Future of Strip is unclear

David Strow

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

During Las Vegas' boom of the 1990s, the Strip hotel-casino industry was often called recession-proof.

No one is saying that now, following an unprecedented wave of layoffs along the Strip Wednesday. Aladdin, Bally's Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas all announced they'd laid off hundreds; MGM MIRAGE, the state's largest private employer, said it will follow within two weeks.

One of the hundreds losing a job Wednesday was Joe Baker, 20, who worked in Aladdin's call center. Baker said he saw his layoff coming.

When his supervisor called Wednesday morning and asked him to come in at noon, Baker said he knew it would be his last day at work.

Together with eight other employees, at least two of whom had started working at the same time as Baker on July 18, he received his last check and was told that the cuts affected each department.

"They told us if things turn better, we are available for rehire," Baker said.

He added that he's not too worried about what will happen to him and that he will try to find a job elsewhere. A woman who lost her job told him she would have to take in a third roommate to make ends meet.

There are now two pressing questions: How many Las Vegans will lose their jobs? And how long will it be before they return to work?

No one really knows.

There are some jobs available for Las Vegas casino workers idled by this week's cutbacks. At the Palms, set to open on Flamingo Road near the Strip Nov. 15, owner George Maloof plans to hold job fairs the next three Saturdays for Strip employees put out of work this week.

Of the 1,500 jobs the Palms will need on opening day, Maloof said he is still looking to fill 200 to 300 positions. Those that have already been extended job offers by the Palms will not have those offers withdrawn, he said.

The job fairs will be held in the Nevada State Bank building at 4240 W. Flamingo Road, across the street from the Palms. Hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for each of the next three Saturdays, Maloof said.

Green Valley Ranch Station Casino, set to open in mid-December, will need 1,150 employees. Most of those positions are still open.

But with Station facing potential layoffs itself, it's hard to say at this point how many of those jobs will go to people outside the company, said Glenn Christenson, chief financial officer of Station.

"We are doing everything humanly possible to delay layoffs," Christenson said. "In the event we do have layoffs, we are going to give preferential hiring to those people (at Green Valley Ranch). We need to take care of our own first."

Layoffs so far have been "minimal" at Station properties, Christenson said; most cutbacks to date have come by reducing work weeks.

Those interested in applying for Green Valley Ranch jobs should call Station's automated employment line at 221-6789.

So far, it is not known how many workers will be competing for jobs at the Palms and Green Valley Ranch. The only casino to say how many it has laid off is the Aladdin, which cut 500 jobs from its 3,100-person workforce Wednesday.

"We hope we will be able to call some employees back down the road, but (the layoffs) are all expected to be permanent at this point," said Aladdin spokesman Lynn Holt.

MGM MIRAGE has not determined how many it will be laying off over the next few weeks. But Feldman said it wants to bring these workers back.

"It is our firm view that this (layoffs) be viewed as a temporary situation," said MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman, whose company employs 38,000 people in Las Vegas. "Having said that, it is quite clear no one is honestly capable of defining what temporary is right now."

Mandalay Resort Group and Park Place Entertainment Corp. have not specified how many workers have been laid off, though Park Place spokeswoman Debbie Munch said job cuts have been confined to Bally's/Paris Las Vegas for now.

Whatever job cuts occur on the Strip will ripple through the Las Vegas economy quickly, said Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Development at UNLV.

"If people don't come back (to Las Vegas), and these become permanent layoffs, then you have some very severe economic consequences," Schwer said. "For every job we lose in a hotel-casino, we'll lose another one (in an industry supporting the gaming industry)."

The trouble for Las Vegas began when the federal government froze all U.S. commercial flights following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Flights resumed several days later, but airlines have been drastically cutting jobs and flights, and demand has fallen considerably.

Jason Ader, a gaming analyst with New York brokerage Bear Stearns, estimates Las Vegas airline service will be down 15 percent to 25 percent for the foreseeable future. That will translate into a decline of as much as 10 percent in Las Vegas visitor counts, Ader said.

That's about 3.6 million less visitors per year, using Las Vegas' 2000 visitor numbers.

Las Vegas casinos have tried to lure visitors back by slashing room rates. These efforts have been largely unsuccessful, though many operators report that they've seen few cancellations for October and November.

"The simple fact of the matter is, the American public is not prepared to travel in any sort of way right now, and (low) rates are not going to change that," Feldman said.

Ader warns it could be 2003 before travel returns fully to "normal."

"We believe things will come back, the economy will be strong again, and people will travel," Ader said. "It's just that, over the short-term, there's so much that's unpredictable. We don't know if there's going to be a prolonged retaliation; if there is, we would expect that would continue to have negative implications on travel."

Schwer believes it could take six months to a year for visitation to rebound. But even if America is heading into protracted military action, Schwer believes the visitors will return.

"We know from the Blitz in World War II that Londoners kept going (with their lives)," Schwer said. "And we (Americans) will adjust. The question is, how fast will people adjust? We know from past war periods that recreation and having a good time are important in sustaining one's quality of life. We need not apologize at all for offering people relief and a good time." Sun reporter

Mathis Winkler contributed to this story.