Nevada’s gaming win stays sluggish, still tops $1B in June

The board said Clark County gaming win was off 3.5 percent to $1.07 billion for the month, while state win declined 2.4 percent to $1.25 billion for the month.

Strip win fell 1 percent to $727.3 million and downtown Las Vegas win was off 10.4 percent to $62.5 million.

But, just as Michael Lawton, senior economic analyst for the Control Board, has said for months, it’s going to be harder and harder for Nevada properties to keep pace with what have been extraordinary gains since 2019.

While total win decreased on the Strip in June, totals for the first six months of 2023 are up 6.2 percent. For the 2022-23 fiscal year that ended June 30, win is up 4.8 percent on the Strip to $8.53 billion.

The patterns are similar across most of the 20 markets the Control Board regularly monitors. Of the 20 markets studied, only six saw win declines during the fiscal year and only one of them — the Boulder Strip, off 1.5 percent — is in Clark County.

“The state has now recorded decreases in three of the last four months,” Lawton said in an email. “However, Nevada continued to record gaming win amounts in excess of pre-pandemic levels this month. Statewide total win was 19.7 percent or $204.9 million over June 2019. This month also represented the 28th consecutive month that the state has recorded $1 billion in monthly gaming win.”

Nevada’s record fiscal year

The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported the state’s 435 major casinos statewide won $15.1 billion from gamblers in the 2022-23 fiscal year. That tops the 2021-22 fiscal year total of $14.6 billion by 3.3 percent.

Special events continued to drive traffic across Las Vegas and a favorable calendar gave resorts an additional weekend day compared with last year.

Gaming industry analyst John DeCree of Las Vegas-based CBRE Equity Research noted that the presence of the World Series of Poker boosted poker play across Southern Nevada and the Vegas Golden Knights successful Stanley Cup hockey championship run drew attention to casinos, especially on the Strip.

It was a mixed bag for casino game play, both by game category and geographically during the month.

On the Strip, slot win totaled $395.2 and increased 3.9 percent or $14.9 million. Coin-in totaled $5 billion and increased 12.5 percent with slot hold at 7.92 percent vs 8.57 percent a year ago.

Baccarat win was down $41.2 million or 29.2 percent on the Strip, while volume was up 2.9 percent. Volatile baccarat hold was 14.91 percent compared with 21.81 percent last year.

Blackjack win was up 22.4 percent, but volume was off 20.6 percent on the Strip, with hold 14.24 percent compared with 9.24 percent last year.

It was a different story for downtown Las Vegas.

Slot win totaled $44.7 million, decreasing 10.3 percent with slot coin-in up 1.9 percent. The slot win percentage was 8.22 percent compared with 9.33 percent last year.

Game and table win was down 10.8 percent, while game and table volume climbed 3.6 percent. The hold percentage was 7.79 percent compared with 9.05 percent last year.

By Richard N. Velotta