After seeing a 7% decrease in gaming revenue in July, Nevada continued a slide in August as well, according to the state’s Gaming Control Board. For August, casinos reported gaming revenue of $1.16 million, a 3.8% decrease compared to $1.21 million for the same month in 2023.
For the fiscal year so far, which began on July 1, revenue has seen an overall decrease of 5.5%. Clark County, home to Las Vegas, once again suffered decreases that affected statewide numbers, but other key areas also saw declines in August.
The county saw revenue of $980.9 million, a drop of 4.4% from the $1 billion last August. The Las Vegas Strip fell 3.5% to $643.7 million from $666.8 million last year. While slot machine revenue was down just 0.4%, table games numbers suffered a decrease of 7.3%.
Downtown Vegas saw an even bigger drop, falling 8.8% to $58.4 million from $64 million in 2023. While table game revenue surged 23.9%, slot machine take fell 19.8%. North Las Vegas was mostly unchanged at $23.1 million while Laughlin saw a decrease of 5% to $32.7 million. The Boulder Strip saw one of the largest revenue declines in the state, down 21.8% to $64.8 million.
The decreases in Las Vegas come as the city has actually seen a rising number of travelers. The city saw 3.4 million visitors in August, an increase of 2.4%. The numbers point to the increase seeing leisure travel up, perhaps contributing to the gaming revenue declines.
“A lot of the volatility you are seeing downtown and on the Boulder Strip is the result of the month of August ending on a Saturday,” Control Board senior economic analyst Michael Lawton told casino.org. “As a result of the timing of slot collections falling into September, the revenue will be recognized and reported to the board in September’s filings.”
Some other major gaming areas also saw declines, but not to the level of Clark County overall. Reno was down 4.8% to $65.4 million. South Lake Tahoe was mostly unchanged at $26.6 million in August. North Lake Tahoe saw a jump of 2% to $3 million while Sparks was also another bright spot on the monthly report, rising 11.3% to $17 million.