Odds favor any casino story

Hope, they say, springs eternal – but apparently not at the nation’s blackjack tables and slot-machines.

U.S. casinos, which proliferated and boomed throughout the past 15 or so years, are stagnating amid the recession. Resorts are giving away rooms to lure reluctant rollers, glitzy real-estate developments are stalled and casinos have pared their workforces.

Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas consulting firm, publishes a monthly gaming stocks index that tracks performance of national casino operators and a couple of slot-machine makers.

According to the firm's August report, slumping casino stocks rebounded, outpacing the S&P 500 gains. But, they noted, the improved earnings behind the gaming stock rally were due to cost-control measures, not an uptick in gambling revenue. The American Gaming Association (AGA) reports that commercial casino revenue has dipped every month since February 2008.

You can subscribe to that Applied Analysis monthly report free of charge, by the way, and it’s probably a good move if you’re in gambling territory. Which most of us are.

The AGA reports that 20 states allow commercial casinos; many more are home to Native American casinos on tribal land. This trade association’s Facts at Your Fingertips booklet is a succinct primer to gambling in the United States, and also includes pages of contact info for other organizations, industry publications and the like.

Be sure to read this AGA fact sheet on how casino revenue is calculated; it’s a bit different than at traditional companies because of the way players “recycle” their incremental winnings in a single session. That’s called the ‘handle’ in gambling parlance.

Your state gaming control board is a go-to source for revenue reports, licensure and disciplinary information. Casino workers and vendors all must be licensed and much of the data is public record; as always; suppliers can lead to inside tips and interesting feature stories. The North American Gaming Regulators Association has a fairly skimpy Web site but its board members may be able to direct you to knowledgeable sources.

For more on tribal casinos, which are not state-regulated, check with the National Indian Gaming Association

This site for bettors, CasinoCity, has a very active newsfeed, yet I wouldn’t vouch for the accuracy of its state-by-state casino counts and the fact that it offers a directory of online gambling sites makes me nervous. It is a great source of background and story ideas, though.

Good luck!

Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.