Las Vegas Airport Reaps Slot Machine Windfall

Air travelers in and out of Las Vegas are arriving hours early these days--and gambling more--at McCarran International Airport, where slot machines sit side-by-side with baggage carousels and departure gates.

The result of tightened security after Sept. 11 has been a windfall for the nation’s seventh-largest airport as gambling revenue and other concessions have taken off.

“It’s hurry up and wait,” said Sandy Ortiz, 56, waiting in Las Vegas for a flight to San Jose and sipping a cup of Starbuck’s coffee. Her husband gave in to a beckoning slot machine.

McCarran is unique among major U.S. airports because it offers slot machines in concourses and gate waiting areas. But its gains, which have been about $500,000 in increased gambling revenue during the fourth quarter, reflect a concession boomlet that analysts see as travelers arrive earlier at airports to clear stricter security and are left waiting for flights with reduced meal service.

“People are buying food because they’re not going to get fed on the airplane,” said Sheldon Klapper, president of the Center for Airport Management, a company in Portland that tracks business at 30 airports. “But a stronger motivation is they’re just there and they have to do something.”

In some airports, despite significant drops in passenger numbers, concession sales have remained steady--indicating that after clearing security, passengers are spending more than spare change in their spare time.

“Previously, where people would go out and have a latte, now they’re having lunch,” said Bob Parker, spokesman for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington state. “They’ve got more time.”

Not all airports are seeing an increase in concessions. At Logan International Airport in Boston, retail and restaurant businesses have suffered with stricter security and fewer passengers passing through.

“People don’t have time to shop. They’re standing in security lines,” said Phil Orlandella, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Klapper said concessions at airports such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York’s John F. Kennedy generally have been hurt by a drop in the number of overseas travelers. Other airports served by bargain airlines catering to domestic vacationers are seeing concession business take off as low fares draw people “past their fears and onto the planes,” Klapper said.

“Once they have their boarding pass in hand, people are looking for amenities to relieve stress,” Klapper said, citing increases in fear of flying and an airport “hassle factor” since Sept. 11.

Although 1.5 million fewer passengers passed through the Las Vegas airport in the fourth quarter of 2001 compared with the year before, McCarran raked in $8.5 million in slot revenue--$473,618 more than a year earlier.

“It’s an hour’s entertainment,” said Bernie Rich, 59, a Bloomingdale, Ill., resident who walked away with $4.70 after plunking $10 into a slot machine while waiting for his aunt to arrive. His wife and a cousin spent the hour cruising the shops of a pre-security concourse.

Increased security has meant mixed results for Kathy Hussey, general manager at McCarran for Atlanta-based WH Smith Inc., a bookseller and newsstand chain. “Lines, sometimes, are so long that by the time people get through they have no time to shop,” she said. “Other times, people get here early, expecting long lines.”

But with other airports around the nation incurring greater declines in passenger traffic and sales, Hussey said her group of 16 newsstands and bookstores vaulted from fourth to the top in sales among 23 airports in North America.

“It does seem like people are reading more--not only books, but also newspapers and news magazines, because they’re trying to keep up with the news,” Hussey said.