Nevada Gaming Revenue Drops 6% To $833 Million In June

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has released its financial results for June, revealing a 6% fall in casino revenues to $832.5 million compared to $885.8 million collected in the same month last year. Nevada’s revenue figures have now declined for the third time in four months.
The Las Vegas Strip accounts for more than half Nevada’s gambling revenue and is therefore a key indicator of the state’s overall performance. June, however, saw revenue at The Strip’s 37 casinos decline by 4.5% to $483.7 million compared to $506.7 million for June 2011. Breaking the figures down further, slots were down 4.5%, blackjack was down 4.8%, craps down 21.9%, baccarat down 3.9% to $103 million, while roulette bucked the trend up by 33%.
Looking across Nevada, just two areas recorded an increase in their monthly revenue, with Washoe Couty up 7.26% to $66.78m, and Mesquite up 5.25% to $8.88m. On the other side of the coin, Downtown Las Vegas fell 12.7% to $33.68m; North Las Vegas was down 26.1% to $16.8m; Laughlin dropped 20.3% to $32.6m; and the Boulder Strip declined 22.8% to $50.52m.
One positive coming from June’s results was the amount wagered statewide, which was up 3% to $11.2 billion. Commenting on this figure, gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski from Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets, said: “We were encouraged by the increase in Strip betting volumes, particularly when taking into account that it occurred during a traditionally seasonally soft summer month.”
In addition, the number of tourists visiting Las Vegas was also up in June by 2.1% to 3.39 million compared to June 2011. Helping the tourism figures along was the Manny Pacquiao versus Timothy Bradley fight at the MGM Grand, a two-day baccarat tournament held at the Bellagio and the international annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), which lasted three days and attracted around 300,000 visitors.
Finally, Nevada collected $38 million in gaming taxes for June down 27% from last year.