Despite improvement, Nevada casinos continue to struggle

But, despite this improvement, economic analysts say it's still not where we want to be. The Gaming Control Board's annual report only focuses on the casinos in Nevada that rake in us$ 1 million more per year.

"Let's not fool ourselves in any shape or form," says Jeremy Aguero, Applied Analysis. "While things in this report reflect better performance by our core tourism industry, they are not a good performance. They are still losing us$ 3.4 billion. That means jobs are still at risk. The overall industry is not performing in a profitable way."

The report also indicates that the casinos' most profitable sources of revenue are changing.
"Gaming is representing a smaller and smaller share of the aggregate total. We've seen more growth in employment, in food and beverage in hotels and casinos than in casino operations," Aguero continues.

This is evident when talking to tourists."Believe it or not, I came to Vegas and didn't gamble one time," says Brooke Mahler. Adds Lindsey Coffman, "We spend most of our money on the food and the shows. We eat out over twice a day and it's over us$ 50 for sure, just for the two of us."

However, Aguero says it's going to take much more to get Las Vegas back on track. "It's going to take increased visitor volume, it's going to take increased consumer spending, as well as increased consumer confidence. "

The report also illustrates just how important Las Vegas is to Nevada's overall economy: Of the us$ 21 billion earned in total gaming revenue statewide, us$ 18 billion of that came from major casinos in Las Vegas.