Between the twin disappointments that were Formula One Weekend in November and Super Bowl weekend earlier this month, the Las Vegas Strip saw an extraordinary upsurge of gambling. Can it last? Who knows. It’s as unexpected as it is welcome, coming after six straight months of decline. Strip casinos erupted 22.5%, hitting $840 million. Statewide, casinos jumped 12.5% for over $1.4 billion.
At the center of the comeback is the Strip’s fickle friend, baccarat. The house won hugely, $214 million or a 121% year/year improvement. Wagering rose an impressive 36% and hold was a super-tight 26.5%. Other table games saw just $201.5 million in revenue—but that was a 7% uptick on 5.5% higher wagering. Slots were somewhat inconclusive, given the Nevada peculiarity of not counting the final days of the month if they fall on a weekend. (It’ll show up in February’s numbers instead.) Slot play was up 11%, though, and the house won 6% more.
Locals casinos were only slightly muted by comparison. Not only were slots looser than on the Strip (yeah, big surprise), they won 2% less than in 2024, although coin-in was 2.5% greater. Compared to the Strip, locals table revenue—$48 million—is chicken feed, although it was 4.5% on 6% higher betting. Still, 5% up at $24 million, North Las Vegas was an outlier. Almost everybody else was down, including Downtown ($84 million, -2%), the Boulder Strip ($87 million, -6%) and Laughlin ($42 million, -5%). Even miscellaneous Clark County was flat ($170), suggesting that Durango Resort has finally been absorbed.
Two Utah-facing markets were positively fat. Mesquite jumped 10% to $17.5 million. Wendover continued to be the economic bellwether for the rest of the Silver State, leaping 14.5% to $22.5 million. Reno enjoyed a 2.5% hop to $67 million, Sparks was up 3% to $13.5 million and Lake Tahoe rose a whopping 22% to $22 million. There are rumblings from Carson City that, with federal spending headed south in a hurry, Nevada could soon face another Great Recession. So enjoy the winning feeling while it lasts.
We’re still frayed around the edges after filing 11 (!) CDC Gaming stories in a 36-hour stretch, so you’ll hopefully forgive us if S&G is a bit short today. However, we have time for …
JOTTINGS: With Wynn Resorts doing better than expected and Tilman Fertitta sniffing around the stock, J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff upped his price target on WYNN shares to $117 apiece. Why? Wynncore beat cash-flow projections by 20% and the Macao casinos outperformed by 7%. Formula One Weekend was a glass half-full or half-empty for Wynn: Cash flow from it dropped 20% from 2023, driven down by weaker room rates, but it was still 50% better than without the race … Speaking of half-full glasses, one of our favorite Sin City haunts, the El Cortez, is going through a bit of that. It rolled out $20 million in upgrades but just today we were reading about seven-hour waits for a table at its new restaurant. CEO Kenny Epstein is a genuinely nice guy so we hope he gets the kinks ironed out … Do you feel like betting on your kids’ video games? You soon may be able to in New Jersey, which is so desperate for revenue it’s considering legalizing betting on e-sports. We don’t like it. Never have. Never will … The latest of several designs for Bally’s Chicago has been approved for construction. Of course, it’s a Bally’s Corp. project in name only, being bankrolled by sugar daddy Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. Without GLPI, Soo Kim would be rattling a tin cup on a street corner somewhere …
Better start saving your pennies if you want to gamble at a casino in Thailand—at least if you’re Thai. Fearing that citizens will gamble away their savings, lawmakers have advanced a cockamamie proposal. You’d have to have $1.5 million in the bank AND pay an admission fee per visit in order to gamble. Way to cut your nascent casino industry off at the knees, Thailand! It could also scare off the big operators who want to develop in the country … Maryland can’t decide which way to go on sports betting. Some politicians want to repeal it, throwing away perfectly good money. Others want to risk killing the golden goose. An increase in the tax rate from 15% to 30%. Yes, Gov. Wes Moore (D) wants a 100% increase. (Terrestrial casinos would have their taxes upped to 25% instead of 20%.) Of course, it’s the bettor who will really feel the pain as bookies pass the cost along to the consumer … The once-controversial Prairie Flower Casino is such a success that the Iowa tribal gambling hall is increasing sevenfold in size. It now boasts 600 slot machines, a sports book and table games—electronic ones, to be sure.
News of the Weird: We’ve seen some strange things in our lifetime, but this takes the cake. Words fail us. Please tell us it’s a hoax or at least a satire. “Tasteless” doesn’t begin to cover it.