Nevada Gambling Revenue up 7.5% to $991M in March

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has released its gambling figures for March, revealing an impressive 7.5% rise in revenue to $991 million compared to the same month in 2016, with $80 million subsequently collected by way of taxes. As a result, gambling revenues for the first quarter of 2017 are now higher by 4.8% year-over-year.
In March, table games accounted for $335.6 million in revenue, up 9.8% year-on-year, while slot machines contributed a further $655 million. In the meantime, the state’s sports books collected $31.4 million, marking a whopping 225% spike in revenue, with the record $439.5 million wagered on basketball making up for shortfalls in other areas of its sports books. Commenting on the remarkable figure, Michael Lawton, Senior Research Analyst Nevada Gaming Control Board, explained:
“It was an all-time record. So needless to say, the activity was generated from NCAA basketball tournament. It was extremely strong and stronger on the win than the volume. Basketball hold was very high, at 9.61 percent.”
In terms of individual markets, the Las Vegas Strip saw its gambling revenues climb 8% to $526.1 million, while downtown noted a huge 22.6% improvement to $62.9 million. Continuing the positive trend, Reno casinos also generated $50.8 million, up 8% versus March last year.
Finally, Southern Nevada saw more tourists than ever visit its many attractions in March, with numbers up by 1.4% to 3.78 million. That figure is also the Silver State’s third-best month to date, just a little behind the visitor numbers reported for July 2016 and October 2015. Helping March’s visitor figures along was the month having an extra weekend versus the previous year, as well as the huge ConExpo-Con/Agg construction equipment trade show that took place, which attracted almost 130,000 attendees. Consequently, convention attendance posted a 13.3% increase to 757,444 people, even though there were 8.9% less conventions and trade shows reported for March. Needless to say, the massive vistitor numers also positively impacted Nevada’s overall gambling revenues at its many casinos.