Los Angeles (Reuters) – MGM Mirage reported a fourth-quarter loss of USD 1.15 billion on Tuesday as gambling demand declined, and it wrote down impaired assets, sending its shares down 3 percent in extended trade. The No. 2 casino operator also said its banks had agreed to waive debt covenants through May 15. MGM, grappling with weak demand from recession-weary consumers and a credit market crisis, warned earlier in March that auditors had substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.

B.C. casino operator Great Canadian Gaming Corp. has reported a fourth-quarter loss of CAD 1.7 million, compared with a CAD 13-million profit a year ago. The company blamed weak consumer spending, heavy snowfall and increased competition for the loss that dragged 2008 profits to CAD 13.5 million — a 62-per-cent drop from 2007 profits. Great Canadian said revenues rose by two per cent last year to CAD 403.7 million but declined four per cent to CAD 96.7 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008.

Station Casinos announced this morning it swung to a loss in the third quarter as the slowing economy took its toll on the largest operator of suburban casinos in Las Vegas. The locals casino company reported a loss of USD 23.4 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30. That compares to income of USD 3.7 million for the third quarter in 2007. Net revenues dropped 10 percent from last year to USD 317 million. Station’s earnings, before certain expenses, fell 13 percent in the third quarter to USD 108.7 million.

Northern Kentucky hotel mogul Bill Yung stands to lose more than [[USD]] 500 million from the bankruptcy of Tropicana Entertainment LLC, which is relocating its headquarters to Las Vegas and canceling management-services contracts worth more than [[USD]] 1 million a year with Yung’s hotel company, Columbia Sussex Corp. It’s not yet clear what impact those hits will have on Columbia Sussex…

Casino operator Harrah’s Entertainment reported last week that it swung to a first-quarter loss, citing costs associated with a deal to take it private and „challenging economic conditions.“ The world’s largest gambling company by revenue said it had a net loss of USD 187.8 million, compared with profit of USD 185.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier. It did not report shareholder earnings, after its sale in January to affiliates of Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital LP.

A brazen thief who swiped a AUD 100,000 gaming chip from a highly secure area within Melbourne’s Crown Casino appears to have beaten the house. Despite interviews with more than 50 casino staff and a review of hours of security footage, police can find no trace of the missing loot. Victoria Police believe the Crown Casino theft was the work of a single light-fingered crook – likely a staffer.

Mississippi could lose millions of dollars and thousands of jobs because of impending casino expansions in Florida, according to a recent analysis by a legislative watchdog group. So the state’s gaming industry is taking steps to counter the competition. And some lawmakers are pushing a bill that would give tax breaks for casinos that want to build tourist attractions to woo non-gamers. Floridians represented 21.2 percent of visitors to Mississippi’s 29 casinos in 2007, according to a memo issued by the Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review.

Trump Entertainment Resorts, the casino company founded by Donald Trump, posted its biggest loss since coming out of bankruptcy in 2005 as declining revenue prompted it to write down the value of its three properties. The loss swelled to USD 183.2 million from USD 9.68 million a year earlier, the Atlantic City-based company said yesterday in a statement. Revenue fell 6.4 percent to USD 228.6 million.

Tropicana Entertainment on Tuesday filed a long-threatened appeal of New Jersey regulators’ decision to strip it of its Atlantic City gaming license. The Crestview Hills-based affiliate of hotelier Columbia Sussex was denied the license in December by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which fined the company USD 750,000 in civil penalties. The regulators cited poor management practices…

Gamblers lost USD 632.9 million in downtown Las Vegas casinos in 2007, slightly more than the year before, ending a three-year slide for the historic Glitter Gulch gambling market. But the operator of Golden Nugget, the fanciest casino in the Fremont Street area, is claiming credit for downtown’s surpassing of the 2006 results, which amounted to USD 630.4 million.

Shares of Isle of Capri Casinos slumped to a new 52-week low Tuesday after the casino operator reported it swung to a fiscal second-quarter loss, but some analysts remained upbeat on the company’s potential. Late Monday, Isle reported a quarterly loss of USD 24.6 million, or 80 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, the company posted a loss of 45 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of 4 cents per share.

(Bloomberg) – Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world’s largest casino company by market value, posted an unexpected third-quarter net loss after baccarat and blackjack players won more in Las Vegas and Macau. The shares tumbled 15 percent in extended U.S. trading. Las Vegas Sands said today it posted a net loss of USD 48.5 million, or 14 cents a share. Costs to open the Venetian Macao in August contributed to the loss.