Despite the opening of the new T-Mobile Arena and several large events held during April, Nevada gaming was down by more than 2 percent for the month.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported state casinos won $876 million in April. On the Las Vegas Strip, casinos won $491 million in April, down about 2 percent, while Downtown Las Vegas casinos won $43 million – a 13 percent drop from a year ago.
Reno gaming revenues continued recent improvement with a $50 million win in April, which was a 19 percent improvement. In nearby Lake Tahoe, though, revenue declined by 12 percent at $13 million.
An accounting quirk partly accounts for the statewide revenue drop.
April ended on a Saturday, and Nevada casinos don’t count slots revenues on weekends to ensure the gaming floor remains as open as possible. That means an estimated $30 million in slots revenues earned on the last Saturday in April will be attributed to May.
Slot revenues statewide dropped by about 5 percent, despite a 4 percent rise in wagering at $9.1 billion. Nevada casinos won about 6.2 percent of that total.
April 2015 also was a particularly strong month last year, and gaming regulators said that also made this April’s numbers appear worse than they truly are.
Baccarat revenues bucked a recent trend of losing months, with a 10 percent rise in baccarat play generating a $105 million win in April. That helped statewide revenues from gaming tables to rise by more than 4 percent.
Nevada took in an estimated $44 million in taxes from April’s statewide gambling win, which was down by 18 percent from a year ago.
While statewide gaming revenues were down, McCarran International Airport posted its best April numbers since 2007, with more than 3.9 million passengers, which was up 3.4 percent from April 2015.
Domestic airline travel was up by 4.6 percent, at 3.5 million passengers, while international travel declined by 2.5 percent, at 293,558 passengers, according to the Clark County Department of Aviation.
