Sep. 20--MGM Mirage managers have scheduled a second round of meetings today to consider job cuts after the Aladdin on Wednesday eliminated 500 jobs and Paris-Bally's laid off an estimated 250 workers because of a decline in travel after last week's terrorist attacks. 

The nationwide airport shutdown and traveler fears of additional attacks in the United States have pushed the city's hotel occupancy rates from 100 percent to as low as 40 percent. 

Tip-dependent workers have been left with little to do, as casino industry executives struggle with the bottom-line implications of operating billion-dollar properties that are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars every day. 

While no casino boss wants the terrorists to believe they have succeeded in damaging the national and local economies, they speak of their responsibility to protect shareholders' financial interests and the need to cut jobs. 

"It excruciating. Forget about any messages to terrorists," said MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman. "We have to sit across a desk from our colleagues, our co-workers and talk about them not having work. 

"To see any sense that these bastards are successful is frustrating beyond belief. It just makes me want our nation to lash out at them even more." 

A number of casino executives have been reluctant in recent days to speak of possible job cuts, saying such talk was premature and cold hearted in light of the nearly 6,000 deaths in New York City and Washington, D.C. 

Harrah's Entertainment and Venetian representatives failed to return Wednesday phone calls seeking comment, as did a top Mandalay Resort Group executive, who has yet to confirm the number of jobs lost since the company announced layoffs on Monday. 

But the troubling financial results of the past weekend and similarly disturbing business projections for weeks to come have led to the cuts as well as reductions in worker hours and requests that employees take paid and unpaid vacations. 

For example: 

-- Aladdin workers first learned of the layoffs Wednesday, with supervisors spreading the word at the 13-month-old property, which has been plagued by financial troubles since its opening. 

"We're one of an unhappy number of companies," said Aladdin spokesman Fred Lewis, whose megaresort is laying off nearly 16 percent of its work force. 

-- MGM Mirage bosses will meet with 1,200 managers today, the same number they met with Wednesday, to discuss recent results at the company's Nevada, Detroit and Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos. The latter two have performed better than their Nevada holdings because they are dependent on local and drive-in customers. 

"We're trying to give everyone a sense of what's going on and where the company stands," said Feldman, who noted his company has no immediate plans for layoffs. "We're acknowledging the fact that there is no precedent for this." 

-- Station Casinos, which controls more than half of the Las Vegas area's locals gambling market, could initiate a shorter work week for employees. 

"We're making every attempt to delay layoffs as long as possible, but ultimately we can't rule out layoffs, unfortunately," said Glenn Christenson, the company's chief financial officer. 

-- Park Place Entertainment let workers go from the jointly run Paris-Bally's complex, but company executives declined to say how many workers lost their jobs. Company bosses also were unwilling to speculate when the economy might improve enough to let workers return. 

Park Place's Caesars Palace, Flamingo and Las Vegas Hilton were not affected by the job cuts because they have a different operating mix than the fly-in, tourist-dependent Paris and Bally's. 

Caesars is easier to fill than many of its competitors because it has just 2,454 hotel rooms, a relatively modest figure by Las Vegas standards. 

The Flamingo targets bus tour groups, at a time when the city's drive-in traffic remains relatively healthy, while the Las Vegas Hilton caters to conventions, a segment that is expected to improve in the coming weeks. 

But the near-term outlook for Paris and Bally's is not good, according to company executives, prompting the layoff of about 3 1/2 percent of the work force -- a figure Park Place spokeswoman Debbie Munch declined to confirm. 

"We can't speculate whether or when we can bring back the people who have been laid off," Munch said. "We're hoping the industry will recover from the downturn, and the question is the rate of recovery at this time." 

Periodic layoffs are not unusual for Las Vegas casinos. The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is traditionally a time for job cuts, as hotel occupancies dip into the 80 percent range. 

"You never (notice) it because it happens every year," said D. Taylor, staff director for Culinary Local 226, which represents an estimated 45,000 Las Vegas workers. 

Workers were let go for several weeks during the worldwide travel slowdown caused by the start of the 1991 Gulf War. But the recent attacks and fears that terrorists remain in the United States and could strike again has created a traveler skittishness that has left casino industry bosses and their employees wondering when the city will experience a post-Christmaslike surge in business. 

"I think this is uncharted territory. So that has led to a heightened sense of insecurity," Taylor said. "We're very optimistic, but at the same time this is going to be looked at on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis. I think we're all a little unsure when air travel will pick up to full steam." 

-----To see more of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lvrj.com. 

(c) 2001, Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. MGG, HET, STN, STN PR, PPE,