednesday.

The 13 percent decline was not the largest in state history, however. That record belongs to May, when gaming revenues fell 15.2 percent.

On the Strip, gaming revenues were $519.2 million, a nearly 15 percent decline compared with $538.6 million won in July 2007.

The July decline statewide was the seventh straight month that gaming revenues fell and the eighth month out of the last nine there was a decrease.

July also marked the third straight month that statewide gaming win fell below $1 billion. Some analysts believe it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

“We expect 2008 to be a transitional period for most segments of the Nevada gaming market, as consumers grapple with the higher cost of living, rising unemployment, loss of airline capacity and a weakened real estate market,” Wachovia gaming analyst Dennis Farrell Jr. said in a note to investors.

The state took in $58.3 million in gaming taxes based on July’s gaming revenues, a 24 percent decrease compared with $76.7 million collected for the same period a year ago.

Ben Kieckhefer, a spokesman for Gov. Jim Gibbons, said the disappointing July gaming report puts the state about $10 million in the red early in the new fiscal year that started July 1.

“We don’t need any action at this point,” he said. “We’re waiting on other revenue reports to come in.”

The first taxable sales report of the new fiscal year will come in later this month.

“Anecdotally, we’ve heard that August might have been better than July,” Kieckhefer said. “So we may see better numbers coming in from the gaming segment. It just highlights again that the people in the state of Nevada are struggling. Both big businesses and small businesses, individuals, families, everybody. We need to be responsible about how we manage this situation.”

Gibbons and lawmakers have cut nearly $1.2 billion from the two-year budget because of lower than expected tax revenues. Gaming tax revenues are down 11 percent in the first two months of this, the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

The Economic Forum projected in June that gaming revenues would grow by 2 percent this year.

In addition to declining gaming revenues, tourism figures fell during the month, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

July’s 3.2 million Las Vegas visitor tally pushed the year-to-date total to 22.7 million visitors through July, a 1.1 percent decrease from the 2007 pace.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President Rossi Ralenkotter addressed the downturn on Tuesday, before the most recent figures became public. Ralenkotter said the local hotel occupancy rate could fall further if hotels don’t attract more guests as thousands of new rooms open for business.

He said a 13.2 percent dip in the number of available airline seats could make the situation worse.

“We need to be able to fill these rooms,” Ralenkotter told the authority board of directors. “The number of seats is critical to that.”

Streshley said several factors contributed to July’s gaming revenue decline. The $1.146 billion won in July 2007 was the single-largest monthly gaming revenue figure ever in state history. Also, gamblers played lucky; the hold percentage by casinos on the amounts wagered on table games was roughly 1 percentage point below what the state considers a normal hold percentage of 12 percent.

Several researchers said they are looking beyond the raw numbers to determine if the downturn is worsening.

The amount of money wagered on slot machines was down more than 9 percent statewide and more than 12 percent on the Strip, the ninth straight month of declines in the segment.

Streshley said lower slot wagering indicates that value-oriented customers and low-rollers are not spending as much on gambling when they visit Nevada.

The figures also translate into lower gaming revenues in the locals market outside of the tourist corridor. Casinos in North Las Vegas, along the Boulder Highway (which includes Henderson) and the balance of Clark County, all had double-digit declines in gaming revenue.

Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Bill Lerner said the situation in the tourist market is not getting incrementally worse. Table game wagering statewide in July was $2.5 billion, a 2.9 percent increase. Baccarat wagering was up 16.1 percent.

“The volumes are important to look at. It’s not just about win percentages,” Lerner said. “We are seeing evidence that certain segments of the market, however, are much weaker than others.”

The July figures also hurt the stock prices Tuesday of the major publicly traded gaming companies with holdings in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. shares fell almost 11 percent while Wynn Resorts was off 3.5 percent. Shares of MGM Mirage and Boyd Gaming Corp. also fell.

Credits: Review Journal

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