Nevada Online Poker Falls 7.62% To $985k In July

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has announced its gambling results for July, revealing a 0.65% increase in revenues to $932 million, compared to the $925.8 million generated in the same month last year. From July’s tally, iPoker accounted for $985,000 of revenues, down 7.62% from the $1,037,000 taken in June. The Silver State subsequently collected around $52 million in gambling taxes, lower by 14.7% from the same month in 2013.
Nevertheless, July’s iPoker result was still impressive considering June’s comparative was the highest yet on record since Nevada’s first regulated poker room, Ultimate Poker, launched in April 2013. Naturally, the 6 week-long World Series Of Poker made all the difference, but even after the competition drew to a close mid-month, July still managed to generated the second highest total on record.
However, WSOP.com reaped most of the rewards during the prestigious live tournament series and averaged around 150 cash game players over a seven-day-period before falling back to its current level of 95 players. Meanwhile, Ultimate Poker experienced roughly the same amount of traffic, currently at 65 cash players according to PokerScout.
In terms of land-based casino revenues, the Las Vegas Strip produced $536.2 million in July, or 57% of Nevada’s overall gambling revenues. Promisingly, the figure represent five straight months of positive growth for the Strip, with slots revenue up by 2%, table games up 1%, and Baccarat an impressive 16% in July. Commenting on the Strip’s revenues, Union Gaming Group analyst Robert Shore, said:
“Five consecutive months of strong baccarat play reaffirm our view of an inverse correlation between upside trends in Las Vegas high-end play and the relative weakness in Macau.”
In July, Nevada also enjoyed its third-highest influx of visitors on record, with 3.5 million people having visited Las Vegas, alone, and this year, Las Vegas tourism is currently higher by 2.2% at 24.2 million visitors, with a record 40 million people expected to visit the iconic gambling hub by the year’s end.