Las Vegas Strip Casino Win Has Fallen Every Month Since Shooting MassacreState's Largest Casinos Continue To Struggle For Gambling Dollars |
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January was a pretty bad month for the Las Vegas Strip, but it fit in with a longer losing streak for the casinos.
Gaming win on the state’s main casino corridor fell 8.9 percent year-over-year to $554.7 million, according to figures made public by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. According to state reports, gambling winnings from the 39 casinos on or around the Strip have fallen every month since October. The first weekend of that month saw a horrific mass shooting near the Mandalay Bay casino that left 58 dead at a country music concert.
Tourism to the gambling hub fell 4.2 percent in October, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. However, visitation was down in eight of the 12 months last year, which speaks to other trends currently affecting the state’s largest casinos.
Visitation was down 3.3 percent in January, but that was due to the hotels, according to tourism officials. The decline came “against a backdrop of strong room rates and a temporarily reduced room inventory along with some shifts in convention scheduling,” tourism officials said. The room inventory was down about a percentage point in 2017 thanks to renovations.
Gaming revenue of $528.6 million in October was down six percent, while winnings were down by about six and three percent in November and December, respectively. Prior to the mass shooting, Strip area casinos posted a 4.6 percent year-over-year gain in September.
Of course it’s impossible to examine Strip gaming revenue without looking at the games themselves. Baccarat, the most lucrative table game for the casinos over the last three months, generated 28 percent fewer dollars than during the same period a year prior. Baccarat revenue of $110.7 million in January was also down about 28 percent year-over-year. Other games on the Strip struggled as well, but baccarat has been hit hardest, with the exception of the far less popular pai gow. In Las Vegas, baccarat is driven by high rollers.
The baccarat decline forced one Strip area casino focused on the game to close earlier this year. According to a report from the Motley Fool, Macau’s recent turnaround in terms of baccarat winnings is likely due to some of that money not heading to Las Vegas.
Several Las Vegas-based casino operators, including MGM, Wynn and Sands, have casinos in the Chinese gambling hub, the only place in China with legal gambling.
It is worth noting that Las Vegas is relying less on gambling than it ever has before, while non-gaming revenue (hotels, food, drink, entertainment) is at an all-time high statewide.
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