Nevada’s casino gaming revenue fell just shy of the $1b mark in December, while full-year 2018’s tally came in just shy of $12b.
Figures released Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show statewide casino gaming revenue of $999.7m, a 4.1% rise over the same month last year and $30m higher than November 2018’s result. The gains came despite casinos on the Las Vegas Strip slipping nearly 1% year-on-year to $566.2m.
Slots revenue drove December’s gains, rising nearly 10% year-on-year to $635.9m. ‘Table, counter and card games’ revenue fell 4.4% to $363.8m due to declines in baccarat ($102.8m, -14.6%), blackjack ($89.4m, -10.9%) and roulette ($27.4m, -9.2%). Craps broke the negative streak with $32.4m, although this was up less than 1% year-on-year.
For 2018 as a whole, overall gaming revenue hit just under $11.92b, 3% higher than 2017’s result, but well below the market’s all-time peak of $12.85b set in pre-recession 2007. Slots improved 3.8% to $7.7b in 2018, while the other catch-all gaming category rose 1.6% to $4.2b.
December’s sports betting revenue shot up 27.7% to $44.1m, thanks to football revenue rising 37% to $31.5m on a stellar 9.4% hold. Parlay cards also had a good month, rising nearly 500% to just under $3m, and ‘other’ sports jumped 81.3% to $3.2m. Basketball brought in $7.7m, a 30.2% year-on-year fall, while laggard baseball bettors cashed in nearly $1.4m in outstanding tickets.
For 2018 as a whole, Nevada sportbooks set a new revenue record with $301m, a 21% improvement over 2017. Football was up 33.2% to $102.5m, basketball gained 14% to $99.6m and baseball rose 28% to $47.1m.
Betting handle was also in uncharted territory in 2018, coming in at $5.01b, a new all-time record. Football accounted for $1.8b of this handle, topping basketball ($1.5b) and baseball ($1b).
Revenue at the state’s race books was down 8.4% to $2.76m in December, while the full-year figure was also negative, slipping 2.9% to $42.2m.
