Tourism to Las Vegas fell 5% in November and flattened Las Vegas Strip gambling revenues along with with it. Casinos should be grateful that the fewer players they’re getting are spending more. Strip gambling houses grossed $784 million the month before last. (The Nevada Gaming Control Board snuck the numbers out on New Year’s Eve.) Although miscellaneous Clark County casinos were flat, most everybody else prospered. Downtown dens were up 10% to $87 million, the Boulder Strip saw a 20% leap to $79.5 million and North Las Vegas was up 4.5% to $25.5 million. Along the borders, Laughlin jumped 11.5% to $38 million, Mesquite climbed 10.5% to $18 million, while Wendover was 4.5% to $24 million.
The only real adversity was experienced on Lake Tahoe, where receipts dipped 4.5% to $13.5 million. Reno was up 7% to $55.5 million and Sparks was flat at $15 million. People just avoided the Strip, it would seem. Thanks a lot, Las Vegas Grand Prix and all your attendant hassles. What was that about how it was going to be a boon to tourism and gambling alike? Room revenues were down 2% despite the presence of Formula One and three Las Vegas Raiders games at Allegiant Stadium. Occupancy dipped 1% on weekends and 2% midweek. Oh, and don’t look to New Year’s Eve for relief.
On the Strip, the house was unlucky. Table game winnings fell 7% despite 1% bigger play. Slots, however, saw 5.5% more revenue on 5% higher coin-in. Baccarat was somewhat of a bust, as players played larger (9% more) but took The Man in the form of a 6% dip in winnings, a mere $137 million. At least sports betting was a success, with $29 million in win representing a 20% vault, on 4% more action. Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas was sufficiently unimpressed as to lower his MGM Resorts International price target from $47/share to $45. Slot-revenue numbers, by the way, may have been helped both on the Strip and in the locals hangouts by some late-October coin getting rolled into November, due to an NGCB accounting quirk.
Despite waffling and weaseling during his confirmation hearings, Michael Selig has been confirmed to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a newly toothless regulatory body, defanged by the Trump administration. And it’s clear he got his marching orders from the White House. Namely, let prediction markets run rampant. Incredibly (as in, not to be believed), the spineless Selig claims to have no opinion on the matter of nationwide, online sports betting via ‘event contracts’ (known to us as bets).
Sniveled Selig, “As someone who spent many years practicing law at law firms as well as studying the law in law school, these are complex issues as to interpretation of what it means to constitute gaming. And, of course, I have the utmost respect for our judges working on these issues in our court system and I intend to always adhere to the law and follow what judicial decisions tell me to follow.” And with those words, Selig promptly placed his testicles and brain in a blind trust. After all, when POTUS has made clear that he intends to get into sports betting himself, via Truth Social, Selig surely knows that standing in opposition to it would result in his head landing on gold-plated platter. (The question of the seemliness of a president of the United States hawking sports wagers is best left for another time.)
Anyone with a lick of common sense knows that event contracts are bets and “predictions” on sports are what you used to make with Lefty down at the barbershop … and now place with DraftKings and FanDuel. The latter are no dummies, both having gotten into prediction markets. In order to so do, both quit the American Gaming Association, which is standing by its casino constituents on this issue. So openly cynical about event contracts are some that the idea of purchasing “predictions” on dice rolls or card plays is being mooted. And if that’s not gambling, what is? Ooops, sorry, it’s an “economic event,” according to the pimply faced, amoral tech bros who are spreading this pestilence.
Someone who has been applying both law AND common sense to this spreading moral rot is Judge Andrew Gordon of Nevada. He certainly struck a nerve with Kalshi by enjoining its “swaps” in the Silver State. Now Kalshi is screeching to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that careful study of the English language constitutes “gerrymandering.” You have to love how Kalshi enjoys an overweening sense of entitlement, don’t you? They’ve gotten a long way on sheer audacity—and the unwillingness of a rudderless CFTC to rein them in. Their new shill, Selig, is evidently willing to give them enough rope—not to hang themselves—but to get people used to pervasive, ubiquitous and unrestrained gambling. Now, gambling is something that deserves to exist in a free society—but as a privilege, not something that is jammed into your grill around the clock, everywhere you go.
There’s a demoralization afoot in the U.S., a loss of belief in the American Dream, which can be safely said to be extinct. From the despair arises the determination to make a quick buck by any means available, no matter how desperate. Enter prediction markets. When we, as a society, are placing wagers on the death toll in Ukraine or the extent of California wildfires, we have sunk into a moral abyss. Selig and his puppet-masters are the real ones getting rich off that. You might say they’re betting on it.
Gridiron Grumbles: Today’s edition of The Athletic asks whether shadow GM Tom Brady can save the wretched Las Vegas Raiders. It calls for the intervention of “the front-office equivalent of a tough, hyper-competitive, ruthless quarterback staring down the opposition and acting large and in charge.” Sounds like the GOAT, all right. A present, all the Raiders are is a goat, lower-case. Owner Mark Davis, as consistent as a weathervane, sure can’t get it done. Nor can head coach Pete Carroll, who frittered away entire season trying to prove that a squad largely denuded of talent was playoff-ready. Then again, as long as the Raiders’ Las Vegas business model cynically counts on decade after decade of profitability based solely upon NFL tourism, regardless of the crap, er, product on the field, is there any hope?
At present, Brady is trying to have and eat several cakes simultaneously. Fox Sports, ever blind to conflicts of interest, allows him to pretend to be an ostensibly impartial analyst on Sundays, whilst turning a myopic eye when Brady pops up in the Silver & Black coaching booth, wearing a headset. (Never mind he’s already a walking, talking conflict of interest by being a minority owner of the team.) We’re not as convinced as The Athletic of Brady’s persuasive skills: Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew Stafford (an MVP favorite) rejected Brady’s blandishments to come to Sin City. So did Ben Johnson, currently coaching the playoff-bound Chicago Bears. At least Brady’s not to blame that Josh McDaniels, late of the Raiders, presently sits atop the AFC with Mike Vrabel‘s resurgent New England Patriots. Davis is the one caved to player pressure and sent McDaniels packing.
Yes, the Raiders have a colossal problem. We’re not yet convinced more of Brady is the answer, however.