GAMING REVENUE REPORT

HIGHWAY TRAFFIC REPORT

I-15 AT STATELINE/PRIMM

Northbound traffic into Las Vegas for the Thanksgiving holiday showed a number of double digit increases. The biggest jump came on Friday, the 23^rd, with traffic up 15.3%. The entire holiday week was up starting with Monday, the 19^th, plus 11.6%, Tuesday, 12.1% Wednesday 16%; Thanksgiving day, the 22^nd, 5.5%; and then climaxing Friday, at 15.3%. For the entire month of November, northbound traffic was up 10.1% and southbound up 9.6%. The combined average in both directions was just under 10% in November.

The biggest one day increase came on Saturday, November 10^th, when northbound traffic was up 35%. The reports are from the Nevada Department of Transportation based on vehicle counts taken at Primm, Nevada.

Major increases were also shown on the non-holiday weekends. Northbound into Las Vegas on the first weekend of the month (Friday, the 2^nd, Saturday, the 3rd) showed an increase of 38%; 9^th and 10^th up 52%; 16^th and 17th up 13%. Weekdays (Monday through Thursday) was up 12.7% in both directions and weekend up 8.4%. (See chart on page 4.) Year-to-date traffic at stateline is up 1.4%.

I-15 at MESQUITE

The counts on I-15, north of Las Vegas, jumped up 12.5% for November. The evergreen pattern at the Nevada/Arizona state line showed little change, with traffic evenly balanced in both northbound and southbound throughout the month, with slight increases in both directions on the weekend. For breakdown by weekend and weekday see chart on page 4.

YERMO INSPECTION STATION, SOUTHBOUND ONLY

It's difficult to reconcile the traffic estimates from Yermo with the magnetic counter report from the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT). For example, on Sunday, November 25^th, the NDOT counters at State Line recorded 48,447 vehicles headed southbound on I-15 while Yermo reported a rounded estimate of 39,000. What happened to 9,000 vehicles between State Line and Yermo with virtually no alternate routes between the two points? The monthly counts from Yermo showed a 2% decline in total southbound traffic while the NDOT reported a 9.6% increase southbound on I-15 using a same day of the week comparison. In the breakdown of vehicle by type Yermo reported a 10% decline in auto traffic, a 49% increase in truck traffic and RV's and buses declining 8% each in November.

LAUGHLIN, NEVADA

Once again, the traffic on U.S. 95 (Davis Dam Rd.) is greatly distorted because of the closure of U.S. 93 at Hoover Dam. All trucks are being diverted through Laughlin, which boosts the traffic on U.S. 95 in Searchlight as well as across Davis Dam Rd. (See chart on page 4.) Further confirmation of this comes from the traffic flow on U.S. 93, east of the U.S. 95/Railroad Pass Interchange where traffic was down 4.4% in November. This is the route trucks would normally use if the dam route was not closed.

McCARRAN AIRPORT REPORT

Southwest and National Airlines held onto year-to-date (YTD) increases of 7% and 17% respectively, in spite of declines in arriving and departing passengers at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport in November. Southwest had a 5.5% drop in November, but the other four major carriers which account for 75% of the scheduled airline traffic all had double digit drops - America West down 33.1%, holding onto just a 1.2% decline YTD; United, with serious cutbacks to Las Vegas, was down 29.8% in November and off 12.4% YTD. Delta was down 21% for the month and off 13.9% YTD. Startup carrier, National, was down 19.8%, but holds onto their YTD increase of 17%. Total passenger counts for all carriers, including scheduled, non-scheduled, charter and commuter, was down 17.9% in November. Scheduled carriers are off 2% YTD, charters are down 16% YTD, general aviation off 31%. Total traffic through McCarran is down 3.7% YTD.

AIRLINES SHOW SOME RECOVERY ON THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

Several major airline carriers reported a 90% system-wide load factor on November 25^th, the heaviest travel day of the year. But Thanksgiving week traffic was still down 15-20% from last year, consistent with forecast calling for relatively flat airline travel. Domestic airfares fell about 20% during October. Financial forecasters believe that the severe price deterioration in airline fares may be ending.

K-MART SAYS, "WE MADE A MISTAKE".

"There's no doubt we made a mistake by cutting too much advertising while the competition increased theirs", said Chuck Conway, Chief Executive of K-Mart on a third quarter conference call with stock analysts and investors. "Clearly we've learned where the threshold of pain is in advertising." Conway said he will restore part of the drastic cut he made in advertising costs as he struggles to invigorate limp sales of the nation's second largest discounter. This year, Conway slashed 50% in costs relating primarily to advertising

PRESCRIPTION DRUG PROMOTION PAYS OFF

Another "It pays to advertise" story comes from the National Institute for Health Care, Management, Research, and Educational Foundation who reported that the fifty most heavily advertised drugs last year accounted for nearly half the increase in prescription ad spending. Sales of prescription drugs rose 18.8% to $132 billion last year with 47.8% of the increase in sales coming from the fifty most heavily advertised drugs.

