Tix4Tonight has expanded its discount show tickets business in Las Vegas from a single stop on the Strip in 2002 to 13 outlets. In 2009, Tix4Tonight sold 1.3 million tickets to Las Vegas shows and 370,000 meal discounts.

"In good times, discounting is a very good business," company CEO Mitch Francis says. "In bad times, it works even better."

Tix4Tonight advertises half-price, same-day show tickets, although the discount can sometimes be less, especially for more popular shows and performance times. Customers buy vouchers from the discounter, then redeem the vouchers at the show's box office for the actual tickets.

These days, almost every Vegas show uses Tix4To[0xad]night to sell same-day seats that otherwise would go empty, Francis says.

Lake Las Vegas woes. Lake Las Vegas, 17 miles east of the Strip, was planned as an upscale, multipurpose resort community with a retail and dining village, condo-hotels, full-service-hotels, golf courses, million-dollar homes and a casino, all around a manmade lake.

As the recession continues, two of three golf courses have closed; the lone casino, the MonteLago, was to shut down earlier this year; and a Ritz-Carlton, one of two hotels there, will close in May.