Gambling on the decline

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Is Las Vegas becoming a destination resort? One that’s survival does not rely entirely on gambling?

A few interesting numbers have shown up recently in Las Vegas, namely the money from gambling revenue is on the decline. In August 2007 the Nevada’s take on gambling fell 4.4 percent from 2006 well below expectations.

Why? I really have no idea. Perhaps the city’s diversification, which started way back in the 1980’s, has finally caught up with the appeal of gambling. Or maybe the growth in legal gambling in the rest of the country has been significant enough to finally challenge Vegas.

After all the gambling nationwide continues to grow. There are now 460 commercial casinos in 11 states employing 366,197 people, according to the American Gaming Association. That doesn’t include the 372 Indian casinos in 28 states. Throw in horse racing and lotteries (42 states and the District of Columbia), and well you get the idea.

Or perhaps, gambling has finally tapped out. After all the Analyst Eugene Christiansen says that the industry’s take—net sales of casinos, lotteries, et. al., after accounting for winnings—was about $91 billion in 2006, up 7.7 percent from 2005, or 0.7 percent of GDP. That compares with $45.1 billion in 1995 or 0.6 percent of GDP. This may seem like a lot of money but, when compared to the amount that is spent on soft drinks in America every year, $91 billion, there appears to be adequate room for growth.

This may be the case of a industry pausing to catch it’s breath, I am not sure, for what it’s worth I think people are just realizing that Las Vegas is a great vacation destination with a million different things to do and not all of them are gambling.

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