Vegas gambling business continues its recovery

David Strow

Monday, Oct. 15, 2001 | 10:01 a.m.

Fears of more terrorist strikes and anthrax swept the nation late last week.

But they apparently did not take the wind out of Las Vegas' continuing recovery -- a recovery that has brought about 4,000 laid-off Strip workers back to the jobs they lost after Sept. 11.

Two of the Strip's largest hotel-casino operators, MGM MIRAGE and Park Place Entertainment Corp., both reported strong occupancy this past weekend, though room rates remained weak.

"Occupancy continues to be strong this weekend ... our properties were full or nearly full," said Park Place spokeswoman Debbie Munch. "The baseball playoffs were drawing many fans, the foot traffic (in the casino) was very good, very strong. (This past) Friday was a busier Friday than the weekend before, just in the amount of people in the casino."

Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM MIRAGE, said sellouts were recorded Saturday night by the Mirage, Golden Nugget and MGM Grand, with occupancy running close to a sellout at the company's other Las Vegas properties.

However, Feldman said, "room rates remain extremely low. As a result, there's very little to report in the way of profitability."

"Nonetheless, several hotels sold out Saturday at very low room rates. It's a continuation of what we saw last week."

The room rate situation was similar at Park Place, where Munch said rates ranged from 50 percent of October 2000 levels to nearly normal.

Few visiting the Strip Saturday evening would mistake this for a weekend one year ago. While far from deserted, foot traffic at casinos along the south end of the Strip was definitely down from typical early fall levels. Long banks of slot machines remained open, and seats at gambling tables -- nearly impossible to get on a typical Saturday night on the Strip -- were easy to come by, even with some tables closed.

Perhaps the most stark example that things still aren't back to normal came outside the New York-New York hotel-casino. One year ago, a tourist might have to wait 30 minutes or more for a taxi on Saturday night. This Saturday, a line of at least 30 cabs snaked around the front of the New York-New York, with no line of customers formed.

But there were positive indications too -- on Sunday night, traffic was very heavy on southbound Interstate 15, the main corridor between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Official citywide occupancy numbers were not yet available this morning from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority; on the weekend of Oct. 5, occupancy averaged 97 percent citywide.

"It seemed pretty busy," said Rob Powers, spokesman for the LVCVA. "It appeared we didn't have any drop-off going into this weekend."

There was some nervousness that military attacks in Afghanistan, a national terrorism warning and anthrax scares would bring an end to the steady rise in occupancy this weekend. But both MGM MIRAGE and Park Place reported little to no impact from these scares on their business.

"We had two cancellations at the Reno Hilton that referred to the anthrax scare ... we had none in Las Vegas," Munch said.

"There was a lot going on this week," said Rob Powers, spokesman for the LVCVA. "There's so much going on anymore, it almost seems people are becoming immune to the news, because there's a new development every day."

The slow strengthening in business has been benefiting some of the more than 13,000 Strip workers who lost their jobs in the post-Sept. 11 downturn. When occupancy levels and business nosedived, the Strip's three largest employers -- MGM MIRAGE, Park Place and Mandalay Resort Group -- laid off a combined 12,300 workers.

Now, each company has brought back about a third of the workers who lost their jobs in the downturn, albeit on a part-time basis. MGM MIRAGE has recalled about 1,800 of the 6,000 it laid off; Mandalay has recalled nearly 1,600 of the 4,500 laid off; and Park Place has called back about 600 of the 1,800 it laid off.

Mandalay said its recalled workers averaged 28 hours during the first week of October.