Nevada’s October Gaming Down 19.5% YOY, Betting Soars

Nevada’s gaming revenue was still down 19.5% year-over-year in October, but it posted better results than September 2020. Meanwhile, sports betting handle has been beating all expectations.

Nevada Posts Decline in Gaming, Improves MOM

The State of Nevada has posted a moribund October with gaming revenues shrinking down by 19.5% year-over-year, but the Silver State is back on a road to recovery. Nevada, which had to enact shutdowns that then continued 78 days until casinos were allowed to finally reopen in June, has a few things to be happy regarding the latest numbers.

Reporting results on Tuesday this week, the Gaming Control Board (GCB) said that operators across the Silver State had collected $822.7 million from customers compared to the $1.02 billion the same month a year before. Yet, the results were a minuscule 0.2% improvement over September when the results stood at $821.1 million.

While the decline seems steep, it has been nevertheless better than expected, says GCB’s senior research analyst Michael Lawton, who noted that this October saw two extra weekends which helped buoy up results.

Slots Take a Hit

Slots lost a big chunk in October, not least because of limited casino capacity set at 50%, but also because over half of the machines on casino floors were switched off as part of the state’s anti-pandemic measures.

The segment posted $565.8 million, still the biggest driver of revenue in October, but nevertheless registering an 18.7% year-over-year drop, and surprisingly 6.7% month-over-month drop. While Nevada took in more collectively in October than it did in September, slots were not the reason why.

Sports Betting Still High

Sportsbook revenue in Nevada took a small 3.7% tumble as well to $42.4 million. However, the number of stakes went up and the Silver State saw $659.2 million or 6.43% more wagers placed.

Surprisingly, this was a 27.3% increase from October 2019 and a 14.6% increase from September 2019. Naturally, the bulk of the sports handle went on National Football League (NFL) games, which generated $32.6 million of the total revenue and saw as much as $441.1 million bets on the sport.

Nevada actually did quite well, trailing New Jersey’s $803.1 million wagered, but surpassing Pennsylvania’s $525.8 million staked. All three states posted some of the most impressive results nationwide, with over 20 states now offering a legal sports betting product.

The Las Vegas Strip: A World of Its Own

Meanwhile, things on the Las Vegas Strip looked somewhat subdued. Revenue fell 30.2% year-over-year to just $375.8 million, with slots losing 31.8% of their momentum and posting a paltry $208.1 million and table games contributing $167.6 million.

Downtown venues also posted a 22.7% decline to $52.8 million, but Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has a plan to bring back conventions and boost their capacity.

However, he may now have to wait, as Nevada is now facing a potential second shutdown, and the state is edging closer to the same numbers and rate of infection as it had back in March.