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Nevada’s 2020 Gaming Revenues Are at Their Lowest in 24 Years

Article by : Helen Feb 5, 2021

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Nevada Gaming Control Board’s latest stats for December 2020 and last year as a whole are in, and they confirm what we already knew: the Silver State’s annual gross gaming revenue hit rock bottom in 2020, scoring the lowest figures in 24 years.

Total gaming revenues went down 34.56% compared to 2019, totaling $7.87 billion. Table, counter, and card games suffered a bit more severe year-on-year drop in revenues (40.03%) than slot machines (31.74%), having brought in $2.46 billion and $5.42 billion, respectively. Among the table, counter, and card games, twenty-one and baccarat were the most profitable ones for casinos, with revenues amounting to $643 million and $604.29 million, respectively. Together, they accounted for half of the revenue brought in by table, counter, and card games.

Craps revenues totaled $264.12 million in 2020, with the sports pool being not far behind with annual revenue of $262.8 million. Roulette managed to pull in $210.79 million in revenues last year. As for slot machines, the multi-denomination and one-cent ones generated most of the revenues in 2020 – $2.38 billion and $2.35 billion. Twenty-five-cent and one-dollar slots brought significantly less, $143.66 million and $365.05 million, respectively.

Traditionally, Clark County that hosts the Las Vegas Strip accounted for most of the Silver State’s gaming revenue in 2020 ($6.52 billion) – this is a 34.72% year-on-year drop. More than half of the county’s gaming revenues came from the Strip – $3.71 billion, a 40.45% decline compared to 2019.

Sports and race betting also finished the year with worse results than in 2019: racebook pari-mutuel went down 34.29% ($24.9 million), with basketball, baseball, and other sports wagering dropping by 40.4% (to $56.3 million), 61.32% (to $22.13 million), and 20.73% (to $31.78 million) respectively.

The only categories that showed a year-on-year increase were football wagering and parlay cards (4.31% to $127.72 million and 1.44% to $15.15 million, respectively).

Nevada’s casinos were off to a not-so-great start of 2021, too. They continue operating under the 25% capacity limit imposed back in November 2020. Introduced as a part of Gov. Sisolak’s “statewide pause” strategy, the measure was extended several times, with the latest planned end date being February 14, 2021.

Casino operators probably shouldn’t get their hopes all too high as there is no guarantee the restrictions will get relaxed as planned. On the other hand, daily new cases started going down in the Silver State, staying below 2,000 since January 15, – but it’s still too early to say whether the trend will continue until the middle of February or if it will be substantial enough for Gov. Sisolak to ease the restrictions.

For now, Nevada Gaming Control Board reminded the casino licensees that Directive 035 is still in force, so the capacity limits are not to be discouraged even during the Super Bowl that will take place on February 7. The regulator also warned the casino operators that “short-term gains achieved at the expense of the industry’s longer-term ability to rightly proclaim itself the safest tourism and convention host site in the world could prove shortsighted.”

Nevada Gaming Control Board is also racing to get casino employees vaccinated as they are considered to be “frontline commerce and service industry” workers by Nevada’s vaccination strategy. The state regulator requested casino licensees to conduct a survey among their employees regarding their willingness to get vaccinated earlier in January and has shared relevant resources on vaccination to be shared with them.