State continues struggle to keep up with gaming win’s torrid pace

Nevada casinos continued its struggle to keep up with the torrid pace of historic gaming win, but still won more than $1 billion from players in Clark County alone in June, the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported Friday.

The board said Clark County gaming win was off 3.5 percent to $1.07 billion for the month, while state win declined 2.4 percent to $1.25 billion for the month.

Strip win fell 1 percent to $727.3 million and downtown Las Vegas win was off 10.4 percent to $62.5 million.

But, just as Michael Lawton, senior economic analyst for the Control Board, has said for months, it’s going to be harder and harder for Nevada properties to keep pace with what have been extraordinary gains since 2019.

While total win decreased on the Strip in June, totals for the first six months of 2023 are up 6.2 percent. For the 2022-23 fiscal year that ended June 30, win is up 4.8 percent on the Strip to $8.53 billion.

The patterns are similar across most of the 20 markets the Control Board regularly monitors. Of the 20 markets studied, only six saw win declines during the fiscal year and only one of them — the Boulder Strip, off 1.5 percent — is in Clark County.

“The state has now recorded decreases in three of the last four months,” Lawton said in an email. “However, Nevada continued to record gaming win amounts in excess of pre-pandemic levels this month. Statewide total win was 19.7 percent or $204.9 million over June 2019. This month also represented the 28th consecutive month that the state has recorded $1 billion in monthly gaming win.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.