CityCenter -- is getting ready to open its first phase in just a few weeks. A big concern is whether it will mark another successful expansion of the Las Vegas Strip or merely dump lots of new capacity onto a city where hotels have been begging for guests in the economic downturn.

Kirk Kerkorian the 92-year-old billionaire investor so-called father of the mega-resort and richest man in Los Angeles worked odd jobs as a boy during the Great Depression and never went to high school. His fortune which Forbes recently estimated at $5 billion began with a small plane he purchased in 1944. His is a rags-to-riches story pulled from the hardscrabble America of that time. The youngest of four children Kerkorian was born in 1917 in Fresno California the son of Armenian immigrants. Kerkorian spoke Armenian at home and learned English in the streets. His father was a prosperous farmer ...

The hard data points are at best mixed, but as the casino industry gathers for its annual Global Gaming Expo here this week, operators are seeing glimmerings of hope that the worst -- at least for this downturn -- may finally be over for suffering Sin City.

Shares of International Game Technology need to fall back to the teens to better reflects challenging industry trends.

Slump in Las Vegas also added to red ink.

Three-Dimensional Video Navigation Immerses User in the CityCenter Experience