Region's casinos eye gas prices as summer gets going

As the summer tourist season swings into full gear, Nevada casino managers wonder how much high gas prices will hurt their business.

Pete Pavlakis, floor manager at Jim Kelley's Tahoe Nugget in Crystal Bay, said he's sure it's going to affect their business.

"Our locals - we think of them as locals, the folks from Grass Valley and Sacramento - come up two and three times a week," he said. His concern is that many of the Nugget's regular customers will be making fewer trips.

Some of the other Crystal Bay casino administrators said they didn't think there'd be much of an impact.

Nancy Lynch, general manager at the Cal-Neva Resort, said she's hoping people in the Bay Area will take shorter trips, coming up to Tahoe, rather than going up or down the coast.

"I'm optimistic. I hope this is what happens," she said.

Tom Feutsch, executive manager of the Crystal Bay Club Casino, said higher gas prices haven't affected them so far.

"Our numbers are increasing because we're focusing on the locals. If prices continue to soar, it will affect tourism," he said.

At the Tahoe Biltmore Lodge and Casino, Amy Price, marketing manager, said, "We expect a great summer."

"I don't imagine it's really going to impact our business here at the Biltmore," Price added.

On the South Shore Harrah's spokesman John Packer said his resort is concerned that rising pump prices could make some Northern Californians think twice about making the trip to Lake Tahoe.

The resort is keeping a close eye on traffic on U.S. Highway 50 from the San Francisco Bay area and the Central Valley.

''We do have some contingency plans. We're looking at direct mailings, offers of fill-ups if we see the need,'' Packer said. ''That's something in our back pocket if we notice travel patterns are changing.''

Tom Cargill, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno said he thinks high pump prices would keep some people away from the Reno-Tahoe area.

''It hurts. It has to,'' he said. ''Everything Nevada does, and depends on, is related to getting people to the state. And that will get more expensive.''

But at Boomtown Hotel-Casino along Interstate 80 west of Reno, high gas prices have had little effect so far, said General Manager Jack Fisher.

''We feel the (high prices) will have minimal impact. People will accept it and make the trip up,'' he said.

In Reno, Whittlesea Checker Taxi boosted its fares by 10 percent on June 1 in response to rising gas prices, said General Manager John Brenton.

Business over the Memorial Day weekend was disappointing, he said.

''People just weren't moving around. We're not sure if it was due to gas prices,'' Brenton said.

Cargill said Nevada resorts already are facing challenges from expanded Indian gambling in California, and high gas prices pose just one more challenge.

''It's but another cloud on the horizon,'' he said. ''The next couple of years will be difficult years for Nevada.''

While prices might begin easing in some areas, they generally will remain high through the high-consumption summer months, analysts said.

- Bonanza News Service and wire service reports contributed to this report