Nevada casino sportsbooks welcomed the National Football League’s return as football betting revenue rose nearly one-fifth in September.
Figures released Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show statewide casino gaming revenue of $949m in September, a 3.5% rise over the same month last year. The gains reflected a good month on the Las Vegas Strip, where revenue rose 7.5% to $542.5m.
The gains came despite a decline in baccarat revenue, which fell 7.8% to $92.9m. Baccarat’s loss was blackjack’s gain, as the game saw revenue surge 18.5% to just under $107m. Roulette also had a good month, rising 50.4% to $31.6m while craps crapped out, falling 21.9% to $28.1m. Slots revenue rose 2.4% to $586m.
The state’s sportsbooks reported total revenue of $41m (+15.2%), with football bets accounting for $36.9m of that total thanks to a nearly 12% hold. The football win is the fourth highest on record despite handle falling nearly $5m year-on-year to $309.2m.
The football revenue tally is 18.3% higher than the books earned in September 2015 but below September 2014’s $37.3m total. It should be noted that September 2014 featured the usual four weekends of NFL action compared to just three in 2015 and 2016.
Sports parlay cards also had a stellar month, rising nearly 90% year-on-year to just over $4m. On the flip side, baseball wagers fell over 86% to just $497k thanks to an anemic 0.47% hold. The ‘other’ category jumped 278% to $302k while lazy basketball bettors cashed in $733k worth of winning tickets. The state’s racebooks generated $3.6m, up 2.4% year-on-year.
As for the also-ran casino table games, the charge was led by three-card poker, which earned $12.4m (+2.1%), followed by poker (8.4m, +1.5%), pai gow poker ($8m, -4.7%), mini-baccarat ($6.7m, -5.7%), let it ride ($3m, -6.8%), keno ($2.3m, +2.5%), pai gow ($1.1m, -4.4%) and bingo brought up the rear with $603k despite an impressive 546% under the ‘G’ gain.
