Nevada’s sports books garnered a record 8.2 million in wagers in September, winning more than million and powering the state to 0 million in total gaming win, a 3.3 percent increase over the same month a year ago.
“It was a strong month as far as betting activity,” Michael Lawton, senior research analyst for the state Gaming Control Board, told the Associated Press. “Football was extremely strong. It was also a good betting month in baseball.”
Gaming revenue on the Las Vegas Strip was up 4.7 percent to $568 million, while Reno’s casinos beat September 2016’s results by 9.2 percent, winning $58.8 million. Downtown Las Vegas was flat year on year at $49.3 million.
To date, statewide revenues are up 5 percent over the first nine months of 2016.
The sports pool win of $44.4 million in September was the fifth-highest monthly total ever recorded.
The positive impact on the month from race and sports betting is evidenced by the fact that both visitation and convention traffic were down across the greater Southern Nevada region in September. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority counted 3.6 million visitors for the month, a year-on-year dip of 2.5 percent, while convention volume fell by 24.6 percent to 463,565. It was the worst month for convention attendance so far this year and mainly was the result of three major shows rotating out of the city and another moving to October.
Correspondingly, hotel occupancy region-wide was off 1.8 percentage points to 91.1 percent, although the average daily room rate was 1.8 percent ahead of September 2016 at $139.57.
Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport surpassed the 4 million mark for the seventh consecutive month, edging past last September’s total by 0.5 percent. The nation’s eighth-busiest airport has logged 36.4 million passengers to date in 2017 and is on track to beat the annual record set in 2007 of 47.8 million.
