The gambling revenue for the casinos in Nevada have increased up to 5.7 percent to $932.2 million stated state regulators. The Nevada Gaming Control Board stated that roughly 40 casinos in the area on the Las Vegas Strip collected revenues of $530.7 million, which is up 3.3 percent compared to a year ago. Gambling revenue grew on the Las Vegas Strip; the rate was actually outpaced in all but 5 of the areas throughout the state. The Strip accounted for around 56.9 percent of Nevada gambling revenue, compared to the previous year.
The senior research analyst for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Michael Lawton said that the numbers showed several positive signs, even after accounting for the 3.5 percent bump due to the leap year adding a day to the month of February. "It was a really broad-based growth story," he said. "It wasn't just baccarat and the Strip -- it was pretty widespread." The results on the Strip were hurt by the shift to January for most of the Chinese New Year holiday that was about which is the most important gambling holiday for the resorts on the Strip.
The Las Vegas Strip casinos won around $113.9 million from baccarat alone, which is down around 19 percent from last year but a lot more that was won by blackjack, roulette, craps, and other table games in the resorts. Analyst Mark Strawn from Morgan Stanley Research states that while baccarat weighed on the results, the Strip is still showing signs of a sustainable recovery. "Given the calendar shift, we believe February's results should be viewed on a two-month combined basis with January, and total Las Vegas Strip gaming revenue was up 16 percent in January and February (combined)," Strawn told investors in a note. He also stated that excluding baccarat, the mass revenue for the Las Vegas Strip was increased by up to 12 percent.
Downtown Las Vegas was able to bring in $45 million and this meant they were up 13.7 percent. The Boulder Strip brought in around $72 million which was up very close to 23 percent. The Reno casino earnings jumped up to 8.2 percent to $44 million, while the South Lake Tahoe region’s winning went up over 10 percent to $15 million. Lawton stated that the state’s casinos have had 5 consecutive months of year over year growth, which has not happened to them since 2006. "We're starting to trend in ways that we really, really want to," Lawton said. The state went on to collect more than $70 million in taxes on these winnings.
This is a 69 percent increase compared to the previous year. The regulators of the area stated that gambling revenue was $7.28 billion for the first 8 months of the year, which began in July and this makes it up close to 4 percent. Taxes that were collected for the year were up 4.4 percent to over $480 million. This means a lot for the state of Nevada.
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