Happy New Year?

Since Las Vegas is looking at a 3.5% increase in visitation from New Year’s Eve 2009 and 98% occupancy, the answer is “Yes.”

Thank God, because it hopefully means that an equivocal recovery on the Strip is finally gaining traction, even if revelers continue to spend cautiously. Analysts are even dredging up their beloved “pent-up demand” cliché. Meanwhile, debate still rages over whether Nevada will regain the heights it attained three years ago, buoyed by a tsunami of too-easy credit. How much has consumer behavior changed? For instance, I’m hearing that Harrah’s Lake Tahoe can’t pry players away from Cache Creek Casino Resort, near Sacramento, even when offering comps in the $1,000-$5,000 range. If you want a good gambling value, chances are you’ll find it closer to home. Here, in the land of the proverbial $8 Budweiser, casinos appear to be standing firm with their price-gouging, reckoning that consumers will eventually to free-spending habits of yesteryear.

Of course there will always be those for whom money is no object and upon whom Vegas can always rely. They may lake taste (“spiked-metal chandelier … stone countertops resembling alligator skin … a headboard of cowhide cut in a geometric pattern of black and gray[,] and glossy light sconces cut from manta ray skin“) but their money’s the right color.

It’ll be a very happy new year for Las Vegas Sands COO Michael Leven. He stands to pocket approximately $78 million in the first phase of a planned selldown of his Sands stock. Given where LVS share price was (a low ebb of less than $2/share) when Leven took office and where it is now, he’s got a mighty strong case that he deserves that windfall.

Sex, drugs & Hard Rock. Illegal narcotics and public copulation at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino? Naaaaaaah! Morgans Hotel Group paid the fine without accepting responsibility, which is par for the company’s M.O. of blowing dough on the Hard Rock without being accountable for a failure to yield results.

New year, new effort. After walking away from the discussion with much rancor last year, state leaders in Massachusetts may resume debate on casino legalization sooner and more eagerly than expected. Casino opponents in the Legislature hold a weaker hand this session. The big question is, Which will prove stronger: An almost veto-proof state Senate or Gov. Deval Patrick‘s ‘My way or the highway’ determination that no racinos will be granted?

Giving the devil its due. It wouldn’t be right to end the year without acknowledging the excellent, on-the-ball coverage by the Las Vegas Review-Journal of Sen. Harry Reid‘s last-minute attempt to legitimize online poker in the U.S. Both the paper’s Washington, D.C. bureau and new hand Chris Sieroty kept readers closely apprised of every twist and turn in Sixty Votes’ too-little, too-late initiative. With ex-publisher Sherman Frederick off the premises and anachronistic ex-editor Thomas Mitchell relegated to a back room, the R-J is starting to get the lead out under new Editor Michael Hengel. Even its ugly-as-sin Web site is starting to look better.

As for Internet poker, the failure of Reid’s belated push will mean that individual states will soon be getting into the act (probably not stopping at poker, either) and daring the Obama administration to do anything about it. Hindsight being 20-20, this may be even more of a win for the casino industry, since Uncle Sam had his shot at a form of federal casino tax and muffed it. Having dodged that bullet, Big Gaming gets to tackle stateside ‘Net betting in the state-by-state fashion it prefers for most other issues.

Finally, kudos to charitable benefactor Station Casinos. It’s making a $13,000 donation to the Salvation Army after the latter’s kettles were plundered by Grinch-like thieves. The holiday spirit continues to reign.