Las Vegas ? Las Vegas air travelers are arriving hours early these days  and gambling more at McCarran International Airport, where slot machines sit side-by-side with baggage carousels and departure gates.

The result of tightened security after Sept. 11 has been a windfall for the nation’s seventh-largest airport as gambling revenues and some other concessions have taken off.

“It’s hurry up and wait,” said Sandy Ortiz, 56, waiting in Las Vegas for a flight to San Jose, Calif., and sipping a cup of Starbuck’s coffee. Her husband gave in to a beckoning slot machine.

“That machine, right there,” 59-year-old Adolph Ortiz said with a grin. “It’s saying, ‘Adolph, come here!”‘

McCarran, which has hit a nearly half-million-dollar jackpot in increased gambling revenues, is unique among major U.S. airports because it offers slot machines in airport concourses and gate waiting areas. But its gains reflect a concession boomlet that analysts see as travelers arrive earlier at airports to clear stricter security and are left waiting for flights with reduced meal service.

“People are buying food because they’re not going to get fed on the airplane,” according to Sheldon Klapper, president of the Center for Airport Management, a firm in Portland, Ore., that tracks business at 30 airports around the country. “But a stronger motivation is they’re just there and they have to do something.”

In some airports, despite significant drops in passenger numbers, concession sales have remained steady  indicating that after clearing security, passengers are spending more than spare change in their spare time.

“Previously, where people would go out and have a latte, now they’re having lunch,” said Bob Parker, spokesman for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington state. “They’ve got more time.”

Not all airports are seeing an increase in concessions. At Logan International Airport in Boston, retail and restaurant businesses have suffered with stricter security and fewer passengers passing through.

“People don’t have time to shop. They’re standing in security lines,” said Phil Orlandella, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Even though 1.5 million fewer passengers passed through the Las Vegas airport in the last three months of 2001, compared with the year before, McCarran raked in $8.5 million in slot revenues  $473,618 more than in the same period a year ago.

“It’s an hour’s entertainment,” said Bernie Rich, 59, a Bloomingdale, Ill., resident who walked away with $4.70 after plunking $10 into a slot machine while waiting for his aunt to arrive. His wife and a cousin spent the hour cruising the shops of a pre-security concourse.