Nevada Casino Revenue Down 3.11% To $859 million In August

This week, the Nevada Gaming Control Board released their casino gambling results for August revealing a 3.11% fall in revenue to $859.2 million compared to $886.9 million for the same month in 2011.
In August, the Las Vegas strip whose 41 casinos traditionally accounts for over half Nevada’s revenue, fared rather better than the state average down just 1.2% to $490.9 million, despite visitor numbers being up by 1.5% to 3.34 million. Helping to lift the Strip’s revenue figure was Baccarat, whose volume wagered reached $1 billion in August, with winnings rising by 32% to $124.4 million. However, slot winnings were down 9.1% to $230.9 million, craps off by 42.9% and roulette down 19.8%, although blackjack tables saw a moderate increase in revenue of 3.6%. Overall, though, table games were up 7.6% but excluding baccarat the Strip’s results would have fallen by 9% and statewide by 7%. Worryingly, gaming revenue on the Strip’s has now fallen for three out of the last four months.
Commenting on August’s casino results, Joe Greff of J.P. Morgan said: “We believe these results are consistent with investor expectations of relatively soft summer spend trends on the Strip as evidenced by our weekly room rate survey. At the end of the day, we believe these results point to a continued uneven recovery on the Las Vegas Strip, which represents no change from prior and more recent views.”
Aside from the Strip, other Clark County markets experienced more dramatic declines, with downtown Las Vegas down 8.4%; North Las Vegas off 13.1%; and the Boulder Strip down 17.7%. Elsewhere, Washoe County recorded a 5.1% increase in revenue to $68.1 million, but South Lake Tahoe fell 19.5% to $22 million and Carson City was down by 1.7%.
Finally, based on August’s results the state collected $49.6 million in casino taxes for September representing a 5.2% increase in tax revenue over the same month last year.