LAS VEGAS, Nevada: Amid the worst economic downturn in decades for this gambling haven, gaming giant MGM Mirage began taking the first of 12,000 job applications Monday for a new multi-billion dollar development.

The MGM Mirage, owner of Bellagio, Mirage and eight other Las Vegas Strip casinos, is in the finishing stages of constructing CityCenter, a 76-acre site that is the most expensive privately financed building project in US history.

The first building, a 57-story, 1,500-unit hotel-condominium called Vdara, is scheduled to open in October, with Mandarin Oriental hotel, another hotel-condo building, a 500,000-square-foot shopping center and a 4,000-room hotel-casino named Aria expected to debut in December.

While MGM Mirage has reduced its workforce by more than 3,500 jobs in recent months because of the economic slowdown's impact on tourism, company officials say they expect to fill 12,000 positions to staff the new buildings.

"There will be a net increase of jobs, no question of that, and it will be thousands," said MGM Mirage senior vice president Alan Feldman, noting the jobs range from front desk receptionists to accountants.

Feldman said applicants won't receive offers until the summer and will start in the Autumn.

The mammoth jobs drive comes as Las Vegas is slumping.

MGM Mirage, in fact, announced the sale of one of its Strip resorts, the Treasure Island, for US$775 million last month to be paid primarily in cash, to improve the company's liquidity as cash flow has slowed.

MGM stock has fallen 78 per cent in the past year, although it is up 40 per cent since the Treasure Island sale was announced on Dec. 15.

- AFP/yb