Nevada Gaming Revenue Tops $1 Billion for the 19th Straight Month

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) has reported another high-income month for the Silver State’s gaming industry. According to the announced results, September 2022 is the 19th consecutive month since the Silver State began its $1 billion monthly streak in March last year. Overall, casinos in Nevada generated $1.25 billion worth of revenue, marking a 7.9% year-over-year increase. Moreover, last month’s hail is also 18% higher than the revenue reported for September 2019, before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Las Vegas Strip, which accounts for over 55% of the state’s gaming revenue, brought in about $693 million, an 8.3% increase from September 2021. From the look of things, Nevada will be hitting another all-time high annual gaming revenue in 2022 and best the $13.4 billion collected in the 2021 calendar year.

Ballpark figures indicate that the Silver State has already bagged $11 billion in the first three quarters of 2022. So, as the gaming community awaits official Q3 2022 reports, the figures are already reflecting a 13.2% head start for the first nine months of the year compared to 2021. Thus, analysts have now changed their tune, asserting that a new state-wide record will be set this year.

Out of the 20 markets monitored by the NGCB, only 3 saw a decline in revenue. Moreover, after recovering from the most devastating forest fires, South Lake Tahoe’s revenue was up 394.9% for the month.

‘Strong Sports and Entertainment Calendar’ to Thank for the Lucrative Month

As things continue normalizing for casinos across the country, gaming revenue started tapering off, with several operators reporting waning sales and player engagement. This is especially so because of the post-Covid inflation, which has seen the cost-of-living skyrocket. However, in the case of Nevada, the numbers have been consistently high for each month.

The steady upward trend has been attributed to the active Nevada event calendar, attracting millions of visitors from neighboring states and other parts of the world. In addition, the September 2022 calendar has been specifically busy as the state hosted several events. As such, there was a considerable flock of travelers to the area, creating a ripe market for spenders.

Of course, being home to the Strip, Clark County accounted for most of the revenue as last month was packed with notable events. The most significant events ranged from the NFL to the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin boxing match at T-Mobile Arena to the Stadium Tour and the Imagine Dragons concert at Allegiant Stadium. Other events that brought in quite the crowd include the Arizona Cardinals hosted by the Las Vegas Raiders, Miranda Lambert’s concert at Planet Hollywood Resort, and the Life is Beautiful festival.

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), there were 3.35 million visitors to the city. The visitation volume is a 14.3% rise from 2021, indicating that the state may once again receive as many tourists as in pre-pandemic years. Hotel occupancy was also higher at 83,% which is 3.5% higher than in 2021. According to the Review-Journal, NGCB’s senior economic analyst Michael Lawton commented on the Strip’s unsurprising performance, saying:

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“This month’s total was driven by another incredibly strong sports and entertainment calendar which included concerts, residencies, a music festival, and three high profile sporting events.”

Lawton added that, like in most markets, the numbers would eventually go down, as observed in downtown Las Vegas. He said:

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“For the month and quarter, downtown was facing a tough comparison. All markets are going to be facing difficult comparisons for the foreseeable future, and results will be choppy from month to month, and we expect growth rates to moderate. However, downtown Las Vegas currently is up 4.7 percent calendar year-to-date over 2021, which was an all-time record for the market.”

Slot Machines Bring in the Biggest Bucks

As usual, slot machines were the biggest contributors, making up 72% of all the revenue and marking a 10% year-over-year rise from last year. Meanwhile, table and card games also saw overall growth by generating $384 million in gaming revenue, while Blackjack revenue dropped by 6% to $86.4 million.

Sports betting revenue has also been on a steady growth path and was up a whopping 30.2% from last year, although the handle dropped by about 3.3%. This was attributed to a higher hold of 9.3% last month compared to September 2021, when the hold percentage was 6.9%. From the same Review-Journal report, Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli was quoted telling investors that:

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“Given promotions are not a meaningful driver of Nevada sports betting patronage, the 9.3 percent hold implies that the increased hold in state results is primarily a function of bad luck for bettors as opposed to a fundamental change in promotional activity or game mix. That said, we do believe the promotional environment is modestly more rational than it has been.”

A Brighter Post-Pandemic Future Expected for the US Gaming Sector

The gaming industry has proven to be one of the most versatile during the pandemic, as it has beaten several odds to thrive despite earlier predictions of a definite decline. But, of course, it would be unfair to state so without acknowledging the role of the nationwide pro-gambling legislations implemented since the start of the pandemic.

As more and more states get ready to join in on the expanding markets, things are looking up for most of the already-established jurisdictions. Besides, while jurisdictions that have been at it since the 2018 PASPA repeal are winning big, newcomers like New York are also holding their own with record-crushing numbers.

Fiscal analysts are now predicting that the Nevada streak may continue for the foreseeable future, primarily since the state seeks to expand into the eSports betting market. Most of these analysts had forecasted much lower numbers for the 2022 fiscal year, but they have constantly been proven wrong by the shining performances.

No one could have summed up the analysts’ projections better than Michael Nakamoto, a Legislative Counsel Bureau (LCB) fiscal analyst. He neatly summed up the bullish trends saying:

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“I don’t know if I see anything anomalous. It just seems like everything behaved better than we thought because everything was better than we thought.”