Nevada casinos had another billion-dollar gaming revenue month in May, thanks largely to baccarat, baseball and basketball betting.
Figures released last week by the Nevada Gaming Control Board showed statewide casino gaming revenue of $1.04b, a 5.3% increase from the same month last year and a rebound from April 2018’s $953.7m, which was the first month this year that the gaming revenue total had failed to eclipse the $1b mark.
Statewide slot machine revenue was up 3.5% to $670.2m, while total ‘table, counter and card games’ revenue was up 14.5% to $373.8m.
The table gains were driven primarily by baccarat, which shot up nearly one-fifth to $120.8m, partially offsetting a 7.3% year-on-year decline over at the blackjack tables, which reported revenue of $102.7m. Roulette was down 113.2% to $31.7m while craps improved 4.9% to $31.4m. The state’s poker operations reported revenue up nearly 3% to just under $9.2m.
Over at the state’s licensed sportsbooks, revenue soared over 590% to just under $20.5m, helped by baseball betting revenue of $10.8m, up 63.4% from the same month last year. Baseball accounted for nearly half of the month’s total wagering handle, which came in just $300k shy of the record $315.8m handle for the month of May set in 2015.
Basketball earned $9.3m for the books in May, a significant turnaround from the $4.4m net loss the sport produced in May 2017, the worth month for the sport in Nevada betting history.
The ‘other’ sports category, which saw wagering soar due to interest in the Las Vegas Golden Knights hockey team’s playoff run, took a loss of $69k in May, although the damage could have been much worse had the local team not fallen to the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup final series.
Parlay cards earned a mere $61k despite handle of nearly $6m, while the state’s horseracing books earned just under $5.1m.
