Nevada casino revenue confirms rebound in June with growth from pre-pandemic levels

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evada casinos won more than $1 billion for the fourth straight month in June, marking an economic rebound from the pandemic restrictions, and nearly reaching the all-time record set a month earlier, state regulators reported Thursday.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board said casinos reported house winnings of $1.19 billion statewide during June, more than double the $567 million reported in the same month of 2020, which was the first partial month of reopening after pandemic casino closures. And it also surpassed the monthly casino win figure of $1.04 billion in June 2019.

“Every market increased over June 2019 with the exception of the Las Vegas Strip,” said Michael Lawton, senior analyst with the NGCB, as reported by the Associated Press. Winnings at resorts on and around Las Vegas Boulevard were down 1%, though they still accounted for more than half of all casino winnings statewide.

Lawton noted the last time Nevada casinos tallied billion-dollar winnings in four straight months was January to April 2008. He said the $3.46 billion total in April, May and June amounted to the largest gaming win figure in a calendar quarter in state history. It beat the previous high of $3.26 billion in October, November and December 2006. 

Statewide slot machine winnings of $868 million in June broke the previous record set in October 2007, and sports betting win and volume were better than any June in state history, Lawton said.

Almost $315 million was wagered on sports, with bets taken by mobile apps accounting for almost 58% of the total. House winnings of $332 million on card and table games during the month were up 88% from 2020 but down $79 million, or nearly 20%, from 2019.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, casino winnings totaled $10.7 billion, up 14.3%, after decreasing nearly 22% in pandemic-battered fiscal 2020. Compared with fiscal year 2019, casinos won 10.5% less in the last 12 month, with the Las Vegas Strip accounting for the majority of the decrease, Lawton said.

Furthermore, Nevada state collected $808.6 million in revenues based on those winnings, up from $472 million in fiscal 2020 and a significant part of the $8.7 billion state budget for the next two years. Casino taxes are second to sales taxes as a percentage of the state budget. 

However, a spike in COVID-19 cases since mid-May, and the restoration of indoor mask mandates for vaccinated and unvaccinated people on Friday, raises concerns looking ahead, with the new delta variant spreading fast.

McCarran International Airport on Wednesday reported monthly passenger volume continued a steady monthly increase in June, with 3.8 million travelers arriving and departing. The airport is a main conduit for visitors to Las Vegas. International travelers were less than one-tenth the number in June 2019 — a month offering a pre-pandemic benchmark from a year that the airport handled a record 51.5 million passengers.