US Casino Revenue Up 2% to $3.3BN In June

The USA’s 24 states with commercial casinos generated $3.3 billion of revenue in June, up by more than 2% compared to the same month in 2016. The financial figures were released by the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ Center for Gaming Research, and includes land-based, riverboat, and racetrack facilities, but not tribal casinos, which produce on average around $2.5 billion each month.
Accounting for 27% of the country’s gambling market in June was the state of Nevada with revenue of $895.4 million, higher by 1% year-over-year, followed by Pennsylvania, whose revenue was fairly flat at $258.4 million versus last June. Meanwhile, Louisiana saw its casino revenues jump by 5% to $260.1 million, Illinois posted a 10% increase to $218.5 million, with New Jersey lower down on the list after generating $217.7 million, or 1.8% more than it did in June 2016.
In terms of growth, Maryland outpaced all other markets after reporting a 40% surge in its year-over-year revenue to $130.4 million, helped in no small part by the opening of the $1.4 billion MGM National Harbor in December of last year. In neighboring West Virginia, though, the state’s casinos saw their business impacted by the increase in competition, with revenue up by just 1% to $55.1 million.
For the first half of 2017, US commercial casinos have now collected 2.5% more revenue at $20.9 billion compared to H1 of 2016, with just February noting a decline in growth, with a missing day this leap year contributing to its year-on-year contraction. Tribal casinos are likely to have added a further $15 billion in revenues, making the overall market worth around $36 billion for first half of the year.
By comparison, the world’s biggest gambling resort of Macau in China just released its latest result for July, with revenue jumping by 26% to $2.5 billion. As a result, the country’s only legal gambling resort has now generated $15.7 billion for H1, up by 17% compared to the same period of time last year. As D.S. Kim from JPMorgan Chase & Co subsequently noted:
“VIP segment, for now, continues to see broad recovery across big and smaller junkets, a trend admittedly well above what we had envisioned.”