Traditionally, when the economy takes a turn, the gambling industry weathers the hard times fairly well. Like the liquor industry and several other industries, the gambling industry has always been much more resilient during times of economic pressure than the average industry. Unfortunately for the gambling industry, it seems this trend is no longer holding true.

Since the beginning of 2008, the gambling industry has been feeling the effects of the downturn in the economy. January, February, March and April were all very slow months, but none of those months could compare to the gambling industry's performance in May. Last week, the May 2008 Monthly Win and Percentage Fee Tax Collection report was issued by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. According to this report, in comparison to one year ago, there was a statewide decline in gambling revenue of 15.7%, and almost every single region ofLas Vegas suffered a revenue decline. To top things off, revenues on the Strip were down an alarming 16.44%.

To put the Strip's decline in revenue in perspective, it was the second worst performance in a single month that the Strip that has had in over ten years. This significant decline also signaled the fifth month in a row that the Strip has had a lower performing month than it did in the same month of 2007.

As you would expect, this new report sent another blow to gambling stocks that have already been in a significant slump. In October 2007, MGM was trading close to one hundred dollars per share. However, the stock had not only declined to slightly over thirty dollars towards the beginning of this month, but knocked down another ten percent after the report was released (as did many other stocks in the gambling industry).

With this consistently poor performance in Las Vegas during 2008, there is a lot of curiosity about the impact of the World Series of Poker on the gambling industry's performance in June. Casinos are hoping the large flood of poker players will help them make a turn for the better.