Nevada Casino Revenues Up 3.5% in September

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has released its latest results for September, revealing a 3.5% increase in revenues to $949 million compared to the same month in 2015. The Silver State subsequently collected $63 million by way of gambling tax revenues, representing a healthy 9% improvement versus September of last year.
September’s casino results also mark the third time in four months that year-on-year revenues have risen, and for the first nine months of 2016 business is currently higher by 1%. Furthermore, over the same period only two of Nevada’s casino markets have lower revenues compared to 2015, namely the Las Vegas Strip (-0.3%), and Carson Valley (-1.3%).
Generating the biggest revenues last month was Nevada’s slot machine operations which brought in $586 million, up by 2.4% year-on-year. Table games, too, noted a healthy 5.5% rise in business to $363 million, although from that tally baccarat, the game of choice for high rollers, actually fell by 7.8% to $93 million. Meanwhile, blackjack revenues surged by 18.5% to $107 million; roulette skyrocketed by 50.4% to $31.6 million; although craps revenues were down by 21.9% to $28.1 million.
The Las Vegas Strip traditionally accounts for more than half of Nevada’s gaming revenues, and September was no exception with business up by 7.5% to $543 million. Downtown Las Vegas also posted a 3.7% revenue rise to $49 million, with similarly positive results also noted around the state, including Reno up 1.7% to $54 million, and South Lake Tahoe up 2.3% to $22 million in September.
Nevertheless, Carson Valley (-0.7%), and the Boulder Strip (-3.8%) both noted y-o-y declines, with the latter market’s negative growth apparently due to timing slot revenue collections. Commenting on the issue, Michael Lawton from the Gaming Control Board explained:
“If you recall last month, the market was significantly up due to the same factor, but it was a positive impact. If you combined the two months, the market is down just 1.8 percent in total and slots are down just 0.3 percent. As for the three-month trend, I am not too concerned considering the longer-term trend shows the market is up 1 percent calendar year to date after a 3.8 percent decrease during the last quarter.”