According to figures released Wednesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, statewide gaming revenue fell 1.4% to $908.2m in August, the third straight month of negative numbers. Casinos on the Las Vegas Strip let the decline, falling 4.7% to $527.4m. Through the first eight months of 2015, statewide revenue is up less than 1% while Strip revenue is down 1.9%.
Statewide slots win was up nearly 10% to $575.6m on a 6.58% hold. But table games were almost universally in the red, led by baccarat, which fell 25.1% to $127m despite a 14.3% hold. The situation was similarly bleak at the other top table earners, with blackjack down 15.5% to $87m, craps off 10.8% to $28.1m and roulette falling 17.7% to $25.5m.
Mini-baccarat broke the downward trend by rising a hefty 304% to $8.2m, although the improvement was based on comparison with a spectacularly bad August 2014, in which mini-baccarat reported a net loss of $4m on a negative 3.3% hold.
The rest of the table games finished as follows: pai gow poker ($7.5m, -22.7%), let it ride ($3m, -5.6%), keno ($2.3m, -7%), pai gow ($1.2m, +33.4%) and bingo reported a net loss of $216k, down 450% year-on-year. Other games and tables were up 10.1% to $14.4m, while combined land-based and online poker revenue slipped 5.5% to $8.5m.
Nevada sportsbooks had an off month, falling 58.1% to $4.76m. Baseball was the dominant vertical, rising 8.3% to $3.6m, while college football revenue slumped 86% to $1.4m. Lazy basketball bettors somehow summoned enough energy to finally walk down to the bookies and cash in $526k worth of winning tickets and the state’s pari-mutuel race betting revenue fell 4% to $4.4m.