Nevada gaming win declines for second straight month

Hotels on The Strip in Las Vegas on Saturday, June 30, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph

The state gaming win tumbled for the second straight month as the Gaming Control Board reported a 7.7 percent decrease, with Clark County and the Strip off by double-digit percentages.

Michael Lawton, senior research analyst for the administration division of the Control Board, said the decline was primarily the result of the month being compared with extraordinary amounts collected in August 2017, when the boxing and mixed martial arts worlds were focused on the fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather.

Clark County gaming win dropping 10.2 percent to $756.1 million for the month. It was the lowest monthly total of 2018. The Strip win fell 12.4 percent to $477.9 million.

Statewide, casinos won $913 million after winning $989.5 million a year earlier.

“This month we were facing an extremely difficult comparison with the Strip being up 21.35 percent last year,” Lawton said in emailed comments. “Last year’s increase was driven in part by a very successful fight between Mayweather and McGregor. As a result, we are disappointed but not surprised by this August being down 12.4 percent on the Strip.”

The three-month gaming revenue trend for the state, generally a more accurate gauge of win activity because it eliminates volatile swings resulting from calendar comparisons, shows the state’s 434 licensees’ win down 1.45 percent for June, July and August compared with those months in 2017.

Lawton said analysts are watching the three-month trend closely.

“We are anticipating that this is a short-term trend affecting the third quarter,” he said, noting that MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment Corp. have commented about the quarter being soft as a result of fewer special events and conventions than last year.

McCarran International Airport reported a slight climb in passengers in August while visitor volume was flat against 2017 for the month.

The Clark County Department of Aviation reported 4.31 million passengers for the month, a 1.5 percent increase. In the first eight months of 2018, the passenger count rose 2.7 percent to 33.23 million, on pace for a record year.

The five major commercial air carriers at McCarran — Southwest, Delta, American, Spirit and United — maintained their respective market shares. Spirit’s 23.5 percent climb and Sun Country’s 30.2 percent increase in passenger counts — which resulted from higher seat inventories — were the top gainers for the month.

International volume was up 6.9 percent to 344,601 for the month, and domestic flights inched up 0.8 percent to 3.9 million in August.

Convention attendance had the best increase among the indicators monitored by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Thanks to scheduling shifts on the convention calendar, August convention and trade show attendance spiked 17.9 percent to 646,500, rebounding from July’s 19.5 percent drop.

The LVCVA reported that the Orgill Fall Dealer Market, a hardware industry trade show that rotates among various cities across the country, brought 32,000 people to the Sands Expo & Convention Center, while the Black Hat conference for 17,400 computer security professionals shifted from July 2017 to August 2018.

Other tourism indicators were flat for the month with visitor volume down 0.2 percent to 3.56 million, citywide occupancy off 0.9 percentage points to 87.7 percent, and the average daily room rate up 2.1 percent to $115.67.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. Las Vegas Sands operates the Sands Expo & Convention Center.