Posted on: August 28, 2024, 12:18h.
Last updated on: August 28, 2024, 12:43h.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) revealed Tuesday that the state’s casinos and taverns suffered a summer slowdown in terms of gross gaming revenue (GGR).
The gaming regulatory board said July gaming win slowed to $1.306 billion, with the Las Vegas Strip most responsible for the downward movement. Gaming win on the Strip plunged 15% to result in the first statewide GGR year-over-year monthly decline in four months. The approximately $1.3 billion haul was almost 7% below July 2023 when casino revenue totaled more than $1.4 billion.
Strip casinos loosened their slots, which led to poor hold rates across the machines. Nevada slot win rates were in the single digits from nickel to $100 machines. Table hold was also down from nearly 18% in July 2023 to below 15% last month.
Michael Lawton, the NGCB’s senior economic analyst, said July 2023 was a difficult time to emulate, as the 1.404 billion won that month was, at the time, a record high for any month in Nevada’s long and rich gaming history. Though inflationary pressures and a rattled economy have some analysts concerned, Lawton says the July report shouldn’t sound industry alarms.
I would not call this the start of any downturn,” Lawton told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “This was a very difficult comparison, as July 2023 was the second-highest win total in state and Strip history.”
Slot win drove July 2023’s record gaming win, but the one-armed bandits didn’t do nearly as well in July 2024.
Strip Struggles
The July gaming picture was highlighted by a dismal showing on the Strip, the most critical component of the Nevada gaming industry. GGR along S. Las Vegas Blvd. declined 15% to $709.3 million.
Clark County slightly offset the losses downtown where casino revenue rose 10% to $71.8 million. The county as a whole reported GGR of $1.118 billion, a more than 7% year-over-year loss.
Table win, plus revenue from sports betting, keno, and bingo, fell 30% on the Strip to $290.5 million. Oddsmakers kept just $10.2 million of the bets wagered, a 7% drop, on a poor hold of 6%. Strip slots were down less than 1% to $418.8 million.
Though statewide GGR remains up 3% over the past 12 months, revenue fell almost 1% during May, June, and July.
Inflationary Concerns
A new study from WalletHub, a personal finance website, reported today that nearly three in four US adults say inflation is cutting into their discretionary spending. WalletHub said 74% of workers are frustrated with elevated costs, and two in three said the financial strain has impacted their Labor Day plans.
Even though inflation has subsided, Americans are facing substantially higher airline ticket prices, hotel rates, and gas prices in comparison with those before the pandemic,” said Jim Lee, a College of Business professor at Texas A&M.
Las Vegas is historically a popular vacation destination for the federal holiday weekend that honors and recognizes the American workforce. The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority is expecting 331K people to visit Southern Nevada this long weekend, a 3%.4% year-over-year increase.
