Las Vegas coming back to life?

Looks like Las Vegas may have finally broken the shackles of the post GFC doldrums that have seen visitor numbers and casino handle slump over the last few years.

Strip gaming revenues have dwindled from $6.8 billion in 2007 to $5.8 billion in 2010, but there are indicators the worm is turning.

According to figures released by Caesars and MGM Resorts recently, June 2011 saw a significant increase in occupancy and casino revenue.  Gaming revenues were up 32% on the same month last year – the largest year on year percentage increase since mid 2007.

It’ll be interesting to see if this upswing manages to continue through the sovereign debt woes and share market turmoil we’ve seen in the last month.

Global economic uncertainty clearly hasn’t made one iota of a difference in Macau where August gaming revenues were 57% up on the the same month last year to 24.77 billion patacas ($3.09 billion), smashing through the $3 billion mark for the first time. And yes, that’s $3 billion per month. It’s not inconceivable that Macau’s monthly run rate could eclipse annual revenues on the Vegas Strip within the next year or two!

The Chinese high roller, junket market was again the key driver of this unbelievable result.  They either don’t watch the doom and gloom financial news, or don’t particularly care much about it.