Tourism reports show gaming win up, visitation down in October

The unusual pattern of increased gaming win and sliding visitation continued last month.

Clark County gaming win — the amount collected by the county’s 216 licensed casinos — in October was up 5 percent from the same month last year, to $1.17 billion, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Meanwhile, visitation in October fell 4.4 percent from the same month last year, to 3.4 million people, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Analysts have said the numbers result from the wealthiest visitors continuing to spend as they have in the past, while lower-budget travelers keep a closer eye on their wallets or don’t come at all.

Deutsche Bank analyst Steven Pizzella attributed the strong gaming win to a favorable monthly calendar with an extra Friday this year compared with last year; higher drops for slot machines, baccarat and table games; and a better hold percentage for baccarat.

“Drop” is the amount gamblers bet, and “hold” is the percentage of money won by casinos.

Still, it was the 10th straight month of declining visitor totals in Las Vegas, according to the LVCVA.

Kevin Bagger, research director for the LVCVA, said while visitation was off, October was still a good month for conventions.

He said this was supported in part by a scheduling shift of Oracle CloudWorld, which brought 30,000 attendees to Las Vegas.

Overall, convention attendance last month was up 7.9 percent from October 2024, 603,600.

The LVCVA spearheaded a marketing campaign for Las Vegas in late September. Resort executives have said they expected to see higher visitation later in the fall and next year with higher group bookings for conventions in 2026.

Most of the other visitation indicators were down year-over-year in October.

The average daily room rate fell 6 percent to $203.88 a night, while hotel occupancy dropped 2 percentage points to 83.7 percent.

Revenue per available room, a profitability metric, was off 8.2 percent to $170.65.

Also, average daily traffic on the highways leading to Las Vegas was flat at 134,190 vehicles per day, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation, which doesn’t distinguish between local traffic and tourists.

The vehicle count on Interstate 15 at the California-Nevada line was up 0.3 percent to 43,194 daily vehicles, NDOT said.

Harry Reid International Airport has not released October’s passenger numbers yet.

Gaming win on the Strip was up 8.2 percent to $748.9 million, while downtown Las Vegas was down 0.2 percent to $86.6 million.

The worst submarket performance: the Boulder Strip, down 8.9 percent to $75.6 million for the month.

Statewide, gaming win was up 5 percent to $1.35 billion, the 56th straight month that win has exceeded $1 billion.

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