Nevada May Gaming Revenue Sees 15th Straight $1B+ Month

Nevada’s May gaming revenue reported a combined $1.3 billion, marking the 15th straight month of $1 billion-plus handle in its best May ever.

According to the data released Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the number is up 6% from May 2021’s $1.23 billion. Last year, the state’s tourism and gambling industry recovered roaring back after the pandemic-led closures affected the casino business and tourism badly in 2020.

May 2022’s gaming revenues were also a 32% increase over the pre-pandemic May 2019’s $984.5 million.

Nevada’s May gaming revenue numbers were also 15.2% higher than April’s when the Silver State reported $1.128 billion.

March has seen the highest gaming revenue ($1.355 billion) this year so far.

Clark County Claimed 87% of the Total Revenue

As expected, the lion’s share of the revenue came from Clark County, which reported $1.1 billion – or 87% – of the total revenue in May.

The Las Vegas Strip saw a 12% increase in revenue to $731.5 million, its best May ever. In contrast, Downtown Las Vegas reported nearly $78.9 million in gaming revenue in more than a 5% year-over-year increase.

Table, counter, and card games reported a 10% YOY increase to $430 million with a win percentage of 14%. Slot machine gaming saw a 3.5% rise to $870.1 million with a 7% win percentage.

According to Gaming Control Board Senior Economic Analyst Michael Lawton, the monthly gaming figures were boosted thanks largely to a 24% revenue increase from baccarat and a nearly 10.5% in table games.

Special events like the Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol championship boxing match and the Electric Daisy Carnival also reportedly attracted a huge number of visitors to the Strip during May.

Nevada Sports Betting Collected $27 Million in May

Meanwhile, Nevada sports betting operators won $27 million in revenue, a slight decline of 1% compared to last May and a 3.5% decrease from April’s $582.5 million. Nevada operators handled $561.6 million in wagers, a 15 increase from the same period in 2021.

Online sports betting again dominated with nearly $397.8 million – or 70% – of the total handle. Baseball, with $245 million in bets, did most of the heavy lifting for the Nevada sportsbooks in May. Basketball followed with $178.4 million in handle.

April was the first month since August 2021 to slide below $700 million in the monthly handle. However, the lower monthly handles for Nevada sportsbooks – or for that matter, for any operators around the nation – were expected due to the seasonal slowdown.

Thanks to that summer slump that clouds the US sports betting market between the months of April and August, the national sports betting industry reported an average of 10.8% decrease in May compared to April, according to the data collected from the 20 jurisdictions.

Las Vegas Sees Post-Covid Rebound

The Las Vegas tourism landscape continues to experience a post-pandemic rebound, which is evident from the first five months of this year. So far, the year 2022 has seen a 22.6% increase in gaming revenue compared to the same period in 2021 – a record year at $13.4 million.

Strip gaming revenue has also surged to a whopping 40.2% over the past year.

Las Vegas has also seen a great boom in the tourism industry, with the destination hosting more than 3.4 million visitors in May. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Sin City had reported nearly 2.9 million visitors in 2021.

Room occupancy at 82.6% was also 12% higher than in the YOY comparison and 91.9% on weekends compared to 87.8% in May 2021.

Passenger volume at Harry Reid International Airport last month witnessed its third-busiest month ever, reflecting the return to normalcy after pandemic-led years. According to the Clark County Department of Aviation, nearly 4.57 million passengers visited the city in May.