Nevada starts off 2020 with a $1 billion gaming revenue month, state up 5.48%

Friday, February 28, 2020 7:35 PM

Nevada casinos continued their hot hand in January, with state gaming revenue totals topping $1 billion during the month.

The Gaming Control Board said Friday that healthy percentage gains were seen across the major reporting markets.

Statewide, casinos collected $1.038 billion in gaming revenues, a 5.48% increase over January 2019. The month followed 2019’s $12 billion gaming revenue year, the first time the state reached the mark since 2007.

The $1 billion figure also marked the eighth time in the past 12 months the state has hit the lofty total.

The Las Vegas Strip, which accounts for more than half of the state’s gaming revenue total, reported $572.1 million, a 7.49% increase.

Increases in baccarat revenues and handle helped pushed the Strip higher. However, Control Board Senior Research Analyst Michael Lawton cautioned that Chinese New Year events took place during the last week of January, compared to the events happened in the first week of February in 2019. In January, baccarat revenues climbed 17% to $112.2 million while wagering was up 67.3% to $938.2 million.

“In order to get a full measure of performance we will have to combine both months,” Lawton said.

SunTrust Bank gaming analyst Barry Jonas called January’s numbers “encouraging, though likely somewhat expected.” He said Caesars Entertainment executives gave some “positive commentary” on the company’s quarterly earnings call, citing a better than 9% increase in January gaming volumes.

The state’s sportsbooks continued to prosper despite competition from 13 other states. Revenues from sports betting grew 36% in January to $20.1 million and wagers increased 1.1% to $502 million.

For the first time, Nevada regulators broke out mobile sports wagering, saying the activity accounted for 49% of all sports bets. The Control Board also added in hockey as a separate sports betting category. The activity was originally included in other sports.

Sports wagers made with mobile apps resulted in $11.2 million in revenues from $245.8 million in wagers. Hockey games accounted for $24.7 million in total wagers and $1.1 million in revenues.

Downtown Las Vegas, coming off its best gaming revenue year since 1993, reported $59.1 million during January, a 13.47% increase. Lawton said the market had an “easy comparison” with January 2019 down almost 8%. Still, he said table game revenues were up 43.8% and sports betting revenues grew $147%

In Northern Nevada’s Washoe County, Reno grew gaming revenues by 7.46% to $47.5 million and South Lake Tahoe saw a 17.93% increase to $20.1 million.

“Washoe benefited from weather and an extra weekend day which resulted in stronger gaming volumes for slot and tables,” Lawton said.

The Las Vegas locals market as a whole was down 1.9%, primarily due to a 12.2% decline along the Boulder Strip casinos, which also includes Henderson.

Las Vegas visitation

An extra weekend day in January helped boost visitation 3.9%, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The tourism agency said more than 3.545 million visitors came to Southern Nevada during the month.

Convention attendance rose 4.9% to 717,100 attendees, which included the International Builders Show (68,000 attendees) and the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (33,000 attendees).

Total occupancy was 85.9%, weekend occupancy was 90.1%, and midweek occupancy was 83.8%, all year-over-year increases.

The LVCVA said $17 billion in projects that will drive visitation are currently under construction or were recently announced, including the $2 billion Allegiant Stadium, which opens in August, and the $1.66 billion MSG Sphere, an entertainment attraction, that is expected to open in 2021.

Two hotel-casinos, Circa Casino Resort in downtown Las Vegas, and Resorts World Las Vegas are also underway. Circa will open in December and Resorts World is expected to be unveiled in 2021.

Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.