Nevada Casinos Recover After Posting Third Monthly Revenue Increase In October 2010

Things seem to be looking up for state of Nevada recently, after posting yet another increase in its monthly casino revenues.
The figures released by the Gaming Control Board show in October Nevada casinos won $888.6 million, which is an 11% increase over the same month in 2009. The state also benefited from a 22% increase in casino gambling taxes to just over $60 million.
Since Macau overtook Las Vegas as the ‘World’s biggest gambling resort’ in 2007, Nevada had only posted a monthly rise in its year on year results in November 2009 and February 2010. The last few months, however, have seen things turn around slightly, with an 11.5% rise in August, a 1% rise in September and now an 11% rise in October, which has got analysts predicting Nevada may just have turned the corner.
The Las Vegas strip is a key indicator as to the condition of Nevada’s gaming industry as it help generate over half the state’s gambling revenues. Throughout October, Las Vegas strip revenue soared by an impressive 16% to $494.8 million compared to 426.3 million a year earlier, and commenting on the promising results, Union Gaming analyst Bill Lerner said:
“This data continues to suggest we’ve moved beyond stabilization in Las Vegas and have entered the early stages of recovery. Everything we are seeing on the visitation front … along with convention similarly underscores positive inflection in Las Vegas.”
The rest of Nevada’s figures were not quite as impressive, though, with Washoe County up 4.3% to $70 million, Elko County up 9% to $23.6 million,  but South Lake Tahoe down 4.5% and Carson Valley area down 5.6%.
Nevertheless, Nevada October casino figure have caused much widespread excitement amongst analysts, but with casino expert Jonathan Galaviz at Globalysis striking an optimistic but cautionary note when he warned:
“In our view, these results indicate a statewide stabilization of Nevada’s casino gaming industry. Stabilization does not mean every month will be up; there will be some down months. However, the long-term trajectory of both casino revenue and tourism visitation should be positive for Nevada into 2011.”