Nevada Casino Revenue Falls 0.58% To $806 Million In April 2011

Nevada casino revenue has fallen by less than 1% in April to $806 million compared to $810 million in the same period last year, according to the latest figures released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
As well as showing a stabilisation in Nevada’s gambling revenue, there are other positives to take from April’s revenue results. These include a 4.8% increase in visitors to Las Vegas to 3.35 million people, as well as the first time since 2007 that slot machines have increased in revenue for two consecutive month.
Despite actually falling, Nevada’s April slots figures would have risen if not for Nevada casinos’ accounting methods, and as  JPMorgan Chase & Co analyst Joseph Greff  explains:
“It’s kind of a complicated month. We estimate that (about) $16 million in slot win will be recognized in May. Normalizing for the slot issue, we estimate that April slot win would have been (up) 2.5 percent, versus (down) 4.3 percent.”
Overall, the Las Vegas Strip’s 43 casinos collected 2.2% less in revenue in April at $427.5 million. Despite Craps increasing by 23.8%, blackjack fell by 12.4%. Likewise, roulette was down 9.78%; baccarat was down 3.3% and  slot machines was down 4.2%.
Elsewehere across the state of Nevada,  downtown Las Vegas revenue was down 5.7% ; Laughlin was down 4.1%, North Las Vegas down 7.9%, Carson Valley down 3.3% and Washoe County down by 0.6%.
Alternatively, recording a rise in revenue was the Boulder Strip up 2.5%, Mesquite up 1.8%, South Lake Tahoe up 14.9% and Elko County up 4.8%.
Commenting on the latests figures, gaming analyst Dennis Farrell Jr from Wells Fargo Securities said: “Even though April results were somewhat soft, we continue to believe that the Las Vegas market is in a gradual recovery.”