US Casinos Suffering From Reduced Airline Capacity
Thursday 26th June 2008
For some time areas such as the Las Vegas strip have depended upon the ever growing number of tourists to the country, many being attracted by the glamour and glitz of the ‘strip’. However, news that many of the US’s leading airlines are looking to reduce capacity on routes to areas such as Las Vegas has hit gaming stocks hard in the US. Whether investors were looking for a reason to sell or have genuine fears is uncertain.
While initially there had been hopes that the US casino market would remain relatively unscathed during the economic turmoil there are signs that customer numbers and spend per customer are falling. There has also been an increase in administration costs in the industry where the unions have become ever more involved in fights for greater pay for workers. With many of the major casino groups having invested heavily in expansion over the last few years, some of their balance sheets are not as strong as they could be.
At the moment there are no genuine fears that any of the major casino players will hit financial trouble, but this may not be the case for some of the smaller operations.
For some time areas such as the Las Vegas strip have depended upon the ever growing number of tourists to the country, many being attracted by the glamour and glitz of the ‘strip’. However, news that many of the US’s leading airlines are looking to reduce capacity on routes to areas such as Las Vegas has hit gaming stocks hard in the US. Whether investors were looking for a reason to sell or have genuine fears is uncertain.