...or on the drawing boards and the ever changing landscape continues to be a leading destination for many of the world’s leisure and business travelers.

This week the Nevada Gaming Control Board released the state’s most recent revenue figures and by all accounts June was one of the richest months on record. Incredibly revenue on the Las Vegas Strip jumps an astounding 13.3 percent from $441.4 million to $500 million. Statewide, revenues averaged out to a 5.7 percent increase to $959.8 million.

According to documents obtained by onlinecasinocraweler.com, the Las Vegas Strip’s boost in income was attributed to a more money being dropped at the tables and a higher percentage of those dollars being kept by casino. Table win was up 38.4 percent, in fact, as 20 percent more dollars were wagered. Baccarat revenues were up 5.9% in June while slot win on The Strip was down 4.2 percent, even though there was more than a 10 percent increase in dollars put into the machines.

Casinos appealing to local Las Vegas cooled off from June 2006 as revenues dropped five percent, generating $190.1 million. All three regions showed declines during June as North Las Vegas declined a robust 13.8 percent.  The Balance of Clark County was down 4.5 percent and the Boulder Strip was down 2.9 percent.

For the first half of the year, Nevada has seen gaming revenues of $6.4 billion, an increase of 2.1 percent from $6.2 billion. The Vegas Strip pulled in more than half the overall total with $3.4 billion, up from $3.3 billion. During the second quarter of 2007, the state has seen an increase of 4.4 percent in gaming revenue rising to $3.16 billion from S3.0 billion.

The incredibly rich revenue of the state’s casinos is pushing more development than ever before in Sin City. And a new wave of projects currently rising on the Las Vegas skyline are some of the more expansive and audacious properties ever conceived.

“Las Vegas is a real development hotspot. When a marketplace is at peak occupancy and average room rates are going up, the market is optimized and developers want to build there,” said Patrick Ford, President Lodging Econometrics, lodging real estate specialists based in Portsmouth, NH.

According to Ford there are 18 projects under construction with 18,549 rooms while another 21 projects (14,472 rooms) should start construction during the next 12 months. He said three small hotels will open this year while 15 hotels (6,406 rooms) will open in 2007, 13 projects (5,117 rooms) will open in 2008 while an incredible 35,978 hotels at 28 hotels will debut in 2009 and beyond.

By 2010 there will be 170,000 hotel rooms, up from 140,000 today. Las Vegas reported record visitor volume of 38.5 million people in 2005 --- the most recent numbers available -- and more than 39 million people are expected to visit the city in 2006. The city hopes to attract 43 million visitors to the destination by 2009.

Some notable projects right now are CityCenter from MGM MIRAGE, a colossal $7.5 billion resort complex set to open in 2009 smack dab in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip featuring a 60-story, 4,000-room hotel/casino and three 400-room non-gaming boutique hotels; Echelon from Boyd Gaming is a $4 billion, 5,300-room resort featuring the 3,300-room Echelon Resort hotel and three other hotels set to open in 2010. Also due are the $1.7 billion Encore at the Wynn Las Vegas and Palazzo, a $1.6 billion sister property to be interconnected with the Venetian. It opens later this year.
 
Recently announced was a a $5 billion multi-use complex at the site of the Frontier. To be built by Elad Group its expected to include a luxury hotel with about 3,500 rooms, private residences, retail space and a casino bearing The Plaza.

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