Nevada casino gaming revenue topped $1b in October despite its sportsbooks falling back after a couple straight weekends of negative NFL action.
On Tuesday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported that statewide casino gaming revenue hit $1.06b in October, a nearly 7.5% improvement over the same month last year and the first time since May that the monthly total has topped the billion mark. The gains were even more pronounced on the Las Vegas Strip, where revenue rose 12.2% to $593.4m.
Statewide slot machine revenue was up 5.7% to $693.5m while total ‘table, counter and card games’ revenue improved 10.8% to $369.3m.
Blackjack was the unquestioned table game champ, with revenue shooting up over 40% to $125.5m. Roulette also had a solid month, rising 21.5% to $40.4m while craps gained 8.1% to $31.8m. Baccarat headed in the opposite direction, falling 13% year-on-year to $76.3m.
The state’s sportsbooks generated revenue of $29.5m in October, down from $31.5m in the same month last year and barely half the record $56.3m the books reported in September 2018. In fact, with the exception of baseball ($8.2m, +30.8%), all sports betting revenue was in negative territory for the month.
Football betting revenue slipped 28.3% to $11.3m, thanks to a win rate of just 3.3% following a few notable weekends of NFL betting favorites living up to reputations. Basketball revenue fell nearly 25% to $3.7m, parlay cards were off 45.2% to $2.7m and the ‘other’ category tumbled 907% to $3.6m.
The state’s race books were also feeling the pain, falling 13% to $2.75m, while the category of ‘sports pari-mutuel’ aka the operations of US Fantasy Sports was left entirely blank for the third straight month (after reporting revenue of just $1,000 in July).
