The Nevada Gaming Control Board on Tuesday said gaming win rebounded in September after two straight months of declines, but first-quarter revenue was still down.
Nevada gaming win rebounded from two months of declining revenue in September, just as analysts had predicted, but the 2024-25 fiscal year’s first quarter revenue still trailed the previous year, the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported Tuesday.
Analysts say the first-quarter slump is more likely the result of the volatility of baccarat than a declining revenue trend.
Nevada’s 440 licensed casinos produced $1.31 billion in gaming win in September, a 3.3 percent increase from September 2023. But for the first quarter of the fiscal year, the win is off 2.6 percent from the previous year.
That’s because of a tough comparison in baccarat statistics, according to Michael Lawton, senior economic analyst for the Control Board who crunches the state’s monthly gaming statistics.
Lawton said most of the revenue decline is the result of baccarat “hold,” the percentage of money casinos won from players. Lawton recently explained the volatility of baccarat to the Review-Journal.
“The decline is being driven by difficult hold comparisons which saw the same quarter of 2023 record a hold percentage of 21.5 percent, which was historically very high, compared to the 11.6 percent recorded during this quarter which is below average,” Lawton explained Tuesday. “When you remove baccarat from the totals, the Strip is up 3.4 percent or $60.8 million for the quarter and the state is up 3.3 percent or $114.2 million.”
Last month, Lawton predicted the September numbers would be higher because of the timing of the collection win data. That, he said, was why August win was off compared with the previous year.
For the month, Strip win was down 1.8 percent to $727.7 million, but double-digit percentage increases in downtown Las Vegas (33 percent), the Boulder Strip (19.3 percent) and outlying Clark County, which includes Henderson (15.9 percent) carried the state’s performance.
The state’s biggest declines in gaming win came in South and North Lake Tahoe (down 18.8 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively), but Reno casinos provided a 12.4 percent increase.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
