Nevada casinos back to pre-pandemic winnings – except in Clark County

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Gambling win in Nevada has recovered from the pandemic everywhere except where it counts most — Clark County.

Total win in October was $822.7 million. That is a 19.5%, $199 million decrease from October 2019, according to updated monthly statistics released Nov. 24 by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The only reporting areas in the red are in the south, including the Las Vegas Strip, where win was down 30.2% to $375.7 million. That, however, is improvement over September, when the Strip was down 39%.

Even so, the Strip accounted for 82% of this month’s decrease compared to a year ago. Downtown Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Laughlin and the Boulder Strip were also still down double digits year over year.

Meanwhile, across the rest of the state, October this year was actually up compared the same month a year ago.

Gaming Control Board Analyst Mike Lawton said those markets were up because of two factors: This October had two more weekend days than a year ago, and the northern/western markets mostly rely on drive-in and local play, versus the Las Vegas area relying heftily on out-of-state, fly-in tourists.

“The recovery is going to be uneven between markets that rely on local play vs. markets that rely more on destination air travel,” he said.

Even Washoe County gets much more of its gaming play from drive-in and local customers, Lawton said. The county's overall gaming win was up 6.1% in October 2020 compared to 2019, with casinos raking in $78.1 million.

The Carson Valley area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, reported just over $10 million in win, a 1.9% increase over the prior October. The vast majority of that win comes from slots. That is the third consecutive increase for Carson.

Both Lake Tahoe markets were up double digits in October. South Shore casinos at Stateline won $21.6 million, a 10.8% increase compared to a year ago. Game and Table win jumped up 23.4%, $1.1 million, and slot win 6.8%.

North Shore casinos at Crystal Bay/Incline Village reported a 21.9% increase to $2.3 million. In large part that was because this October was compared to a 17.1% decrease in the same month of 2019.

Churchill County reported $1.83 million in total win. That is 5.8% more than the same month last year.

Statewide, sports pools won $42.4 million. While that is down 11.5% compared to last October, the total bets on sports set a record at $659.6 million.