Nevada gaming win up from surge in baccarat winnings for November

Nevada gaming revenue rose 6.4 percent in November, propelled by a surge in baccarat winnings, lifting the state’s total win so far this year above $10 billion.

November revenue advanced to $967 million compared with $909 million last year, the state’s Gaming Control Board said Wednesday. State gaming revenue is up 2.9 percent over the first 11 months of the year to $10.9 billion.

Baccarat win jumped 51 percent to $97.8 million, accounting for more than half of the November gaming revenue increase. Baccarat win stood at 12.2 percent, up from 10 percent last November. Monthly baccarat revenue is volatile as it is dependent on the number of high rollers visiting from Asia.

The state’s sports books nearly tripled their November win to $27.1 million as hold increased to 4.7 percent from 1.9 percent. The total amount wagered on sports during the month rose 10 percent to $581 million, a record high.

Overall table, counter and card games win — which includes sports betting — rose 18 percent to $332 million. Statewide slot win was up 1.3 percent to $635 million. The amount wagered with slots rose 5.1 percent to $9.5 billion while hold dropped slightly to 6.7 percent from 6.9 percent.

Strip gaming revenue advanced 10 percent to $534.5 million while downtown increased 2.2 percent to $55.4 million.

November gaming revenue growth was also helped by a low comparison with last year along with a favorable calendar. The Oct. 1 shooting that left 58 dead led to a sharp decline in visitation over the last three months of 2017, impacting gaming revenues.

This November also had one more Friday compared with last year. Friday is one of the busiest gambling days of the week as people from California drive in for the weekend.

Visitations up

The extra Friday and an Amazon conference contributed to a 5.4 percent increase in the number of people visiting Las Vegas this November.

The number of tourists increased to 3.48 million compared with 3.3 million last November, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said in a statement Thursday.

Nearly a third of that increase came the Amazon Web Services conference, which was held in December last year. The conference attracts about 50,000 people.

That pushed the total number of visitors to Las Vegas over the first 11 months to 38.8 million, a decline of 0.4 percent compared with the same period last year.

Las Vegas is on target to receive about 42.1 million visitors this year compared with 42.2 in 2017.

Occupancy for November rose 3.6 percentage points to 88.1 percent, helping push the average daily room rate for the month to $128.24, an 8.9 percent increase compared with last year.

However, the average daily room rate over the first 11 months of the year is up just 0.6 percent to $129.61.

Contact Todd Prince at 702-383-0386 or tprince@reviewjournal.com. Follow @toddprincetv on Twitter.