Las Vegas’ growth as an all-around tourist destination has propelled Nevada casinos to their first profitable year since 2008.
Hotel and related revenues alone resulted in statewide income of almost $979 million from total revenues of $25.2 billion in the financial year ended last June 30, the state Gaming Control Board said.
The revenue figure came in just 0.1 percent below the record $25.3 billion in total recorded in fiscal 2007.
Fiscal 2015, by comparison, ended with a net loss of almost $662 million on revenues of $24.6 billion.
“It’s been a long road to get back in the black,” said Michael Lawton, an analyst with the Control Board. “It’s good not only because it’s net income for the first time, but because it’s net income in all areas across the board”
The report came amid reports of heady growth from Las Vegas tourism.
McCarran International Airport was on pace in December to top the record 45 million passengers handled in 2015, while the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority recently reported a record number of tourists, 42.9 million, in 2016.
The most dramatic change was on the Strip, said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who pointed to hotel rooms, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, entertainment venues and retail shopping as the industry’s main drivers.
He noted that while Strip casinos made about 2 percent more money in fiscal 2016 than they did in 2015, gambling revenues were up less than a quarter of a percent. Room revenues, by comparison, grew almost 8 percent, and food revenues grew almost 3 percent.
“The revenue pattern of the industry has shifted,” he said.
Strip gambling revenues dropped to 34.2 percent of the total in fiscal 2016, the lowest percentage ever and a decrease from 34.9 percent recorded last year. Gambling revenue in 1990, by comparison, made up about 58 percent of the total. Lawton said the last time gambling revenues accounted for half the profit on the Strip was in the 1997-98 fiscal year.
