Big casinos actually added workers in 2008, report shows

Employment at Nevada casinos grossing more than $1 million in revenues climbed slightly for the 2008 fiscal year ended June 30, according to a recent report from the Gaming Control Board.

For that category of casinos, the average number of casino employees climbed to 202,216 workers from 201,953 workers in fiscal 2007. The numbers covered 266 locations in 2008, for an average of 760.2 workers at each location, compared to 270 locations averaging 747.9 workers in 2007.

The workers include all employees in casinos, hotels, bars, restaurants and other amenities at the properties.

In Clark County, the number climbed 2.1 percent to an average of 166,779 workers at 153 locations, up from 163,288 workers at 160 locations.

Each location averaged 1,090 workers in fiscal 2008 compared with 1,020.6 in 2007.

The opening of Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s Palazzo in January 2008 added 4,000 jobs to the county total of gaming employees.

Nearly 1,000 jobs were lost when the New Frontier closed in late July 2007, and another 300 were cut when the Nevada Palace closed in February.

The numbers were part of the Gaming Abstract report released on Friday.

While the numbers reported by regulators tell one story for large gaming properties, numbers released by the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation possibly show the strain the economy is putting on smaller operators.

For all gaming properties, casinos and hotels statewide saw a 3.8 percent drop in the number of workers, from 215,100 to 211,000 from June 2007 to June 2008, according to a monthly report released in July.

Total state employment in all job areas declined 12,100 in Nevada and 6,200 in Clark County during that time with unemployment hitting 6.4 percent in June.