Beleaguered Vegas Casinos See Reasons For Hope

The hard data points are at best mixed, but as the casino industry gathers for its annual Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas this week, operators are seeing glimmerings of hope that the worst--at least for this downturn--may finally be over for suffering Sin City.

While every single significant industry metric here, from revenue-per-available room to table drop to occupancy rates, continues to drop, the rate of decline seems finally to be slowing. At the same time, any improvement will be from almost ludicrously easy comparisons, as resorts here begin to lap an abysmal year that began even before the financial crisis and market collapse of late 2008.

Third-quarter numbers for the big firms were far from robust. Ambitious but ultimately ill-timed expansion plans weighed down most with debt just as the cash flows needed to service the debt were pinched by visitors who either stayed away in droves, or spent less when they did come.