Led by strong casino revenue throughout Las Vegas, Nevada started 2023 with its 23rd consecutive month of exceeding $1 billion in revenue.
After setting records in 2021 and 2022 for gaming revenue, the Silver State couldn’t have gotten off to a better start in January 2023. The comparison to January 2022, however, benefited from the omicron variant in that slowed visitation a year ago.
Nevada recorded $1.27 billion in revenue in January, an 18% increase over the $1.07 billion in January 2022.
The Las Vegas Strip earned $713.2 million, a 25.7% increase over the $567.2 million in January 2022. Downtown reported $84.8 million, a 24.5% increase from $67.6 million in January 2022. That’s the third highest win total in downtown history.
Casinos that cater to locals reported $273.1 million in revenue, a 15.2% increase over the $237.1 million in January 2022, the second highest of all time and shy of the record of $277.7 million in March 2022.
The Boulder Strip reported $96.3 million in revenue, a 13.3% increase over $85 million in January 2022 and the fourth highest win ever.
The southern Nevada numbers stood in stark contrast to northern Nevada’s. Washoe County reported $64.7 million in gaming revenue in January, a decline of 13% from $74.3 million in January 2022. Reno fell 19.3%, while North Lake Tahoe dropped 14.8%. The bright spot was Sparks, where the Legends Bay Casino opened in August and gaming revenue of $14.2 million rose 16.7% over January 2022. South Lake Tahoe gaming win rose 1.77%.
Las Vegas got the year off to a good start by hosting 115,000 attendees at CES, more than expected and vastly surpassing the 40,000 in January 2022. The city closed out January with the International Builders Show and related shows that attracted 100,000 people. The builder show returned to Las Vegas for the first time since 2020.
The Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority reported 3.27 million visitors in Las Vegas in January, a 32.2% increase over January 2022 and only 4% behind January 2019.
Overall hotel occupancy reached 79.1% in January, 19.8% higher than January 2022 and 4.9% below 2019. Weekend occupancy reached 88.4%, nearly matching January 2019 levels of 88.8% while midweek occupancy reached 75.2%, 23.2% higher than January 2022 but 6.9% below January 2019.
Convention attendance was 513,000 in January, 72% higher than the 298,200 in January 2022, but 25% below January 2019.
Some 4.3 million passengers traveled through Harry Reid International Airport in January, a 39.5% increase over January 2022 when it was 3.1 million. There were 3.89 million passengers in January 2019. Car travel picked up in January after being below past averages for several months amid high gas prices. Upwards of 40,500 vehicles passed the Nevada and California border in January, up 5.4% from January 2022 and 3.7% higher than January 2019.
The ongoing trend of strong room rates continued in January as the average daily rate approached $192, 32% higher year over year and 22.4% ahead of January 2019.
Michael Lawton, a senior economic analyst for the state, said the Strip again benefited from a busy special-events, convention, and entertainment calendar, which included CES, two Las Vegas Raiders home games, and Chinese New Year celebrations that took place in January, instead of February in 2022.
With omicron impacting January 2022, which was up only 6.6% over 2019, January and February of 2022 represent the softest comparisons the Strip will be facing for the rest of the year, Lawton said.
Clark County revenues, overall, increased 21.6% year over year, from $928.7 million to $1.12 billion. Elsewhere in Clark County, Laughlin recorded a 1.36% increase to $42.7 million, while Mesquite registered a 8.4% increase to $15.7 million.
Statewide, table, counter, and card games won $425.4 million, up $78.1 million (22.5%) and games drop of $3.3 billion increased 6.9% from January 2022. Games’ hold was 12.9% versus 11.2% last year, Lawton said.
Baccarat win of $89.9 million increased $25.1 million (38.7%) and baccarat drop of $873.1 million increased 21.1%. Baccarat’s hold percentage was 10.3% versus 8.99% last year.
Slot win of $847.5 million increased $116 million (16%) and coin-in of $11.2 billion was up $1.1 billion (11.5%).
Nevada sportsbooks won $50.4 million, up 0.9% compared to January 2022 on a hold percentage of 5.4% versus 4.5% last year. Sportsbook wagers totaled $936.5 million, down 15.6% compared to January 2022 when the all-time record high of $1.1 billion was wagered statewide, Lawton said.
Mobile wagers totaled $581.5 million, down $206.1 million (26.2%), and accounted for 62.1% of total wagers.
The Las Vegas Strip’s slot win totaled $388.6 million and increased by $74.5 million (24.1%). Coin-in totaled $4.5 billion, which increased $897.9 million (24.6%). Slot hold was 8.54% versus 8.57% last year.
The Las Vegas Strip’s games win totaled $324.6 million and increased by $70.5 million (27.7%) and drop totaled $2.5 billion, an increase of 10% and $225.5 million. Games held 13.13% versus 11.31% last year.
In downtown, slot win totaled $57 million and increased 30.5% ($13.4 million). Slot coin-in was up 13.5% ($67.9 million). Slot win % was 9.98% versus 8.68% last year.
Game and table win was up $3.8 million (16.1%). Game and table volume was up $17 million (5.2%). Hold percentage was 8.06% versus 7.3% last year.
On the Boulder Strip, slot win was up $9.4 million (12.3%). Slot coin-in was up $52.2 million (4.8%) and slot hold was 7.51% versus 7.01%.
Game and table win increased $2 million (22.7%). Volumes were down $1.7 million (2.8%) with a hold percentage of 18.53 versus 14.67. Twenty-one was up $1.4 million or 66.7% (hold percentage 22.4 versus 14.6) and sports were up 83.8% or $905,000 (hold percentage 11.26 versus 5.34).
The weather hampered Washoe County in January as visitation totals were down 1.4% year over year. Slot revenue timing appears to have had a larger impact than the storms.
Washoe County was facing a difficult comparison; January 2022 was up 22.3% over January 2019, Lawton said. Additionally, the market was negatively impacted by slot collections timing as slot win decreased by $8.5 million (13.7%) on slot coin-in, which was down by $39.5 million (3.4%), and hold was 4.75% versus 5.32% last year.
