Nevada iPoker Plumbs New Depths In October

Nevada’s online poker market may have benefited from the 2014 WSOP this summer, but after the competition drew to a close in July the market has suffered three months of consecutive year-over-year declines with August’s 22.5% drop in revenues, followed by a 6.7% fall in September, and now a stinging 47% drop in October to just $665,000. Furthermore, October’s total is a full 35% off the $1.037 million peak reported in June.
At its peak, the state’s three online operators were able to attract more than 200 cash game players to their virtual tables, but according to PokerScout there is currently a seven-day average of just 140 cash players, with WSOP.com accounting for all but one of those players. Even more worryingly for the Silver State, even after Ultimate Poker’s departure last month, and Real Gaming’s subsequent “Ultimate Match” promotion, there still doesn’t seem to be any more traffic on the site.
Mirroring its online market, Nevada’s land-based casino industry has also now reported three straight months of decline after the latest figures released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board showed revenues lower by nearly 4.3% to $913.6 million. Accounting for much of the decline was a disappointing month for baccarat, which reported a 35.5% plunge on the Las Vegas Strip to $97.3 million.
In recent times, baccarat has proved a huge draw for high-roller gamblers and Chinese tourists alike, and currently the game accounts for 11% of all Nevada’s gambling revenues in 2014, having generated an average of $134 million each month. In spite of October’s plummeting baccarat results, however, gaming analyst Chad Beynon from Macquarie Securities said that there were also positives to be taken from the state’s overall revenues, stating that “these results were mildly positive to us given growth in mass tables and slot machines.”
In October, the Las Vegas Strip generated 5.6% less revenues at $520.3 million, while Downtown Las Vegas reported a 1.2% increase to $48 million, and North Las Vegas a decline of 14.6%. Elsewhere, Washoe County saw casino revenues improve by 7% last month, including Reno up 7.9% to $47 million.