Nevada gambling revenues down in July for second month running

For the second month running Nevada gambling revenues have declined, according to statistics released Friday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Overall gaming win came in at $922.8 million, a year-on-year decline of 1 percent; the fall was more pronounced on the Las Vegas Strip, where it was 2.1 percent down to $524.9 million.

Downtown Las Vegas casino revenue was better – up 6.5 percent, whilst the rest of Clark County delivered an increase of 6 percent and the balance of Clark County locations increased revenue 6 percent.

The Boulder strip performed miserably – down 11 percent, and North Vegas recorded a drop of 9.4 percent.

In the northern and more rural areas of the state the news was brighter; Washoe County revenues were up 4.8 percent, with Reno performing particularly well as revenues increased by 6 percent. Elko County did even better, with revenue growth of 10 percent, and Elko itself rising to 14 percent.

Carson Valley was up 10.3 percent.

Overall slot machine revenue was up 5.5 percent at $600 million, but high-earning baccarat declined year-on-year by 23 percent to $104 million in revenue terms, and based on total handle performance is down by almost a third, impacting performance and attributed to Asian fall-off due to crackdowns on wealthy punters. Overall baccarat revenues have been in decline for 10 of the past 12 months.

“A lot of the anti-graft campaign has impacted how those customers are spending their money,” said Michael Lawton, senior research analyst at the Board.

Nevada does not strip out online poker results, but the card games statistics show a low level of action in general with revenue of $11.5 – less than a percentage point up y-o-y.

$56.9 million accrued to the state through gambling taxes – up 7.48 percent year-on-year.