Las Vegas business briefs

Thursday, May 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Local

* LAYOFF ASSISTANCE PROVIDED -- State vocational trainers are assisting employees of the Service Merchandise Distribution Center on Sunset Way in Henderson who are facing layoffs. Service Merchandise plans to close the Henderson facility June 10. Carol Jackson, director of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, said the state's rapid response team has already begun providing training and job referral services and education on unemployment insurance guidelines to the center's 93 employees.

* HARRAH'S BUILDING CASINO -- Harrah's Entertainment Inc. said it has begun construction of a $37 million, 63,000-square-foot casino complex and 100-room hotel on Potawatomi Indian tribal lands north of Topeka, Kan. When it opens later this year, the casino complex will employ about 800 and include 500 slot machines, 40 table games and a 500-seat bingo hall.

* CASINO AIRLINK NET JUMPS -- Casino Airlink Inc., a wholesale travel company providing packaged casino vacations from the Southeast to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, said higher passenger volume propelled first-quarter net income to $308,590, or 3 cents a share, from $74,092, or 2 cents a share, in the 1996 quarter. Outstanding shares rose to 8,999,000 in the latest period from 3 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to $5,443,622 from $5,386,261.

To contact the SUN business news desk, call 259-4083 or e-mail mike@lasvegassun.com