There’s been a serious outbreak of complacency in C-suites along the Las Vegas Strip and July’s numbers will undoubtedly reinforce it. With $749 million, the Strip hopped 5.5%, helping to spur a 4% uptick in Nevada gambling revenue last month. North Las Vegas, a market that Station Casinos rightly concluded was maxed out, jumped 8%, raking in $24.5 million. Downtown was up 3.5% to $74.5 million and the Boulder Strip ceded a point, reaching $85 million. Miscellaneous Clark County was down 3% ($166 million), strongly suggesting that the Durango Resort boom has run its course and the market is stabilizing. However, customers avoided Laughin, which tumbled 7% to $41 million.
The two Utah-fed border markets charted dramatically different courses. Mesquite leapt 10% to $15 million. Wendover faded 3% to $21 million. Reno spiked 10% to $71 million, Sparks was up 3% to $15.5 million and Lake Tahoe vaulted 21.5% to $37.5 million.
Inside the numbers, however, things were not good for Las Vegas. Visitation sagged a dire 12% (equivalent to the entire international sector) to 3.1 million. Not even 278.5K convention attendees (+10.5%) entirely stanched the bleeding. Not counting the Covid-19 year of 2020, this is the lowest July attendance to Sin City since 2002. For the whole year (remember, January was relatively strong), tourism has faded 8%, which ought to get the Steve Hills of this world worried.
Occupancy (79.5%), room rates (-3%) and room revenue (-12%) were down, down, down. Casino barons keep insisting that our best days are just around the next corner, but a hotel-price analysis by Truist Securities boffin Barry Jonas strongly suggested otherwise. Subtract the World Market Center show from July and you’d have an outright disaster. All those $26 water bottles and $25 utensil sets (not to mention the new scourge of “dynamic pricing“) are adding up, and not in a good way.
Whales saved Big Gaming’s bacon, losing 79% (!) more even as they bet 10% less. Score one for the house. All other table games sank 9% on 1% bigger wagering. Slot hold was flat, as the house won 2% more on 5% higher coin-in. Looser slot hold in the off-Strip casinos didn’t help players, as they lost 1% more on 4.5% higher coin-in. Table games were the pits for locals casinos, with win plunging 14% on 9% less wagering. Look for the Reegs and Hornbuckles to tout the top-line number and soft-pedal everything else, even though the third quarter is off to a shaky start.
DFS Dilemma. Would-be liberal icon and California Attorney General Rob Bonta finds himself between a rock and a hard place. Earlier this year, Bonta (rightly) opined that daily fantasy sports (a longtime bete noire of this column) is just sports betting in drag. And sports wagering is illegal in the Golden State. However … Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is very much in favor of DFS, which isn’t shy about making campaign contributions—even to Bonta.
The AG is the apple of the eye of California’s myriad gambling-enabled tribes. The latter look askance at camouflaged sports betting, of which they have no percentage, skimming the cream off the top of the state. FanDuel, which would like to be in business with the tribes, is staying its hand. DraftKings has felt no such compunction and thumbs its nose at Bonta and the law alike.
Although the ink has long since dried on Bonta’s legal opinion, he has done nothing to enforce it. He has merely said wanly that he “expects compliance” with the law. That and $7.99 will get him a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Newsom’s office has openly dissed Bonta’s stance. All of which is not amusing the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. Fumed CNIGA Chairman James Siva, “They are operating in defiance of his own stated legal opinion.” Siva, needless to say, would like to see some action. Just imagine what will happen (or not) should Bonta try to rein in the rampant sports betting offered by the prediction markets.
In a further bit of liberal-on-liberal violence, gambling friendly Rep. Ro Khanna (D, co-sponsor of the FAIR Bet Act) piled onto Bonta. He said, “It’s the self-righteousness and the lack of focus on real issues. I don’t get it. Really, your problem is kids playing fantasy football?” Khanna is being disingenuous and knows it. The issue is a lot more than some tykes (who shouldn’t be placing fantasy bets, period) fiddling with DFS. But the longer that Bonta maintains his do-nothing stance, the more of a political piñata he’s going to be.
FAIR play. While on the subject of the FAIR Bet Act, we applaud a bit of political jiujitsu performed by Rep. Dina Titus (D). She’s attached it to a must-pass defense appropriations bill. Now, some are going to wail that Titus is ‘playing politics with national defense’ or some such bullshit. Never mind that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is the proud papa of at least 1,889 overseas slot machines (3,100 as of three years ago) from which the Pentagon gleans $100 million of its budget. If the military/industrial complex is going to be subsidized by the gambling of our servicemen and -women, we see no reason why Titus can’t use a defense bill to set the taxation score right for gamblers nationwide. By the way, the Pentagon hypocritically bans slots from its stateside bases. Big Military’s hand washes Big Gaming’s, it would seem. As for the FAIR Bet Act, call your congressmen and senators to make sure it isn’t quashed in committee.
Quote of the Day: “Well, we are all going to die.”—the political suicide note of Sen. Joni Ernst (R), who opted today not to stand for reelection.