HERE COME THE OLYMPICS

Another big advertising opportunity for major advertisers is in the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. In commenting on their investment for clients in the Olympics, Rich Kronengold, Chief Marketing Officer of BBDO, New York, said, "You go fish when the fish are there. When your competition is scaling back, this is the time when leading brands can dominate the marketplace."

Companies taking advantage of competitor's cutbacks in advertising include State Farm, where advertising expenditure is up 112% over 2000, AT&T Wireless up 55%, Campbell Soup up 39%, and Subway up 32%. Motivation behind these increases was in an effort to gain a competitive edge and increase market share.

THE HIGHWAY STATIONS COVER I-15 CLOSURE

Black ice on Interstate 15 caused a complete shutdown of the highway starting at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 15^th, and the closure lasted until 10:30 Sunday morning. As soon as the shutdown occurred, The Highway Stations' Traffic Hotline (1-800-231-9899) was bombarded with a steady stream of calls asking for information on the problem. The Highway Stations gave up-dates directly from the California Highway Patrol every ten minutes, at the same time trying to answer a stream of calls coming in on the Hotline. The Highway Stations was the only source of information on this closure and we are grateful to the many listeners who phoned in the current conditions as they traveled.

GAMING REVENUE REPORT

For the second consecutive month gaming venues in Clark County and the state showed declines in total win. Clark County's percentage of statewide gaming win (share) also showed a drop to 79.7% from 80.5% last October. Statewide, the win was down 5.1% and down 6.1% in Clark County. The biggest decline came on the Strip with a 10.6% drop in win and share dropping to 46.5% from 49.3% last year. In the first quarter of 2001 the Strip's share averaged over 50% and the last time the Strip's market share was this low was in August 1998. Downtown had the best performance with just a 2.7% decline in win and share was actually up to 7.7% from 7.4% last year. Down on the river, Laughlin win was down 4.4% with share up slightly to 5.7% from 5.6% last year.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LAS VEGAS' LIFE-SAVER

After a weekend stay, a Southern California couple was checking out of a major strip hotel. The bellman came to pick up the bags and was instructed to take them to valet parking. He asked, " Are y'all from California?" The couple responded, "Yes." Then the bellman said, "If it weren't for California we'd be dead, especially on weekends. Yep, dead in the water!" I guess that says it all.

CALIFORNIA'S INLAND EMPIRE NOW A "BOOMTOWN"

With a population now over 3 million, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties are showing spectacular growth. The area referred to as Southern California's "Inland Empire" has doubled in population since 1980. In the two largest cities, Riverside and San Bernardino, population is up 13% since 1990. Some of the smaller cities have shown growth of anywhere from 30% to 113%. Driving time to Las Vegas, up Interstate 15 from most of the Inland Empire, is under three hours. This explosion in the population constitutes a huge potential growth market for Las Vegas hotel/casinos.

"THANK YOU, AMERICA"

The Highway Stations' website (thehighwaystations.com) receives messages not only from all across the United States, but from a number of foreign countries. Here's one from an Australian tourist who traveled across the Mojave recently that is particularly gratifying:

To whom it may concern:

Whilst on a self drive holiday of the West Coast of America, (yes, I am a tourist from Australia) I recently tuned in to your station while on holidays driving to Las Vegas from L.A. What a great station, your highway updates were most informative and the music was great. I also tuned in on the drive from Las Vegas to San Francisco and was most disappointed when you began to fade out.

What a beautiful country you have, anyone who says that driving out in the desert is boring must have their eyes closed. The changing landscape is spectacular. Calico Ghost Mining Town was my second favorite place, the generosity of the staff was fabulous (my favourite was Disneyland).

The patriotism of your country is truly something to be proud of. I guess I am writing to say "thank you, America for a wonderful holiday and thank you to everyone who was so wonderful and helpful to us.

I will return to see more of your country when I save up some more money (this could take me a while as our dollar is only worth half of yours!!) But I will return..

Thanks again.

Dianne Green, Sydney, Australia.

Thank you, Dianne, we hope you do return!

(Editor's note: According to Lawrence Research March 2001 survey of I-15 travelers, 18.6% of those traveling the Highway are from somewhere other than California. Be sure and call your account executive for the demographics of the

Highway Tourist.)

NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION NOVEMBER 2001 TRAFFIC SUMMARY
	AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC¹	WEEKDAY ²	WEEKEND ³
I-15 NEV/CA STATELINE (PRIMM, NEVADA)	9.6%	12.8%	8.5%
I-15 MESQUITE	12.6%	12.6%	14.0%
SR 163 LAUGHLIN - Davis Dam Rd.	32.2%	35.5%	28.3%
US 95 AT SEARCHLIGHT	31.6%	35.1%	27.8%

BRIEFING

December 2001

NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION