Gaming industry wildcatters are thrilled with the reconstruction prospects for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. They say anyone with a craps table should be able to make a mint as the richly funded reconstruction turns the fertile crescent into the Wild, Wild West. This won't be another Las Vegas, where it takes at least a $1 billion ante to open. Expect, they say, a replay of the California Gold Rush, where fortunes were made on the backs of gambling and loose behavior.

The leasing of 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space in the $1.8 billion Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino is off to a galloping start, agents tell us. The official line is that the superhot demand is thanks to the presence of the Grand Hyatt, the Cosmopolitan's hotel operator. But agents, asking not to be named, and industry sources say the real reason is simply the location, with the Cosmopolitan going up between the $5 billion CityCenter project by MGM Mirage and Bellagio.

For America, fall means football is back, but for Las Vegas, it means sports wagering. The most popular sport to wager on, by far, is the National Football League, with 78 percent of sports wagerers betting on professional football. That's followed by horse racing (45 percent), NCAA football (36 percent), NCAA basketball (26 percent) and Major League Baseball (22 percent), according to data out of Stamford, Conn.-based Austin Lawrence Group. Of the 67 percent of respondents who gamble, 77 percent do it at casinos, 18 percent at the tracks, 10 percent online and 7 percent in church.

Wall Streeters say Macau proves developer Sheldon Adelson has "the vision thing." Already, his Sands Macau casino, opened in May 2004, averages a daily win of $2.4 million. The Venetian, which he operates on the Strip, averages $900,000. Asian observers say Adelson also has a long-run advantage over other outsiders since his $2 billion Venetian Macau Casino Resort will anchor 20 more resorts lining the Cotai Strip. Steve Wynn's compound, by comparison, will be stuck downtown, sandwiched between a pair of the Stanley Ho family's hotels and Adelson's Sands casino.

Hotel-casino managers say it's a rough time for yield management. Room-rate cuts can't compensate for higher gasoline prices, not when Californians are staying home to enjoy the standard of living to which they've become accustomed. And extra freebies don't mean much compared with the ability to own your own home. So while hotels are hyping high-end opportunities for a stream of customers rich enough that cost doesn't matter, yield managers fret no one knows how deep the water may be.

Gaming Wire Editor Rod Smith can be reached by e-mail at rsmith@reviewjournal.com or by phone at 477-3893.