Nevada casinos continue to see rebound, but all eyes are now on omicron

Nevada casinos saw their third-highest gaming revenue for the year in November. The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) released the latest figures on Wednesday, indicating that November's state gaming revenue was $1.32 billion. This is just below the July single-month record of $1.36 billion.

November's totals grew by 41% over November 2019, marking a record ninth straight month of more than $1 billion. An additional $1-billion month would break the single-year record, which was established before the Great Recession more than 12 years ago.

Nevada casinos have collected $12.3 billion in gaming revenue in the first 11 months of 2021. This is 11.9% higher than the $12 billion collected in 2019, the year used for most comparisons due to the COVID-19 issues in 2020.

Las Vegas Strip casinos earned more than $755 million in November gaming revenue, which is a 45.8% increase from two years ago. The nation's biggest casino market is now 7.2% ahead of its 2019 total, which stands at $6.58 billion.

Analysts and industry observers had predicted that Nevada and the Strip would suffer a slow recovery from months of operating restrictions and pandemic-related shutdowns. The results have been surprising. Daniel Politzer, a Wells Fargo Securities gaming analyst, said that Las Vegas Strip wagering totals are more than 30% higher than the 2019 levels over the last three months.

Chad Beynon from Macquarie Securities said that Strip gaming revenue has defied historical trends. The numbers traditionally decrease by 6% percent from October to November. He explained that the leisure gamblers are spending more than the VIP class. However, "We note that VIP play is showing signs of a rebound," he explained.

Nevada's gaming results mirror those across the US. The American Gaming Association (AGA) stated earlier this month that the total revenue from Nevada casinos had almost equaled their full-year record of $43.65 billion in gaming revenues.

Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, has seen a 10.6% increase in its overall revenue over the past 11 months compared with 2019. For six of the last seven months, the market has generated $1 billion in gaming revenue. Clark County was the last county to record $1 billion in gaming revenues before 2021.

The gaming revenue in Las Vegas locals markets, such as northern Las Vegas, has increased 18.9% over the calendar year 2019.

Only two reporting markets, North Las Vegas and Laughlin, are down in the first eleven months of this year compared to two years ago.

Sports betting is doing well, also. Nevada sportsbooks earned $72 million in November. This single-month record eclipses the $61.8 million set one year ago.

The second straight month saw more than $1 million in wagers at sportsbooks. Nevada's sports betting companies had never reached this mark before October.

This month also demonstrated the acceptance of mobile betting, which accounted for $776.6 million, or 71.5%, of all sports wagers placed during November. Lawton claimed that November was the most significant month for mobile sports wagers ever since the control board began to track them in January 2020.

He said that mobile bets account for 62.9% of total sports wagers this year.

The rise in gaming revenue wasn't correlated to an increase in Las Vegas visitors. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), more than 3.1 million people visited Southern Nevada in November. The November visitor count was down 8.2% from October and fell 11.3% from November 2019's 3.5 million visitors.

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