Vegas Casinos High and Low

Las Vegas casinos suffered a decrease of 26 percent in gambling revenue in October, the worst decline ever, Nevada's Gaming Control Board has reported.

The casinos came away with a total of $475 million in revenue in October, while revenue fell 22 percent to $905 million statewide.

Economic crunch
The financial crisis has hit the gambling industry hard in the United States as consumer spending has dropped. This has come as particularly bad news for Nevada, for which gambling revenues constitute a higher proportion of total revenues than in any of the other 50 states.

October was the tenth consecutive month in which gambling revenue dropped in the Silver State.

However, the October figures are exaggerated by the fact that casino revenues hit a record-high in October 2007, before the financial crisis hit.

Nevada gambling revenue has fallen 7.7 percent in Las Vegas and 8.3 percent across the state, according to the Gaming Control Board.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission has already released figures for November, which show that Atlantic City casinos generated $346 million in gambling revenue for the month, a 7.8 percent drop from a year earlier.

Las Vegas Sands to cut jobs
More bad news for the Vegas gambling industry last week, when the Las Vegas Sands Corporation announced it will cut 216 full-time employees from its Las Vegas properties as part of an effort to reduce costs during the financial downturn. Sands also announced it will cut $6.5 million in management bonuses for 2008.