Nevada Casino Revenue Falls 2% to $909M in November

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has released its latest financial results revealing a 2.3% revenue drop to $909.1 million in November compared to the $930.4 million taken in the same month a year earlier. The state subsequently collected $49.5 million in gambling taxes, lower by 11.1% versus year-on-year.
Interestingly, the Las Vegas Strip was one of the few areas where revenues actually declined year-on-year, and commenting on the situation, Michael Lawton, the Gaming Control Board’s Tax and License Division senior research analyst, said that “If you factor out the Strip, the state would have been up.”
In total, The Strip generated $485.8 million in November, representing a 6% year-on-year decline, while at the same time visitor numbers were also down by 3.7% to 3.3 million, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Nevertheless, Michael Lawton dismissed the suggestion that the lower numbers were connected to the mass shooting which occurred a month earlier on October 1st, and as he subsequently explains:
“This month specifically I don’t have anything to support that event being a contributing factor to why we were dow.. You had poor performance in baccarat, twenty-one and sports betting.”
In fact, table game revenues actually decreased by a sizeable 13.2% to $282.3 million last month, with baccarat falling by 23.5% to $64.9 million compared to November of 2016. Nevertheless, security has been stepped up for the New Year celebrations, with up to 350,000 tourists expected to show up on the Las Vegas Strip on the day.
Amongst the top gambling companies which own casinos on the Strip are Las Vegas Sands Corp, Wynn Resorts, and MGM Resorts International, while Boyd Gaming Corporation runs three casinos in the downtown area.
Elsewhere around the state, however, the news was much more positive with Downtown Las Vegas up 6.82%, North Las Vegas up 2.56%, Laughlin up 4.93%, and Mesquite’s revenues higher by 8.78%. Also posting positive growth was Elko County (11.84%), and Carson Valley (10.83%), while Boulder Strip remained fairly flat (+0.08%), and Lake Tahoe saw its revenue dip by 2.92% in November.