Las Vegas has announced financial figures for June, and gaming revenue has jumped 22.7% to $723.8m from last month. This has helped buoy Nevada’s state figures, which rose by 8% to $1.27bn.
Higher Las Vegas Strip revenue came with growing visitation post-pandemic numbers, which were up 11.9% year-over-year, with a footfall increasing to 3.32 million people. Convention attendance rebounded to almost 93% of pre-Covid-19 levels at 469,100, underlying the benefits of the easing of travel restrictions in 2022.
Revenue per available room for the Strip rose double digits over 2019, with room rates rising over 29% for the Strip and downtown Las Vegas.
Total revenue was fueled by baccarat play, which saw revenue of $141.1m, up 258.8% from June 2021. The casinos held 22.1% of all baccarat wagers, compared with a 6.4% hold a year ago. Excluding baccarat, the Strip rose just 6.2 percent which gives an idea of this game's importance for the June showings.
Slots performed well too though, with revenue on the Strip coming in at $380.3m, a 4.6% annual increase.
JMP Securities gaming analyst commented: “June was the ninth time in the last year Las Vegas set an all-time monthly record for gaming revenue and the Strip is now 19% above the highest pre-pandemic period in history.”
However, June results showed another case of Las Vegas covering the cracks for other regions in the Silver State. Factoring out the Strip, state revenue declined by 6.9%.
Northern Nevada continued to display unfavorable results, with Washoe County, Reno, Sparks and South Lake Tahoe all reporting revenue dips. Downtown Las Vegas, the Boulder Strip and Laughlin all suffered double-digit declines.
Control Board Senior Economic Analyst Michael Lewton commented: “The majority of the submarkets in Clark County, in addition to several submarkets outside of Clark County, continue to face difficult year-over-year comparisons.”
