Venetian, Palazzo lay off workers amid downturn

194 layoffs are on top of others announced in March

Sun file photos

The Venetian, left, and Palazzo hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 3:27 p.m.

Headlines from the Vegas gaming industry

The Venetian and Palazzo hotel-casinos in Las Vegas have laid off 194 employees since Monday in response to the continuing economic downturn and the resulting drive to cut costs.

"It's an effort to continue to right-size our business," Las Vegas Sands Corp. spokesman Ron Reese said, adding the layoffs affected a variety of positions in multiple departments at the adjacent resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.

On March 27, Las Vegas Sands said 283 people had been laid off, trimming employment at the Venetian and the Palazzo resorts to about 7,000 full-time equivalent positions.

On May 5, Las Vegas Sands reported a loss for the first quarter ended March 31 of $87.7 million or 14 cents per share, vs. a loss of $11.2 million or 3 cents in the same quarter of 2008. Net revenue of $1.08 billion was about equal to that in the year-earlier quarter.

In announcing the first-quarter results, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson said the company was working to trim annual costs by $470 million to help it navigate through the recessionary environment.

With debt of $10.47 billion at the end of 2008, the company faces interest and preferred stock dividend costs that totaled $106.6 million in the first quarter.

The recession's affect on the company's big Las Vegas properties was apparent in the first-quarter numbers for the Venetian, where room occupancy of 89.1 percent was down from 91.1 percent in the 2008 quarter and revenue per available room of $187 was down from $250.

The Palazzo filled 92.7 percent of its rooms with revenue per available room of $204. Its numbers for the 2008 quarter are not comparable since the new resort was ramping up operations at that time.

Together the Las Vegas properties have 7,100 suites. The company also has casinos in Pennsylvania and Macau and is preparing to open a resort in Singapore.

Discussion: 17 comments so far…

By mywallet700

7/1/09 at 3:43 p.m.

Suggest removal

Nahh... those higher payroll taxes won't mean more layoffs. Right?
By azbycx0918

7/1/09 at 4:08 p.m.

Suggest removal

mywallet700,

I agree with you completely. All those who complain that higher payroll taxes will cause layoffs are wrong. The tax increases are not so high that large businesses will respond with changes in personnel. These layoffs by the Venetian and Palazzo are solely due to the slow economy and have nothing to do with payroll taxes that haven't even gone into effect yet.
By ynotjohn

7/1/09 at 5:21 p.m.

Suggest removal

So why not apply the payroll tax to public workers? The same "small" tax paid by each public worker would show that everyone is doing there fair share to balance the budget.
By neiman1

7/1/09 at 6:43 p.m.

Suggest removal

When you want less of something you tax it. Nevada raised payroll tax. You will get less of it everywhere. Just wait until the health plan taxes health insurance and payroll, we will get less of it.
By chazbean

7/1/09 at 8:04 p.m.

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Why do we always lay off the low wage earners? How about some top execs? This recession will be with us for a while!
By stevem

7/1/09 at 8:12 p.m.

Suggest removal

execs eventually DO get laid off when the business gets so slow that it gets bought by someone, and they "clean house".

these layoffs are mostly demand-sensitive positions like valet, cocktail, cashier, etc.

this town is going under. one little piece at a time.
By ksand99

7/1/09 at 9:13 p.m.

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ynotjohn: state workers are already being "taxed." They're being forced to take 12 days of furlough a year... roughly a 4% cut in pay... and FAR GREATER than the measly increased amount of payroll tax.
By mred

7/1/09 at 10:28 p.m.

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well the workers can go down to the union hall and sign up.
By nhung

7/1/09 at 11:22 p.m.

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Same old crap fire 194 little guys and then hire 3 or 4 executive VP's at 500K++ or more a year So sad for them.
By lightfoot

7/2/09 at 8:25 a.m.

