Online Casino Edition – Casino News News about online casinos and gambling

Las Vegas is one that has been hit hard since the 2008 financial collapse. The city as a whole relies very heavily on their gaming industry particularly the industry in Las Vegas in order to create tax revenue for the state. Although things have been looking up as of late, in June, Nevada saw huge revenue declines. It was reported that Nevada saw a 6% decline in gaming revenues in June when compared to the previous year, with the strip being down 4.5% when compared to the previous year as well.

These figures were released on August 7th by the Gaming Control Board of Nevada. In total, the casinos were able to collect more than $832.5 million from gamblers throughout June. That number was up to $885 million in June of 2011. This drop is a significant one, leaving many in the casino industry nervous about what they thought was a recovery in the making. A number of casinos throughout other areas of Las Vegas and Nevada, were hit even harder.

Washoe County’s casinos were some of the only casinos that fared well, up 7% over the previous year, mostly thanks to a number of large events that were held throughout the region.

Other regions throughout Nevada also fared well, but most counties saw significant losses in their revenue. Casinos in Clark County account for 85% of the total casino revenue generated throughout the state. Specifically, the Las Vegas strip saw huge revenue dipped this year. In June of last year, the Las Vegas strip is able to bring in a total of $506.7 million, but this year was only able to bring in $483.7 million. Although many of the casinos on the strip expected their losses to be more noticeable, these large dips in overall revenue serve as a bid of a scare to many individuals… the area would continue to climb.

A number of events in the Las Vegas strip also helped with various individual games. For instance the Pacquiao – Bradley championship fight brought in thousands of baccarat players, which increase the revenues of that particular game on the Las Vegas strip.

It will be interesting to see if the casinos are able to turn around this slow June, and turn it into a more fruitful August bowl for the casinos themselves, and for Las Vegas as a whole.

John Paulson, best known as a hedge fund manager for the Raintree Investment Corporation, has purchased more than 875 acres of land at Lake Las Vegas for a total of $17.3 million. This information was released by a source that was close to the deal. The land lies in a hilly area of the North shore, commonly known as Rainbow Canyon. Of the land that was purchased, a little over half of it is considered to be developable. In total, there was a recent piece of legislation passed by the city of Henderson that would allow up to 3500 homes to be built on the land that was purchased. The area is surrounded by a number of high-profile resorts and casinos, which make it an attractive place for people to settle if they are looking to move to the Las Vegas area. Recent home builders research has stated that the land will be able to be sold at $200,000 an acre, which will likely be 10 times that of the sales price.

In all, Lake Las Vegas is more than 3600 acres. It was originally conceived by developer Ron Boeddeker, who had to abandon the project when he filed for bankruptcy in 2009. There are total of three develop courses on the land, however two of them are closed at this time. Only one, the South Shores golf club is currently available for play.

A Ritz-Carlton also opened at Lake Las Vegas in 2003, but much like the developer, they filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and eventually went on to close. The entirety of Lake Las Vegas looks like an abandoned town at this point, with many different attractions having gone out of business. Perhaps this investment by John Paulson shows that he believes that they are going to be able to revive the area, and bring it back to profit once again. Although, the area is not currently in development as the resort attraction that it once was, turning it into a residential area could be a solid plan.

John Paulson also owns or holds interests in a number of other Las Vegas in Nevada businesses including MGM resorts international and Caesars entertainment. Paulson became a billionaire in 2007 when he was able to play against and leverage the failing of the US subprime mortgage market.

Full House Resorts, Inc. was expected by analysts to do much better than the reported second-quarter earnings. The company’s results, have been blamed on a weak overall economic recovery across the nation, as well as competition increases that were not taken into account by the analysts. The second-quarter earnings reported by the firm totaled $700,000, which comes to about four cents per share of the company. During the same period last year, the company was able to bring in more than $1.4 million overall, which was one of the best quarters that the company has seen.

However, the company did see a large increase in revenue. This June, they were able to bring and $27.4 million, compared to last June when they brought in $25.2 million. Analysts were expecting slightly increased earnings, likely somewhere in the range of five cents per share. The company was not able to live up to expectations of the analyst, but are hoping for things to pick up in the next quarter.

“Given a stagnating economy and new competition in Ohio, we were satisfied with the results of our Rising Star Casino Resort and very pleased with the strong performance at our Northern Nevada properties,” said Andre Hilliou, Full House Resorts CEO.

Revenue from their Stockman and Grand Lodge Casinos combined were $5.2 million in the second quarter. This was up from just 2 million last year, so the company is seeing some locations see an overall increase in revenue. However, overall they have seen it dive across the board.

The company saw revenues dip across multiple locations, and is hoping to see these numbers fall at some point in the future. They remain hopeful about the future, stating that their upcoming Silver Slipper casino should help them to increase their overall revenue, and give them more locations to work with moving forward. The acquisition of the casino cost them a total of $70 million and was announced in April.

Las Vegas is still a city reeling after the 2008 financial collapse. Over the course of the last two years, any positive numbers about growth throughout the city, be it in revenue, or in total visitors, can be seen as very good news. Now, midway through 2012, it looks as if Las Vegas is going to be able to keep pace with the projections that stated that they would reach 40 million visitors this year. At the time, that number was thought to be a bit high, with previous years not coming close to the 40 million mark. So far this year, a total of 19.9 3 million visitors have visited the city, which is up a total of 2.5% over the previous year.

During June, the city saw 2.1% growth over the previous year in 2011. However, just because there were more visitors, does not mean that the overall occupancy of the hotels climbed. In fact, many hotels saw their occupancy fall. The overall citywide hotel and motel occupancy for the city was down half a percent, but is remaining flat over the previous year. It will be interesting to see if these numbers go up as the year goes on.

Although compared to the previous year, the occupancy has been down, June’s average daily was up 8.5%, which gives hope to many of the casinos. Although many casinos and hotels have seen their occupancy stayed fairly level over the course of the last year, none of them compare to the levels that they were saying prior to 2008, which is where they are hoping to climb back up toward.

One of the reasons for the uptick in visitors as well as revenues of some casinos is the conventions. Convention attendance in June was up and a .7% when compared to the previous year. A number of different industries have come to the city in recent months, including the International Communications Industries Association, which brought more than 34,000 people into the city overall.

It will be interesting to see if the city as a whole is able to keep these numbers climbing, in an effort to rehabilitate the strip, which was hit hard by the 2008 financial collapse. Since that time, it has been a slow climb back to where we are now, but it does appear to be heading in a positive direction. This will be great not only for the employees in the city, but for individuals throughout the state as a whole.