“They wanted the good life,” says hotel and gaming magnate Steve Wynn, of his father’s generation. “Casino gambling is colourful and dramatic and theatrical?.?.?.?They shot crap and bet baseball and football and were rather cavalier about their income for solid reason. They made it themselves.” The same phenomenon is happening today, only now in China, as the newly rich storm into Macau resorts to gamble and shop for luxury goods.

But what of Las Vegas, where American disposable income goes to be disposed? If Vegas is the glittery, vulgar, scantily clad canary in the country’s economic coal mine, Wynn Resorts’ recent performance in the city is worrisome. In the first quarter, the company’s gambling revenues were down nearly a fifth from the year before. While this figure is always volatile, non-casino revenues, which had averaged double-digit increases over the past four quarters, were flat. Room prices were up, but occupancy dropped 9 percentage points. This is particularly troubling because of Wynn’s position at the high end of the market.

A wider view is somewhat more reassuring. At Las Vegas Sands’ operations on the Strip, occupancy fell only slightly and prices held, as they did at MGM Resorts’ Strip properties, which reported rising occupancy. Aggregate data from the city’s Convention and Visitors Authority show that in the first two months of this year, visits and convention attendance were both up a bit, while room prices rose a healthy 8 per cent.