Nevada casinos saw gaming revenue slip 8% in June as a sharp fall in baccarat revenue offset a record baseball betting tally.
Gaming revenue for the month of June came to $830.9m, down 8% from the same month a year ago and significantly below May 2015’s $1b revenue mark. The year-on-year decline was even more pronounced on the Las Vegas Strip, where revenue fell 16% to $445m. The month also brought an end to the state’s fiscal year, in which revenue fell 1.6% to $11.05b statewide, while the Strip was down 4.3% to $6.3b.
The chief culprit behind June’s decline was baccarat, which saw hold rate slip to 9.4%, resulting in a 56% revenue decline to $59.5m. Roulette was also down sharply, falling 22.1% to $25.5m, narrowly edging out craps, which fell 12.4% to $25.4m. In contrast, blackjack posted a 3.8% gain to $81.4m, making it the month’s top table earner.
The rest of the table games fared as follows: three-card poker ($11.3m, +0.4%), mini-baccarat ($8.7m, +29.4%), pai gow poker ($8.7m, +2.7%), let it ride ($3m, +1.1%), keno ($2.5m, +7%), pai gow ($1.4m, +69.1%) and bingo (-$252k, -20.8%). Poker revenue, which includes the state’s two regulated online poker sites, was up 4.5% to $15.8m. The state’s slots revenue was down 1% to $556.1m.
The state’s sportsbooks reported revenue up 111% to $14.9m. Baseball led the charge with $9.6m, up 112.8% on a 5.85% hold. Baseball betting handle hit a record $165m and June’s revenue figure is second only to May 2015’s $10.7m.
Basketball posted an even more impressive year-on-year increase, rising 253.4% to $4.4m on a 9.47% hold. The lack of a FIFA World Cup this June meant ‘other’ sports fell 81.64% to $1.1m while sports parlay cards contributed a mere $78k and laggard football bettors cashed in $330k of winners. The state’s horseracing books reported revenue of $4.1m, down 7.4% on a 15.6% hold.