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I frequently comment on the things that are wrong about the strip (6:5 blackjack, etc) and how the two big monopolies are ruining Vegas. The Venetian/Palazzo is one of the few reasons I continue to return to Vegas on a regular basis. They still focus on the customer and on doing things right. They are classy without being stuffy. I wish all of the employees there from Sheldon on down to the dishwashers all the best during this tough economic period. You guys are the best and I hope you are all hired back one day.
By LV4LIFE

7/2/09 at 11:58 a.m.

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to ksand99 and ynotjohn, thats 4.6% I am writing this from home since I am taking one of my furlow days today.
By mred

7/3/09 at 6:59 a.m.

Suggest removal

International travelers can go to Amsterdam, get some hash, and a couple of prostitutes and engage in some gambling. Goody-2-shoes like Sheriff Doug "Lights and Siren" Gilespee are hurting the bottom line in Vegas. You will never see the crowds of the past, the area is washed up unless in loosens up, also allow betting on political races, etc. like British Bookies.
By gdperson

7/3/09 at 12:47 p.m.

Suggest removal

The economy is a big concern, but little comparision to the water issue that will make Las Vegas a ghost town in the decades ahead.
By Bakersfield

7/3/09 at 5:12 p.m.

Suggest removal

Only in Las Vegas is 90% occupancy rate considered a failure. Many smaller hotel properties around the country consider success if they reach 70%. Of course, The up front investment is a lot less than the big L.V. resorts. I've thought of staying at some of these casinos, but the price friendly places such as Imperial Palace, Station casinos, Primm, Jean, etc. leave a lot more spending money in my pocket for other things (shows, shopping, gaming, etc.) Hopefully the big spenders will be back soon and cause hirings instead of layoffs.
By phil721

7/4/09 at 3:51 a.m.

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How can we blame the unions for this one?????
By BorisR

7/5/09 at 3:47 a.m.

Suggest removal

Instead of babbling around on this silly Desert X-press project that would swallow-up billions of dollars "privately funded", e.g. through an IPO scam of a company which, in my eyes, would go bust anyway, leaving thousands of stock holders and bond holders without equity value, the entire thinking must change!!!
First of all, they should work out a much better and more social and efficient public transportation system, ESPECIALLY FOR THE OFF STRIP ROUTES where locals drive to work and sometimes must wait 45 minutes or even longer till the next bus arrives....This project could be a major challenge if combined by solar driven busses. You guys get enough sun in the desert to fill up all the batteries needed, powered by newly-built solar plants, a much bigger and greater investment idea than a stupid Desert Xpress line from California gamblers heading into Vegas, being without a car again , when they made it to their resort.

And then, also mentioned earlier above, the water issue. Neglecting the fact that Vegas and its communities adjacent will run out of water in the next decades is a big error. You simply can't use up all the Lake Mead water, hoping that a big rain period will come in the future. Instead, the water pipeline project from out-of-states regions where they have plenty of water that they don't need for themselves solely, that would be a good investment.

Vegas had no water issue when it was a much smaller town and had much less hotels and resorts. Lake Mead used to be much bigger then and water seemed to be no problem at all. It would be a mistake to underestimate the effect what will happen when they realize that it's too late and not enough time left to finish that water pipeplines from wherever they think there's water to be bought.
Remember, you can't make water out of sand or oil, even if some people obviously have that illusion.

From Switzerland
By sigtwenty

7/6/09 at 9:08 a.m.

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i like most dont like to hear about job losses for working people, but sorry it couldnt happen to a better resort/hotel group of people. every time i get stuck going to sands properties i get the nastiest, rudest, most stuck up people on the strip even worse than caesers. i refuse to even purposely work out of a sands property unless im forced to. after speaking to a supervisor about a front services employee pounding on my hood 2 weeks ago i went crazy and found my breaking point with these people....finally i called and was told sands employees dont like certain types of people. i rather deal with dumps on the north end of the strip than deal with any sands property. i can only hope bankruptcy one day owns them and are taken over by someone intelligent like steve wynn and turn that place around. political correctness that owns americans prevents me from typing how i truly feel about the majority of sands employees.