By james art Nevada gaming profit rebounded from two months of declining revenue in September, just as analysts had predicted, but revenue for the first quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year still lagged a year earlier, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said Tuesday .
Analysts say the drop in the first quarter is more likely the result of baccarat volatility than a downward trend in revenue.
Nevada’s 440 licensed casinos brought in $1.31 billion in gaming profits in September, a 3.3 percent increase from September 2023. But for the first quarter of the fiscal year, profit was 2.6 percent less than the previous year.
That’s because of the difficult comparison in baccarat statistics, according to Michael Lawton, senior economic analyst for the Control Board, who analyzes the state’s monthly gaming statistics.
Lawton said most of the decline in revenue was the result of baccarat “retention,” the percentage of money won by players at casinos. Lawton recently explained the volatility of baccarat to the Review-Journal.
“The decline is due to difficult retention comparisons where the same quarter of 2023 recorded a retention rate of 21.5 percent, which was historically very high, compared to 11.6 percent recorded this quarter, which is below the average,” Lawton explained Tuesday. “When you remove baccarat from the totals, the Strip was up 3.4 percent or $60.8 million for the quarter and the state was up 3.3 percent or $114.2 million.”
Last month, Lawton predicted September numbers would be higher due to the timing of collection profit data. That, he said, is why the profit in August was weaker than the previous year.
For the month, the Strip fell 1.8 percent to $727.7 million, but double-digit percentage increases in downtown Las Vegas (33 percent), the Boulder Strip (19.3 percent) and outlying Clark County, which includes Henderson ( 15.9 percent) bring the profit presentation to the state.
The biggest declines in statewide gaming profits came in South and North Lake Tahoe (down 18.8% and 14.8%, respectively), but Reno casinos delivered a 12.4% increase.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at [email protected] or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.