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Experts: Demand to Keep Up with Vegas Boom

LOS ANGELES – As reported by Reuters: "The biggest players in Las Vegas -- the casinos -- are perfectly comfortable with the torrid pace of development that has some investors worried, executives say.

"Development along the Las Vegas Strip has been in high gear for several years, with more resorts on the way, but demand is likely to keep pace, at least for the next several years, according to industry experts.

"'I don't think there will be an overcapacity of casinos on the Strip. Vegas always tends to reinvent itself and I think it is going to continue to be successful,' Lorenzo Fertitta, vice chairman and president of Station Casinos Inc., said on Monday at the Reuters Hotels and Casino Summit.

"Las Vegas Strip casinos won $6 billion from gamblers last year, a 13.1 percent increase over 2004.

"…Las Vegas Strip casinos posted flat revenue between 2000 and 2003 of just $5 billion, but have seen a sharp spike in the last couple of years as the economy picked up speed, the Wynn Las Vegas resort opened and convention activity ramped up.

"….MGM Mirage Inc. is slated to open its multi-use CityCenter project in 2009 and Boyd Gaming Inc. recently announced plans to demolish the Stardust casino and build a project to be called Echelon Place…"

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