By Maria Willson
The profits continue to come in for casinos across Nevada, even though in lesser amounts. For the month of September this year, casinos in Nevada posted a growth of 7.4% in terms of the profits they generated. The state casinos took in a total of 958.7 million USD as revenue for the month, posting an increase of revenue from the same period last year. The revenue boost was mostly due to strong baccarat and blackjack plays that the casinos experienced during the period. According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, casinos on the Las Vegas strip and in South Lake Tahoe were the ones that posted the biggest growth during the month.
The Numbers Say It All
From last year, Nevada casinos posted an increase of 7.4%, of which the maximum came from major casinos on the Vegas strip which posted an increase of 13.3%, with revenue of 563.1 million USD. Besides gaming and gambling, Vegas strip benefited most by the junior middleweight championship event that took place there, earlier in the month. The fight was between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather and upped the revenues for the period significantly.
Casinos in South Lake Tahoe posted a growth of 29.1%, higher than the rest. Of the 958.8 million USD that the casinos in Nevada took in September, 116.5 million USD was from baccarat while 104.1 million USD from blackjack games. While blackjack revenue went up by 34.8% since last year, baccarat winnings jumped up by 49.8% since September 2012. Slots also posted an increase in revenue, even if only by 3.7 percent.
How Others Fared
Casinos in the other areas of Nevada have had mixed results as compared to casinos in Vegas and South Lake Tahoe. The month proved to be a good one for casinos in downtown Las Vegas, which have been posting losses for the last two months. In September, the downtown casinos reported an increase of 2 percent, while casinos in north of Vegas reported an increase of 14.3%.
However, not all regions fared as well during the month. Casinos in Laughlin reported a decline of 5.2%, while Boulder strip casinos dropped 0.5%, at least a less alarming rate. Mesquite casinos reported decline of 1.8% and the rest of the regions in Clark County reported a drop of 1.5%.
Baccarat Was the Main Earner
Most of the revenue generated by casinos in Nevada was from baccarat, although the performance of sportsbooks along the state was also pretty impressive. This is not the first time that the house got lucky with baccarat. Even in August this year, a large percentage of state casino revenues were driven from baccarat tables. Casinos on the strip alone earned 49.5 percent more on baccarat this year than they did last year, during the same period. Betting on baccarat went up by more than 7%, to 734.9 million USD, and casinos held more than 15.72 percent of all the wagers, more than the 11.3 percent wagers held last year.
Sports Betting Add to Revenue
While baccarat did play a role in boosting revenue, the growth was partly due to an increase in sports betting activity in the casinos. In September alone, betting on college football and professional football went up to a record number of 337 million USD, with sportsbooks holding more than 8% of the wagers. That is less than the abnormally high percentage (more than 13 percent) of wagers held in September 2012, when betting on football declined by more than 13 million.
The good news about all this is that for the first three quarters of the year, Nevada casinos have managed to post an increase of 1.4% in revenues from last year.