Operator News
US – Nevada casinos and sportsbooks break records
By Phil - 4 January 2022
For the ninth straight month, Nevada reached at least $1bn in gaming revenue after the numbers were reported for November. The record numbers in November were helped by the return of international travelers to Las Vegas.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board released that Nevada’s non-restricted gaming licensees reported a total “gaming win” of $1,321,624,274 for November 2021, a 71.38 per cent increase compared to November 2020. The numbers reported for November were just below the single-month record of $1.36bn reported in July 2021.
Nevada Control Board Senior Economic Analyst Michael Lawton said: Demand is being buoyed by healthy consumer savings, the sustained rebound of leisure travel, and the return of international flights, other than Canada and Mexico, which allowed vaccinated foreign nationals to travel to the United States beginning on Nov. 8.”
The casinos in The Silver State already have recorded the third-highest gaming revenue year with December’s numbers still yet to be added. If December continues the trend of hitting $1bn or more, then Nevada would easily break its single-year record.
Casinos weren’t the only ones having all the fun. Sportsbooks in Nevada had their name in the history books as well. For the first time, Nevada sportsbooks took in $1m in wagers in back to back months.
Of the $1.1bn in bets placed, the books won $72m which topped the previous record of $61.8m posted in November 2020.
For the first 11 months of 2021, Nevada casinos have now generated $12.3bn in gaming revenue, marking an 11.9 per cent increase compared to 2019. With the addition of December’s results, 2021 is likely to smash the single-year record for gaming revenue set at $12.8bn in 2007.
Las Vegas Strip casinos saw a 45 per cent increase with $755m coming in in gaming revenue during November.
Wells Fargo Securities gaming analyst Daniel Politzer said Las Vegas Strip GGR was more than 30 per cent above the 2019 levels for the last three months of the year.
He said: “We view these results as impressive and supportive of our positive view on the fundamentals on the Las Vegas Strip and Las Vegas locals gaming markets.”
Macquarie Securities gaming analyst Chad Beynon added: “The leisure customer continues to outperform (the high-end customer). We would note VIP play is starting to see a rebound.”
Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Carlo Santarelli warned: “We think the setup for the year is actually somewhat challenging.”
