The Nevada Gaming Control Board released data last week, showing that gambling revenue had in dropped January. Casinos statewide won $984.6 million, showing a drop of 3% compared to January 2018. The decrease from year-on-year numbers, when gambling revenue skimmed the $1 billion mark, was mainly due to a drop in baccarat, blackjack and sportsbooks revenue.
Regulators are keeping a careful eye on the Las Vegas Strip, which reported on a 0.9% drop in gambling revenue for the current fiscal year, when all other major markets saw revenues increase.
“Everything is kind of being disrupted by baccarat,” said Nevada Gaming Board senior analyst, Michael Lawton. “The overall picture of what we’re seeing is the baccarat hold percentage is kind of holding us back or disrupting those other positive trends that we are seeing, for example, slot win is up fiscal year to date 4% and has increased five consecutive times.”
Highlights of January 2019 Nevada Gambling Revenue Numbers
- Revenue from baccarat was down to $95.9 million – a 15.1% drop year on year.
- Casinos also reported on a 15.1% drop in 21 (blackjack) numbers compared to January 2018.
- Sportsbooks dropped 41.7% to $14.6 million year on year.
- Gambling revenues on the Strip reported a 4.1% drop to $532.3 million.
- Downtown Las Vegas revenues dropped 7.8% to $52.1 million.
- 4 million people visited Las Vegas in January 2019 – a 2.1% increase year on year.
- Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported on an 11.5% increase in convention attendance to over 683,000 people.
- The average daily room rate increased nearly 7% to just over $160.
- Occupancy across Las Vegas climbed 1.7 percentage points to 85.5%
- Reno casinos saw a slight 1.1% dip in revenues to $44.2 million.
- Nevada brought in just under $90 million in tax dollars on revenue that was generated in January 2019 – a 30% increase year on year.
