Nevada’s casino gaming win strong in May, but flat compared to 2022

Casino gaming win in May was flat against year-ago figures — just as analysts expected they would be — but Clark County, boosted by a healthy Strip performance, reached the $1 billion level after its 11-month streak ended in April.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board on Wednesday reported casino win of $1.29 billion, 0.8 percent off May 2022’s mark from its 438 licensees. In Clark County, the 219 licensed casinos won $1.1 billion from players, down 1 percent from last year.

Michael Lawton, senior economic analyst for the Control Board, explained why comparative results will be so challenging in future months.

“The state has recorded decreases in two of the last three months,” Lawton said. “Over the next year, every monthly comparison will be up against the highest monthly total for that particular month or the second highest total for that specific month. Needless to say the comparisons are going to be the most difficult the state has ever faced.”

It was a mixed bag of results across the state’s 20 casino markets with seven higher than last year and 13 lower. Southern Nevada’s worst performer was North Las Vegas, off 6.6 percent from a year ago to $24.2 million, while outlying Clark County was up 6.5 percent to $150.2 million.

The most improved market in the state: South Lake Tahoe, which was up 11.3 percent to $19.5 million. But the market with the biggest decline statewide was North Lake Tahoe, off 20 percent to $1.7 million.

Strip gaming win fell 2.1 percent for the month to $716 million, and downtown Las Vegas was off 6.6 percent to $73.6 million.

Regardless of the seemingly negative tone of the report, May’s numbers were relatively strong.

The statewide total was the eighth highest month of all time, Clark County’s and the Strip’s figures were the ninth best ever and downtown Las Vegas was 15th highest all time.

Lawton began sounding the alarm about the potential for tough comparisons against prior months after seeing March results.

Gaming industry analyst Joseph Greff of New York-based J.P. Morgan, said higher hold percentages — the percentage of wagers won by casinos — and higher drops — the amount wagered — helped catapult May win well above prepandemic May 2019.

“For the Strip, table game hold was 15.8 percent, versus 15 percent the prior year and a 14 percent average over all of 2022,” Greff said in a Wednesday note to investors. “Baccarat hold was 16.9 percent, versus 17.1 percent the prior year, 7.7 percent in 2019 and the normalized 13-14 percent range. Relative to May 2019, table game drop was 4 percent higher, slot handle was 36 percent higher, and baccarat drop was 11 percent higher. In the Las Vegas Locals market, gross gaming revenue increased 4 percent year-over-year (28 percent above 2019).”

Lawton again attributed wide-ranging special events as a catalyst to drawing more patrons to the slots and tables.

He cited the return of the Electric Daisy Carnival May 19-21 and multiple entertainment residencies: the Chicks at the Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood (six concerts beginning May 3); Katy Perry at Resorts World (May 12-28); Garth Brooks at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace (beginning May 18) and Bruno Mars at Dolby Live Theatre at Park MGM (beginning May 24).

With one month remaining in the 2022-23 fiscal year, state gaming win is up 3.8 percent to $13.9 billion, while Clark County is up 4.2 percent to $12 billion and the Strip up 5.4 percent to $7.8 billion. That means for those 11 months, Clark County was responsible for 86.6 percent of the state’s gaming win and the Strip contributed 56.3 percent of the state’s winnings.

Gaming win — gross gaming revenue — is important to the state because it taxes those winnings and directs them to the state’s general fund. As of Tuesday, state officials collected $84.3 million in gaming taxes from May, raising the 11-month total to $971.2 million. That’s a 0.7 percent increase from 11 months in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

While slot machine and sports wagering revenue were up in May compared with last year, table games, including blackjack, craps and baccarat were down.

Slot win in May was $877.9 million, up 0.9 percent, while coin in — the amount inserted in machines — was down 0.8 percent to $11.8 billion. Slot win percentage was 7.43 percent compared with 7.31 percent in May 2022.

Nevada sportsbooks won $30.1 million, up 11.4 percent from a year ago with a hold percentage of 5.7 percent compared with 4.8 percent last year. Bettors wagered $527 million, down 6.2 percent from last year and of that, $358 million was bet from mobile devices, down 10 percent from last year. Mobile bets represented 67.9 percent of sports wagers.

Table, counter and card games win was $411.2 million, down 4.4 percent from a year ago, with game drop off 7.9 percent to $2.7 billion. Game hold was 15 percent compared with 14.5 percent last year.

Of those games, blackjack win was down 2.7 percent with volume off 20.9 percent with hold increasing to 15 percent from 14 percent. Craps win was down 19.4 percent with volume off 6.1 percent and hold declined 16.7 percent from 19.4 percent.

Baccarat win of $133.8 million decreased 0.5 percent while the drop increased 0.5 percent to $794.3 million. Baccarat’s hold percentage was 16.8 percent vs. 17 percent last year.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.