That’s where the tourists come in—38.9 million of them to Las Vegas last year alone. Sin City is currently home to more than 130,000 hotel rooms—more than any other city in the world—and more are under construction.

While it’s no secret that visitors are the driving force behind Las Vegas, the rest of the state also enjoys some of the runoff. The Nevada Commission on Tourism estimates that nearly 51.5 million people visited Nevada from October 2005 through October 2006, and many of them headed to the western part of the state. Dubbed “the biggest little city in the world,” Reno and other cities in Washoe County draw more than five million visitors annually with their own casinos and outdoor activities.

Economic Boom

The increases in population and tourism have fed into—and perhaps off of—a favorable economic climate in Nevada, which, according to the NRA’s forecast, will lead the U.S. in both real disposable personal income and total employment growth in 2007. These increases, at 5.7 percent and 3.1 percent respectively, bode well for the restaurant industry, says the NRA’s Riehle.

“In general, when you have a state with income and employment growth it corresponds to record sales growth [for restaurants in that state],” he says.

The formula is simple: Nearly half of every dollar Americans spend goes to restaurants. So, the more money Americans spend, the more restaurants get. With more Nevadans employed and enjoying a larger amount of disposable income, restaurants in the state are bound to reap the rewards.

And judging by the way things are going with the Nevada economy, those rewards could be substantial.

“Our No. 1 and No. 2 industries—gaming and mining—are both doing well and are continuing to mark record activities,” says Tim Rubald, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development.

The state also boasts a rapidly growing manufacturing sector and a thriving construction industry driven by gaming and tourism. In short, it’s not just the restaurant industry that’s seeing growth in Nevada, and that growth really isn’t anything new.

“It started when [casino developer] Steve Wynn started building his mega resorts in Las Vegas in the late ’80s and early ’90s,” Rubald says. “It’s basically been going up since then, with a few cyclical breaks.”

CBER’s Schwer isn’t so quick to credit the casino mogul with starting Nevada on its climb to economic prosperity, asserting that the state’s fortunes actually began looking up as early as 1931, when it became the only state to legalize gambling within its borders.