Silver State casinos grossed $1 billion last month, with the Las Vegas Strip down 9% from 2019 to $501.5 million but locals-derived win vaulting 23%, leading to a 4% statewide increase on pre-Coronavirus numbers. The silver lining for the Strip was that win was 44% higher than in February, while locals improved 38%. The numbers were undoubtedly helped by a March 15 increase to 50% capacity in casinos, with further improvements likely in May (80%) and June (100%). Strip slot win was “flattish” which is actually impressive considering that coin-in plunged 29%. Slots kept $239 million on tighter holds. Probably the best news for Strip casinos was that baccarat is back, as win grew 32% on 29% more wagering and an exponentially higher hold. Other table games sucked wind, down 33% on 27% less handle.
Downtown casinos grossed $71 million, a 21% gain, while North Las Vegas nudged up 2% to $26 million. The Boulder Strip leapt 37% to $96.5 million, while miscellaneous Clark County hopped 19% to $133.5 million. Laughlin was modestly down, -4%, grossing $48 million, Reno jumped 18% to $59 million and Lake Tahoe rocketed 51.5% to $26 million. As for those Strip results, they can be chalked up to still-anemic visitation. Tourism was down 40% from March 2019. Hotel occupancy was 55.5%, compared to 2019’s 91.5%. Average daily rates fell 27% to a wallet-friendly $104, while revenue per room was $58. Thanks to a dearth of conventions, midweek occupancy stood at 48%. Air traffic still has a long way to go, down 42%, but highways saw as much as 7% more vehicles heading into and out of Nevada. There’s a ways to go but we’ll take numbers like these when we can get them.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) succeeded where predecessor Rick Scott failed, inking a pact with the Seminole Tribe that would unlock the $35o million a year that the Seminoles have been holding in escrow. In return, the tribe gets a pretty ‘george’ gambling expansion: three new casinos, craps and roulette (Take that, blackjack-offering racinos!), Internet gambling, and both retail and online sports betting. For his part, DeSantis 
That’s how JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff described the online sports-betting bill enacted by the New York State Lege. The latter essentially caved to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), giving control of OSB to the state lottery. Instead of the one-operator solution proposed by Cuomo there will be … wait for it … two. Big whoop. Those two casinos will be enabled to host four ‘skins’ on their Internet platforms. So, as we predicted, somebody (maybe a lot of somebodys) are going to be left out in the cold. The ‘Net platform providers will each pay Albany $25 million for a 10-year concession plus an annual levy of $5 million to the host casino “to alleviate the constitutional requirement that sports wagers are placed at casinos.” No tax rate has been announced but both Greff and Credit Suisse‘s Ben Chaiken anticipate it will be steep, probably in the 50% range, another Cuomo object of desire.
