Las Vegas revenues dip in March

Nevada regulators reported Thursday that gambling revenue for March 2016 slipped 3 percent year-on-year, with the casinos winning $951 million. The decrease was attributed mainly to lower winnings in the Las Vegas casinos.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported that Las Vegas Strip gambling revenue was down 4 percent to $487 million last month, and downtown Las Vegas was also down 4 percent at $51 million.

The state collected almost $73 million in tax revenue – down 8 percent from the same time last year.

Sports betting handle continued the upward trend this year with $460 million bet in March, most of it wagered on basketball. March is traditionally the biggest month for basketball betting, with the men’s NCAA basketball tournament – March Madness – and the NBA regular season winding down. March 2016 figures were $50 million better than last year.

Nevada sportsbooks won just $9.7 million, as they had to pay out about $13 million in old winning football tickets. That’s down significantly from the $18.5 million win for sportsbooks in March 2015.

2016 has been good for Nevada sports betting in terms of handle, with $363 million wagered in February and almost $450 million in January.

For the first three months of the year, there has been around $1.3 billion wagered overall in Nevada – a $183 million improvement over the same period last year.

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