Nevada’s casino industry came back to life in March, shaking off the coronavirus pandemic with the highest total monthly gaming revenue in the state in more than eight years.
Monthly profit records were posted in five state markets monitored by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, including three in southern Nevada: downtown Las Vegas, the Boulder Strip, and areas within Clark County that are off the Strip and downtown. Elko County and the Carson Valley also had record profits.
Industry experts were encouraged by the report.
“I am extremely hopeful and extremely confident that Las Vegas will not only recover, but ultimately get better grades, as it has done after every single downturn over the past 40 years,” said Alan Feldman. a respected employee at the UNLV’s International Gaming Institute. “If you look at each and every one of them, when they’re restored, they’ve hit new highs and that’s what I expect to happen here.”
But Feldman was also careful.
“I think the time to take the win is not yet,” he said. “I think it’s a little early. It’s a great sign for sure and I don’t want to diminish the relevance of what happened, but I think it would be a little early to take the win. “
He noted that coronavirus variants have pushed seemingly restored parts of the world back into the background.
Careful optimism
Derek Stevens, owner of Circa, the D Las Vegas, and the Golden Gate in downtown Las Vegas, was also cautious.
“Overall, it was great to see the numbers climb back to billions of dollars,” said Stevens. “It is a good first step towards where we have to go with the state.”
Stevens was also proud that Circa – the downtown resort that opened in October – contributed to the downtown earnings record, but he also noted that the pent-up demand for the NCAA’s March Madness had a lot to do with the success. He noted that sports betting, which traditionally got a good boost on the first weekend of the tournament with 48 games played, also had a good second weekend during the tournament’s Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight rounds with 12 games.
“I think the only thing that happened in March was that there was so much backlog to get to Vegas, but there really was a certain backlog for March Madness, not just the first week but the second too Week, “said Stevens.” The second week was exceptionally strong and far stronger than expected. I now hope that (the effects of) March Madness are two weeks long. “
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also reported higher attendance Tuesday, and spokeswoman Lori Nelson-Kraft said the city’s comeback is still in its infancy.
“As we begin to fully open again, we are witnessing the very early stages of the Vegas comeback,” she said. “We are just scratching the surface to meet the pent-up demand for travel and our unparalleled destination experience, and we remain optimistic that we will continue to grow visitor numbers every month.”
Hit $ 1 billion
State gambling profit surpassed $ 1 billion in March for the first time since February 2020, the month before Nevada casinos closed for 78 days from March 18, 2020, the Control Board reported Tuesday.
State income for the month was $ 1.067 billion, up 72.7 percent from March 2020. Clark County income rose 63.4 percent to $ 893.2 million, while Strip income rose 67 .2 percent to $ 501.4 million and downtown Las Vegas rose 63.4 percent to $ 71 million.
Each of the 20 markets monitored by the Control Board saw a double-digit or triple-digit percentage increase year over year – unsurprisingly, as the numbers were compared to a month with only 17 out of 31 days of activity.
Hitting the $ 1 billion profit mark, however, showed that analysts and operators weren’t making fun of the pent-up demand they were seeing in their bookings.
Perfect storm
Lawton said a perfect storm of positives helped hit the $ 1 billion mark.
“Demand was obviously a driver, in addition to increasing capacity to 50 percent on March 15 and participating in the NCAA basketball tournament after it was canceled last year,” Lawton said. “However, those numbers also benefited significantly from stimulus payments, which enabled customers across the state, including locals and visitors, to spend more.”
The Nevada market with the largest percentage increase in profits was North Lake Tahoe, up 176.2 percent year over year to $ 2 million. In southern Nevada, Mesquite saw a 145.9 percent increase to $ 16.5 million.
The NCAA basketball tournament, which was canceled by the 2020 pandemic, was a big driver of casino traffic that year.
The profit and volume of the sports pool were records for the month of March, and the number of bets placed was the third highest month ever.
The board of directors reported that sports pools gained $ 39.3 million, up $ 37.9 million, or 2,605.3 percent. The lap pool decline – the amount wagered – was $ 640.7 million, up $ 499.7 million, or 354.3 percent.
Sports betting was much luckier than gamblers with a hold percentage of 6.14 percent this year compared to 1.03 percent last year.
Sports betting made with mobile apps won $ 21.5 million on $ 385.2 million, up 333.3 percent year over year and a 5.58 percent share. This write amount made up 60.1 percent of all sports bets.
The slot win contributed to this
The slot machine game also contributed to the big month, with slot machine wins of $ 772.1 million, the second highest sum in the state’s history. That amount was an increase of $ 303.5 million over the previous year, or 64.8 percent.
Slot win was higher, although the hold percentage was down from 2020, an indication that players were pouring more money into machines.
National slot machine coinage was $ 10.6 billion from $ 4.7 billion in March 2020, an increase of 127.8 percent. However, the profit share was 7.31 percent compared to 10.07 percent in the previous year.
Baccarat, usually a volatile part of the high volume casino, rose significantly thanks to an above average win percentage for the casinos.
Baccarat earnings rose $ 25.2 million, 58.5 percent, to $ 68.2 million for the month.
The $ 349 million wagered on baccarat was down $ 10.2 million, down 2.9 percent. However, the casino winnings percentage was 19.54 percent compared to 11.98 percent last year. Typically, baccarat hold is in the 13-14 percent range.
Joe Greff, a games industry analyst at JP Morgan in New York, said the market in Las Vegas had increased double-digit compared to the pre-pandemic in March 2019.
In a statement to investors, Greff said monthly gaming revenue increased 55 percent year over year to $ 256.5 million, 23 percent more than in March 2019. The slot handle, the amount wagered, increased year over year Last year by 29 percent and was 5 percent above March 2019 in the local market, said Greff.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
