You can read the whole story here. But, to me this means that this company is anxious to get some people in their buildings.

When a casino posts a loss to a player, what do they do? That’s right they give a ton of stuff away to the lucky player in an attempt to keep them on the property. Why do they do this? It’s simple math, the more time a player spends in the casino two thing are going to happen. Number one the player is going to gamble. And number two the player is going to eventually lose.

So, knowing Las Vegas and knowing casinos I expect to see some REALLY good deals being posted for the Las Vegas Sands properties which include the Palazzo, Venetian and the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

Here are some tools designed to help you keep track of posted room rates.

With the x-rated word (recession) being bandied around these days, it is interesting to see how this effects the “recession-proof” gambling industry.

Pundits that have always claimed that gambling is not be affected by a slowdown in the economy are getting their beliefs put to the test these days. Las Vegas has had a tough year. Tied with Miami for the biggest year-over-year drop in housing prices, at a unbelievable 19.3 percent, add to that near record highs in gas prices and you get… well a bit of a slowdown.

According, to the stats (if you can really believe them) Las Vegas was down about 5 percent in January over January a year ago. My recent trip to Sin City would confirm this. I saw less crowds and way less machines and table games being played.

So what does this all mean to you, the casual traveler? Deals baby, deals. Let’s face it Las Vegas isn’t about to go belly up anytime soon. Even though the profits for January were down, they still clear over a billion dollars. But…. the casinos like their money and one thing they do in Las Vegas better than anywhere else in the world is give things away.

The upside to all of this is that casinos are taking the initiative to corner customers. Gone are the days when every casino had their own comp card. Instead they have grouped together to make a few “super cards”. The great thing is now instead of winning a medallion or a coffee cup from your player points now you are rewarded with your hotel room being comped.

You can also expect to see some great deals on travel in the near future. Here is a link to the latest and greatest from Travelocity , use these as a benchmark before booking your next trip. Also you could try this coupon

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.