As Michael Stipe of REM fame once opined, it’s the end of the world as we know it – but this time nobody feels fine. This week’s GamblingCompliance podcast addresses the 800 pound gorilla in the room – the week’s stock market crashes, the looming global recession and the degree to which the gambling industry will be affected.

Like the rest of the world, the gaming industry has been the spectator this week to one of the biggest financial collapses of all time. Those with an eye for history have been busily reading books about 1929 – while the rest of us have been worrying about whether we should be hoarding our ready cash under the mattress. As one US analyst said this week, never has he seen more fear and paranoia abroad.

Or as another analyst put it, the crisis which first hit in August of 2007 resembles a slow motion train wreck. Only now, many months after the newspapers first started talking of a credit crunch, have we truly woken up to the true extent of the impact at the front of the train.

Among the dazed and confused passengers are the US casino operators. For a number of months now, Las Vegas has been reporting year-on-year declines in gaming numbers as US consumers began pulling back on their spending.

Only this week, the Nevada Gaming Commission reported that revenues across the state dropped 8.1 percent in August, below the year-to-date trend of 6.5 percent. It represents an improvement on July, but September is tipped to be much worse.

Elsewhere, there seems to be some recognition of tougher times ahead with the news that Atlantic City is delaying plans to impose a total smoking ban on its casinos. It won’t do anything to reverse sentiment – but it at least won’t make a bad situation worse for the New Jersey casino sector.

In Europe, it is the spread betters that were the most obvious victims of the crash on Friday. IG Index was down over 10 percent at one point on rumours that spread betting houses were selling clients positions if they did not have the margin in their account to cover losses, but without making the applicable client margin call which in safer times is the normal procedure, thus giving clients time to raise the necessary cash.

Across the rest of the listed sector, there were falls in line with the major indices, though with some standout fallers throughout the week.

Inspired got caught in the nets of the Icelandic banks crisis and has suffered accordingly, down 15 percent to a mere 12.5p as of Friday following a 25 percent fall the previous day; PartyGaming is suffering from recent analyst comment suggesting its poker business is less than healthy and its share price has slumped to 144p; Ladbrokes, meanwhile, has been hit by the possibility of legacy risk related to guarantees given when the company was part of the Hilton Group and its share price was lumbering around the 161p level at the end of a tumultuous week.

But in truth, the big story is much more global than that. What the world finally woke up to this week was that a recession is now inevitable. And in such circumstances, no one does well. There is pretty much no industry which, to use the fabled terminology, is recession-proof; certainly not the all-new, entertainment-friendly, land-based and online gambling offerings.

But is it all gloom and doom? Well, unfortunately, it seems so. The only bright spot we could find this week came with Sheldon Adelson’s appearance on CNBC early in the week, explaining his $475m injection into LVS. Asked about the general market mayhem, Adelson suggested the authorities should band short-selling altogether. “It’s just gambling,” he said with a straight face. “If traders want to do that, they can come along to one of my casinos and play craps.”

Well, it might be a better option than putting your money in a bank.