Losing streak lingers

By JENNIFER ROBISON

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Maybe gaming operators just wanted to get all the bad news out of the way in one day.

To borrow from Queen Elizabeth II, the city's annus horribilis got even more horribilis Tuesday, as several big local gaming companies dropped a handful of bombshells on an already-blitzed local leisure sector.

You know it's bad when the best news is that your company reported a gain in revenues but still posted a loss.

Thanks to a big ol' pile of debt (and who doesn't own one of those these days?), Planet Hollywood managed to turn a 7.6 percent gain in revenue into a loss of $45 million.

The Riviera revealed a fourth-quarter loss of $12.7 million and said it missed a $4 million interest payment. It also mentioned that it could file for bankruptcy as early as this week.

Station Casinos, meanwhile, announced a bruising 19 percent drop in fourth-quarter sales.

That comes on top of last week's announcement by Colony Capital, which co-owns Station Casinos with the Fertitta family, that its Las Vegas Hilton had a net loss of $437,000 in 2008.

Whew, at least we can rely on stalwarts including Herbst Gaming, Hooters and the Stratosphere!

Oh. Wait.

Herbst lost $209.4 million in 2008, Hooters plans to miss an interest payment on its debt, and the Stratosphere's parent company posted a 4.5 percent revenue drop in 2008.

If that weren't enough, Bally's is closing its race and sports book through September.

By the way, happy April Fool's Day. We wish we could tell you it was all a joke.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.