Last week, Aria, the hotel-casino "centerpiece" of CityCenter, was inaugurated in a much flashy and generous ceremony, and now all eyes of the recession-hit Vegas are set on the new offering which could either be a sign of the city's jump back from recession or another "symptom of its ailments". Whatever it is, and most Vegas people are praying that it is a sign of the former, all hopes of the city have now been pegged at the CityCenter complex.

"Lots of people want CityCenter to be an economic miracle. We've been so dependent for so long on massive openings and massive spending. We've hit a wall", said Mary Riddel, Interim Director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The CityCenter, a plush 67-acre area of high-end hotels, condos and shops, might be the last major Vegas strip to be opening over the coming years, and is therefore being given a much-grander
-than-usual welcome.

In light of the many recent losses that have been incurred, Nevada is desperately looking for a saving grace. For the month of October, gaming revenue of the city dropped to its lowest level since
2003.

"If CityCenter doesn't change anything, Las Vegas is really in trouble", said William Eadington, Director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno.