Posted By: Judy Smith

Mon Nov 13, 10:36 PM ET

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Casino operator MGM Mirage Inc. is
confident that demand for its Las Vegas Strip gambling and
entertainment offerings will remain strong as the key New Year
holiday approaches, a senior executive said on Monday.
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"Despite what you might have read, the market out here
continues to do well," Dan D'Arrigo, senior vice president of
finance at Las Vegas-based MGM, said at an investor meeting,
commenting on broad fears of a potential consumer spending
slowdown as interest rates rise and gas prices remain high.

The company earlier this month reported a 68-percent rise
in third-quarter profit, but a long line of new casino projects
-- including MGM's CityCenter set to debut in 2009 -- has led
to concerns about potential oversupply on the Las Vegas Strip.

"We expect New Year's and Chinese New Year (mid- to late
February 2007) to be strong events city-wide and no one has a
better exposure to those high-end customers than we do,"
D'Arrigo said.

He also said MGM expects to continue to upgrade its Strip
properties along the lines of what has been done at the Mirage
-- which saw cash flow rise 34 percent in the third-quarter
following the addition of new restaurants, upgraded public
space and a new Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show.

"We are comfortable that MGM can achieve mid-single-digit
revenue growth in 2007," Bear Stearns analyst Joseph Greff said
in a research note on Monday.

The analyst, who rates shares of MGM as "outperform," said
the company's stock, which closed at $45.82 the New York Stock
Exchange, does not "completely reflect the value of MGM's
current operations nor does it reflect its development pipeline
or land bank."

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