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Nevada’s Casino Industry Springs Back to Life in March With a $1bn Win
By Jeff Osienya Apr 29, 2021 IndustryThe Silver State rises from the ashes of the Coronavirus pandemic after registering a lip-smacking billion-dollar haul in March. It is the first time that Nevada has seen a $1 billion-plus win since the pre-pandemic closures in February 2020.After months of Coronavirus devastation last year, the Nevada gaming industry is showing strong signs of bouncing back in 2021. According to a new monthly revenue report released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board on Tuesday, the Silver State’s revenue posted a $1.067 billion win for March. This marks the first time Nevada’s gaming revenue has crossed the 10-figure mark since February 2020, the last full month of operations before statewide COVID-19 casino closures. March’s showing is also the highest total monthly gaming revenue the state has won in over 8 years.
In February 2020, just before the industry went for a 78-day complete shutdown from March 18th to June 4th, the Silver State had bagged over $1.04 billion in gaming revenue. The $1.067 billion haul for March registers a 72.7% surge compared to the $618.1 million yield in March last year. Moreover, March’s win is about 27.17% higher than Nevada’s win for February 2021, which stood at $772 million.
Such an incredible performance is a clear sign that the Silver State is ready to begin its post-pandemic chapter ahead of the planned 100% capacity reopening this June. Proponents of Nevada’s casino industry are optimistic about the coming months but still insist that performance will depend on the Coronavirus situation.
Five Nevada’s Gaming Markets Shattered All-Time Monthly Win Records
Diving deeper into last month’s gaming numbers, five of the state’s 20 gaming markets divided by the Nevada Gaming Commission also posted record-breaking monthly hauls. And on top of that, all the 20 markets in the Silver State had a tremendous showing that bested March 2020’s performances by double- or triple-digit percentage spreads.
North Lake Tahoe leads the pack after racking up a $2.03 million win to record a 176.18% boost compared to the $735,827 revenue it collected over the same period last year. South Lake Tahoe followed its northern counterpart with a 166% revenue surge to $24.08 million, compared to March 2020’s $9 million. Finally, Reno rounded up the top-three movers with a 163.72 % revenue gain year-over-year.
At the fourth position was Washoe County, whose casinos collected 152.55% more than the same period last year. Mesquite in Southern Nevada followed closely with a 146% gush in revenue to hit highs of $16.5 million, to finish off the top-five gaming regions that showed the most robust return to form.
Predictably, of all the gaming markets, Clark County, home of Sin City – the gaming hub of the west, was the biggest contributor to last month’s overall performance. Clark County raked in $893.2 million worth of revenue, up 63.4% year-on-year, with the figure also surpassing February 2020’s win by 41.4%. And as expected, the Las Vegas Strip collected the most revenue for Clark County, winning $501.5 million, after climbing by 67.2% compared to the same period last year. However, this tremendous year-over-year movement isn’t too much of a surprise as March 2021 is being pitted against a month where there were only 17 days of casino operations.
Slot Machines Catapult Nevada’s Gaming With a Historic Second-Best Win
As usual, slot machine gaming was the biggest driver of Nevada’s billion-dollar March win. Slot machines in the Silver State brought in a total of $772.1 million, the second-largest revenue seen from the machines for a single month in its long history of casino gaming. This revenue was 64.8% more than the $303.5 million Nevada saw in March last year and 45.5% higher than February this year.
Table, card, and counter game revenue came in at number two to win the state $292.9 million, after a 22.1% year-on-year uptick. Among all the said gaming products, blackjack saw the lion’s share of activity, with a $71.4 million loot. Baccarat followed the 21 game after pulling in 68.2 million, up 58.5% versus March last year’s 25.2 million.
Sports Betting also Makes its Mark on the Silver State
Sports betting in Nevada also posted a shining performance in March with a total handle of $641 million, recording a 354.2% year-on-year leap from a dismal $141.1 million. March’s impressive handle also registered a 15.7% uptick from February when sports bettors in the Silver State wagered $554 million.
As for the sports betting revenue, the upward trajectory was even more remarkable after a fantastic four-digit growth year-over-year. The revenue earned from last month’s sports betting activity was $39.3 million, 2,604% higher than the $1.5 million bagged over the same period last year. March’s revenue was also 23.6% stronger than February’s $31.8 million.
Last month’s roaring year-over-year sports betting comeback can be attributed to March Madness's return after the highly anticipated event was canceled in 2020. It’s, therefore, no shocker that basketball led all other sporting activities with a $501.5 million handle, which is over 78% of the entire handle in a month. The ‘Other’ sports category came in at a distant second with a $69 million handle. The top two were followed by hockey, baseball, football, and parlay cards with a handle of $58 million, 9.2 million, 2.7 million, and $495K, respectively.
Mobile Sports Betting Tops but Could Be Better
Most of the sports wagers in Nevada were placed on mobile devices, taking a 60.1% share of the total handle after fetching $385.1 million. This represented a 333.1% growth trend of mobile gaming from March 2020, when mobile betting pulled in $88.9 million. On the other hand, the month-over-month climb wasn’t as sharp given that February’s activity pulled in $316.3 million, registering a 21.7% growth.
It’s worth pointing out that mobile sports betting isn't living to its full potential because of Nevada’s restrictive in-person registration sports betting requirement. Most of the other states, including New Jersey, the reigning sports betting champion, don’t have the in-person registration requirement. As a result, these other states often have mobile sports betting, consistently accounting for roughly 90% of the total sports betting handle.
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