Nevada Casino Revenues Down For August 2018

Nevada Casino Revenues Down For August 2018 ( Click to Enlarge )

August reports are in and revenues for Nevada casinos have decreased for the second month in a row, following the trend of weaker returns that some casino operators had predicted for the current quarter.

NGCB Report

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) released its August report with its casinos bringing in gambling revenue of $913 million for the month. Nearly an 8 percent decrease on the August results from 2017.

Michael Lawton, a senior analyst on the NGCB, said that although the board was disappointed with the results they were not surprised as August 2017 was particularly strong financially.

Mayweather v McGregor ‘Lag’

A year previously, the marquee boxing event between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor had proved to be a big draw that drove numbers into the casinos that helped drive casino revenues. August 2018 hasn’t featured an event anywhere near the same magnitude.

The August results represent the lowest Nevada casino revenues for 2018. Lawton claims the weaker revenues were due to table games, which generally see increased activity and takings during the fight week of a major boxing event.

August revenues from casinos on the Las Vegas Strip amounted to around $480 million, almost 13 percent down. The fall in revenues from the Strip casinos represents around 90 percent of the revenue decrease across the whole state of Nevada.

Visitor Numbers Steady

Visitation records show that Las Vegas has received nearly the same amount of visitors as August 2017. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority revealed that around 3.6 million had travelled to the gambling destination in August, while convention attendances had increased by nearly 20 percent due to scheduling changes of industry and trade shows.

Downtown Las Vegas casinos reported revenues of $46 million, a drop of about 5 percent, while Boulder Highway casinos saw revenues drop to $62 million, a plunge of over 16 percent.

Casinos in the north of the state reported better results. The Nevada board reported that casinos in Reno had brought in around $62 million, an increase of nearly 7.5 percent. Casinos located on Lake Tahoe’s south shore posted an increase of nearly 5 percent in takings, bringing in total revenue of around $27 million.

Non-Nevada figures will be closely monitored too as gambling laws across the country are being scrutinised and reconsidered.

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