Layoffs Hit Las Vegas Strip

Major Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino operators announced the layoffs of hundreds of employees Wednesday.

Park Place Entertainment, MGM Mirage and Mandalay Resort Group have laid off employees at each of the companies’ hotel-casinos while the industry waits for visitors to return after last week’s terrorist attacks on the East Coast, casino executives said.

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., the state’s second-largest employer, and the privately held Venetian hotel-casino said layoffs were not anticipated.

Debbie Munch, spokeswoman for Park Place, said several hundred workers have been laid off at both Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas, which together employ 7,000.

Further layoffs cannot be ruled out, she said.

Mandalay Resort began laying off people Tuesday, said John Marz, Mandalay’s vice president of marketing.