2008 saw the beginning of the decline in the economy as the weekend numbers showed occupancy in casino hotels at 80.8% for the weekend of Labor Day. This was already a significant loss from the 93.5% occupancy the year before. As the recession continued to hit, the Las Vegas hotel and casino occupancy rate has been on a steady decline.

After two years of a declining economy better than affecting the casinos, Las Vegas strip casino operators and owners are hoping the 2009 will show a spark of light in the tourism market.

In the past three months tourism has been down nearly 7% in comparison to the first half of 2008. Room rates at hotels and casinos are a bargain for tourists however they are negatively impacting the land-based casinos. In 2008 hotel rates were nearly 26.8% higher than they are currently. Gaming revenues for the casinos are also down 14.7% as many tourists to book rooms in the hotels in order to have them gambling at the tables.

According to the casino owners and operators tourism is starting to back on track comes to weekend occupancy, however the challenge still lies with bringing customers to the hotel casinos during the week.

Even though business is picking up within the casinos, players are not spending as much as they had in the past due to the tight economy. At the beginning of the millennium, people have more money to spend and were a little more loose with how they spent it.

Some hotel casinos such as the Las Vegas Sands Corp. are expecting large crowds this weekend and plenty of revenue to get them back on track. Ron Reese of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. stated that with the opening of college football season and the beautiful weather that they are experiencing, they are hoping to see more gamblers on the strip in Las Vegas.

Tags: casino, gambling, online