Nevada casinos topped $12 billion in revenue last year, as a strong December helped push gaming revenues over the mark for the first time in more than a decade, according to state gaming regulators.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board said Thursday casino revenues statewide were $12.03 billion, a 1 percent increase over 2018.
Las Vegas Strip revenues were off slightly in a year-over-year comparison, $6.587 billion compared to $6.588 billion in 2018. In Downtown Las Vegas, gaming revenues increased 5.4 percent to $684.9 million.
In December, the NGCB said gaming revenues topped $1.057 billion in December statewide, a 5.79 percent increase from the same month last year when revenues were $999.6 million. For the fiscal year to date, between July 1, 2019 and December 31, gaming win in the state has increased 2.09 percent.
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The state’s revenue increase was helped by gains in every locality in Clark County, which helped offset widespread declines in December in Washoe County.
The Las Vegas Strip posted a 4.53 percent increase to $591.82 million last month, while revenues in downtown Las Vegas jumped 6.80 percent to $63.2 million.
Chad Beynon, a gaming analyst with Macquarie Securities, said the December results on the Strip “were slightly weaker than we expected but the revenue per available room trends appear to be healthy.”
Beynon said Las Vegas operators remain optimistic about 2020, given strong convention schedules already in the books and additional capacity coming online later this year.
He noted that operators also expect it to be a strong year for the convention business, given “ConAgg, the NFL draft, and the opening of Allegiant Stadium, which will house the Las Vegas Raiders.
In other parts of Southern Nevada, North Las Vegas led the way reporting a 23.14 percent increase to $28.6 million, followed by the Boulder Strip at 20.53 percent to $82.08 million.
In Northern Nevada, Reno posted a 2.77 percent decline to $52.4 million, while north Lake Tahoe declined 7.17 percent to $2.15 million. On the other hand, Sparks posed a modest 2.05 percent increase last month to $11.59 million.
In addition, Nevada’s sportsbooks posted a record $329.1 million in revenues during 2019, an increase of 9.5 percent. The NGCB said sportsbooks posted a record handle of $5.319 billion during 2019, a 6.2 percent increase from $5.01 billion in 2018.
