New Vegas Casino Defies Economic Gloom

It's not all doom and gloom in Las Vegas, with the soon-to-be opened CityCenter hotel and casino announcing it has started the application process for 12,000 new jobs.

The CityCenter is the most expensive project of its kind in U.S. history, costing $9.1 billion to build, suggesting its owners are optimistic that the gambling and entertainment industry will recover in the long-term.

The CityCenter, covering 1.5 million square meters, and including 4,800 hotel rooms and a 50,000 square meter retail and entertainment district, has been described by some as a 'city within a city'"

Today is a momentous occasion for us," said City Center CEO Bobby Baldwin. "We're proud to be creating 12,000 jobs at CityCenter that will be filled by smart, passionate individuals from throughout the state and country."

Some economic analysts are already suggesting that business was up slightly over the Christmas-New Year, period, following sharp declines throughout 2008 in the state of Nevada.

This will all come as welcome news in the casino capital, which suffered a 26 percent decrease in gambling revenue in October, the worst decline ever, according to Nevada's Gaming Control Board. October was the tenth consecutive month in which gambling revenue dropped in Nevada.

The Las Vegas Sands Corporation announced in December that it would cut 216 full-time employees from its Las Vegas properties as part of cost-cutting efforts.