Nevada casinos eked out a tiny gaming revenue increase in July, while the state’s fledgling online poker market slipped back below $1m in monthly earnings. Overall casino gaming revenue hit $931.8m, up less than 1% from the same month last year and up just under 3% from June 2014. July’s gains were driven by Las Vegas Strip casinos, which reported a nearly 5% revenue gain to $536.2m, offsetting negative numbers downtown and areas outside Clark County.
Slots revenue fell nearly 3% to $569m but baccarat was there to save the day. The Asian gambling whale’s game of choice earned $135.3m, up nearly 14% year-on-year and $2.5m more than the game earned in June. Blackjack tables were hot, up 12.7% to $104m while craps rose 28% to $35.8m. The rest of the table games shook up thusly; roulette ($22.8m, -35.7%), three-card poker ($10.6m, -13.2%), pai gow poker ($9.7m, -5%), mini-baccarat ($8.8m, +7.7%), let it ride ($2.8m, -12%), keno ($2.3m, +7%), bingo ($921k, +835%) and other games rose 8.2% to $13m.
The state’s poker rooms added $11.4m (-8%), of which $958k came via the state’s three licensed online poker operators. That’s down $79k from the $1.037m earned in June, which represented the state’s online poker high-water mark to date. The decline can be chalked up to seasonal lulls and all those pro players who attended the World Series of Poker packing their bags. Regardless, July’s total was the second highest since the state began reporting official numbers this February.
Nevada’s sportsbooks reported revenue up 174% year-on-year, but that total still amounted to just $405k, as July 2013’s ‘take’ was a net loss of $548k. As with last July, the numbers were dragged down by laggard basketball futures bettors, who cashed in over $2m in winners. The numbers were further dragged down by a 52% decline in baseball winnings to $1.5m. The nascent football season added $92k in revenue while other sports contributed $816k, up 191% due to (likely) the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The state’s race books reported revenue down 1.1% to $4.5m.
