Nevada casinos posted lower gaming revenue in February, dragged down by double-digit declines in baccarat and sports betting results.
Figures released Tuesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show overall casino gaming revenue of $946.6m in February, down 4.5% from the same month last year. The rate of decline was slightly worse on the Las Vegas Strip, which fell 5% to $542m.
February’s statewide slots take mirrored the overall results, falling 4.5% to $581.7m. The casinos’ top table game earner was blackjack, which grew 12.3% to $106.4m, while roulette enjoyed a nearly 59% bump to $38.6m.
Things were less rosy at the casinos’ baccarat tables, where revenue declined 19.3% to $98.4m. The baccarat figure was less than two-thirds of what the game earned in January, which got a boost from the Chinese New Year celebrations. Craps was the month’s other big table loser, falling 20.3% to $35.6m.
The state’s sportsbooks had another tough month, with total revenue down nearly 26% year-on-year to $20.7m. Still, it’s a damn sight better than the $8m the books earned in January, which saw the books report their first losing football month in four years. Overall betting handle totalled $380.7m, a new record for the month of February.
The books earned just under $7.1m from football in February, 45% less than the same month last year but much better than January’s $8.25m loss. Basketball revenue was also in negative territory, falling 13.6% year-on-year to $11.5m.
Parlay cards and ‘other’ sports were the month’s lone bright spots, rising 27.2% to $1.1m and 29.9% to $1.5m, respectively. Lazy baseball bettors who only recently discovered their betting slips at the back of their sock drawer cashed in nearly $500k worth of winners last month.
The state’s poker tables reported revenue falling 1.6% to $8.8m in February. The number of active poker tables in Nevada casinos had fallen from 907 in 2007 to just 661 last year, while their annual revenue contribution had fallen from $168m to $118m over the same span. MGM Resorts’ Monte Carlo closed its poker room in February, taking another eight tables out of the picture.
