Extra weekend in July helps Nevada gaming win hit $1B

Five full weekends, including the three-day Independence Day holiday weekend, produced a $1 billion bonanza in gaming win for the state and record visitation in July.

Statewide, the gaming win was up 10 percent while Clark County, which reported a monthly win of $867.2 million, was up 10.2 percent, the state Gaming Control Board reported Wednesday.

It was the first $1 billion-plus month since May 2015.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also reported the city had the best July visitor volume on record, 3.8 million people, a 2.5 percent increase over July 2015.

Convention attendance and the average daily room rate had double-digit percentage increases for the month with the convention count up 16.5 percent to 351,791 and room rates up 12.8 percent to $119.24 a night.

Convention business was bolstered by the appearance of 22,000 delegates for Deaf Nation, which returned after an absence of four years.

Occupancy rates for resorts were strong with a 2.2 percentage-point increase to 93.7 percent for the month, with the Strip up 2.3 points to 95.4 percent and motel occupancy up 5.5 points to 80.4 percent, all the highest marks of the year.

For the seven months of 2016 to date, visitor volume is up 1.7 percent to 25.2 million and convention attendance is up 1.5 percent to 3.9 million.

The Gaming Control Board said the Strip reported a $613 million win, up 16.8 percent, while downtown Las Vegas reported $41.8 million, up 2.5 percent.

The three-month average for May, June and July, which presents a more accurate picture of gaming win trends because of swings in monthly revenue reporting, showed a healthy 3.7 percent increase statewide with Clark County up 4 percent, the Strip, 3.9 percent, and downtown, 5.6 percent.

Gaming analyst Joseph Greff of J.P. Morgan noted that while there were 10 weekend dates in July compared with nine a year ago, slot gaming win for the last weekend of the month would be counted in August numbers.

But Greff was more enthused with stronger baccarat numbers.

“The strong Las Vegas Strip monthly result also reflects higher table hold and a relatively easy year-over-year baccarat comparison (baccarat win in July 2015 was down 20.8 percent),” Greff said in a report to investors. “We note July’s baccarat drop increased for the first time since September 2015, which mirrors MGM (Resort International’s) recent comments about a modest uptick in Asian play.”

By percentage, the largest increase in the state in July was reported by South Lake Tahoe, up 20 percent to $28 million.

Washoe County produced a 9.3 percent increase in win to $76.1 million.

There were some declines in July. The Boulder Strip was off 8.2 percent to $55.7 million, and North Las Vegas was down 4.3 percent to $20.3 million. Nonrestricted licensees around the state that don’t include the Lake Tahoe area, Elko County and Carson City, showed wins down 6.1 percent to $11.6 million.

Among Clark County’s 163 licensees in July, table games generated $385.3 million in win, most of it baccarat — $148.9 million — and blackjack — $102.7 million. Slot machines accounted for $481.9 million of the win with penny slots collecting $202.3 million because of the large volume of units, more than 41,000.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.