Nevada casino revenue took a tumble in May thanks to a double-digit drop on the Las Vegas Strip.
Figures released Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show statewide gaming revenue of $958m in May, down 4.53% from the same month last year, although up dramatically from the $876m Nevada casinos earned in April 2016.
Revenue on the Strip was down 11.7% to $531m, driven in part by a poor comparison with last May, which featured the long-awaited Mayweather-Pacquiao boxing match and the inaugural Rock In Rio festival. Other factors included baccarat revenue, which tumbled 18.6% to $89m.
The lack of a marquee boxing event was enough to halt the winning streak at Nevada sportsbooks, which reported revenue of $5.9m, a whopping 70% year-on-year decline thanks to a woeful 1.9% hold.
Despite the lack of major boxing wagers, overall betting handle was down only $3.3m from last year to $312.5m as baseball handle rose more than one-quarter and basketball wagers were up nearly 15%.
Basketball wagering revenue was the month’s lone bright spot, rising 69% to $4.7m. Baseball was down 73% to $2.9m, ‘other’ sports were down 92% to $660k and parlay cards dropped 71% to a mere $63k, while slowpoke football bettors finally got around to cashing in nearly $2.4m worth of winning tickets. The state’s race books were down 12.3% to $5.2m.
Statewide slots revenue was in positive territory, rising 4.7% to $630m, but the table game numbers were almost uniformly negative. Blackjack revenue fell 12.4% to $107.4m, while craps was off 28% to $31.5m and roulette dipped 14.7% to $28.2m.
The rest of the table game tallies shook out as follows: pai gow poker ($7.9m, -11.3%), mini-baccarat ($7.6m, -23%), let it ride ($2.9m, -12.7%), keno ($2m, -13.6%) while poker was off 13.9% to $8.9m. The lone positives were ‘other games and tables,’ which rose 3.7% to $16.6m and bingo, which improved 17.5% to $1.8m.
