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**Wonders if slot revenue could pay for the 700B mistake****

Slot players pinch pennies
By Liz Benston · September 10, 2008 · 12:51 PM
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July 2008 Gaming Win & Collections
While the major casinos are doing a bang up job attracting visitors to Las Vegas with big discounts and other perks, their slot business continues to suffer. And that's bad news for Nevada, where slots make up about two thirds of the state's gaming revenue.

Today's monthly report from the Gaming Control Board reveals that slot players wagered $1.1 billion less on slots in July than the same month a year ago. On the Strip, slot volume was down half a billion dollars.

Those pennies can really add up.

Slot volume fell 12 percent in July compared with a year ago, the worst drop in the past seven straight months that slot spending has been on the decline and the latest sign that these figures are worsening. By comparison, slot volume fell 10 percent in June.

These numbers may bottom out, especially with gas prices on the decline. In July, drivers were paying more than $4 per gallon.

The July figures weren't skewed, as some months have been, by a holdover in slot revenue generated in a previous month included in the following month's numbers.

While the slot numbers are worrisome for casinos, table game play, strangely enough, bucked the downward trend.

On the Strip, table game volume was up 5 percent. This held true for high end as well as typically lower end games: Baccarat play was up 15 percent and blackjack was up 7 percent. Yet Strip casinos won 21 percent less from table game players in July because players were especially lucky, winning a greater percentage of wagers than is typical.

Had those win percentages at the tables been more typical, the overall decline in revenue would have been much less, Wall Street analysts said.

It appears that casinos, which haven't been able to entirely remove risk from the gambling business, need all the luck they can muster.

With the growing number of casinos, many people have one within driving distance and spend some of their slush money there leaving less for the "vegas trips".  That's how it is for me at least.  I have a casino 15 minutes from home, another 20 minutes, another two 35 minutes, three that are 1 hour away, one a little further and the list goes on.  ten years ago was a different story, I used to take trips more to Atlaantic City back then.  I still go, but tend to take less slush money with me.

Thanks,
Wayne :61-

I agree with Wayne.  The issue is no longer playability of the slots, as there are now casino's within 45 minutes of where I live  that have the slots.  Lately the offers from strip casino's have been pouring in with free nights, coupons to fly back in a future date, etc.  But my biggest dropback is that, just the plane ticket alone plus hotel (even cheap hotels) for a 3 day weekend would cost upwards of $700.00 not including meals and local transportation, plus of course gaming.  For $700, I can play for a good while in the local casinos.  The only reason to go to Vegas for me now, is the $how$ and perhaps other cools things like the Gaming Convention.  Other than that, I'd rather stay home, specially with today's market conditions (I'm loosing BIG chunk$ on my retirement plans)

I just got back from Vegas. Its not a cheap place. If someone like Harrahs was to put up the imperial palace at $39.99 a night for 200 or so rooms I bet they would get enough spill over to the other properties. I stayed at the MonteCarlo - it was noisy due to all the construction on the new City-Center project, still the bill was over $140/night.