Inside Gaming: Nevada Casinos Bounce Back in June, Sports Handle Bests NJ
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Nevada Casinos End Streak With Revenue Increase in June
A month ago we were sharing in this space how Nevada gaming regulators were reporting a sixth-straight monthly decline in revenue for the state's casinos. This week the Nevada Gaming Control Board released its report for June, and the news is better this time around.
Taken together, casinos in the Silver State reported a total win amount of just over $1.04 billion, an 11.5 percent increase year-over-year and a boost up from the $981.8 million in revenue reported in May.
The increase was fueled by a healthy month on the Las Vegas Strip where casinos were up in revenue to almost $616.6 million, a nearly 17.7 percent jump from the $523.9 million of June 2018.
One factor for casinos — and a big difference from May — was baccarat. As shared by CDC Gaming Reports, Michael Lawton, senior research analyst for the NGCB, said in regard to baccarat that "the underlying factor was hold percentage" or amount of money wagered by players kept by the casino.
As we described last month, baccarat especially hurt Nevada casinos in May. But the opposite was true in June. After the win from baccarat being down 55 percent in May, it was way up in June, with the almost $157M win representing a better than 114 percent increase year-over-year.
According to Lawton, "casinos held 20.7 percent of all wagers on the game, which is significantly higher than normal, which averaged out to 12 percent over the last year and far above June 2018's hold percentage of 11.55 percent."
In fact, the June 2019 hold percentage in baccarat was the highest in over 15 years, says Lawton.
Looking elsewhere on the casino floor, slots were also up 7.3 percent year-over-year statewide after having been up less than 2 percent in May and essentially break-even in April.
Meanwhile now that New Jersey has more than a year's worth of sports betting under its belt, comparisons between NJ and NV regarding how much wagering on sports is happening in each state have begun in earnest.
In May, New Jersey's sports betting handle actually slightly exceeded Nevada's, with $318.9 million bet in NJ and $317.6 million in NV.
June saw Nevada move back in front in that regard, with just under $322 million being wagered (an increase of about 12 percent over a year ago) versus the $273.2 million wagered on sports in New Jersey.
In terms of revenue, Nevada sportsbooks earned close to $16.6 million for the month, down in fact more than 18 percent year-over-year. New Jersey sportsbooks had a win amount of about $9.7 million in June.
North Carolina Legalizes Sports Betting in Cherokee Casinos
Speaking of sports betting, you can add North Carolina to the growing list of states where wagering on sports (in some form or another) is now legal.
As expected, Governor Roy Cooper last Friday signed into law a bill allowing the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to open sportsbooks in their two casinos located in the westernmost part of the state.
Both the Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Harrah's Cherokee River Valley Casino expect to have sportsbooks up and running by late fall. As The News & Observer reports, bettors will be able to bet on "a full range of professional and college events... in addition to off-track wagering on races at out-of-state horse tracks."
That said, don't expect us to be reporting any big numbers regarding the sports betting handle in the Tarheel State. That's because the new law only allows on-site sports betting in the two locations, with no options for mobile or online wagering being authorized.
North Carolina lawmakers have passed multiple gambling-related bills this year.
In May they passed a "charity casino" bill allowing charities in the state to host "game nights" with casino games and alcohol. One provision — charity casinos near the two Cherokee casinos are actually excluded from being allowed to offer the games.
Also in July a bill was passed by the state House to create a new nine-member North Carolina Gaming Commission that would assume duties currently belonging to the state's lottery commission.
Click here for the latest regarding U.S. online poker legislation
Gambling Advert Ban Arrives in UK in Time for Football Season
The gradual state-by-state expansion of sports betting, online wagering, and other types of gambling in the United States is slowly starting to be felt elsewhere in the culture — for example, a greater openness to addressing sports betting during televised broadcasts of games.
Meanwhile elsewhere in the world gambling is already a much more significant part of society, such as in the United Kingdom. However, this week those watching sporting events on UK television will notice a big change as far as sports betting advertising is concerned. That's because of a newly-instituted restriction against advertising on sports prior to 9 p.m.
The Guardian reports how the measure — voluntarily imposed by the gambling industry — has been introduced "in an apparent effort to address mounting concern about the volume of gambling adverts on television and their impact on children and vulnerable people."
No gambling ads "will be shown during live sport televised before the 9 p.m. watershed for a 'whistle to whistle' period beginning five minutes before the start of a match and ending five minutes after."
Not coincidentally, the change comes in time for the start of football (or soccer) season next week.
Even so, The Guardian points out, it's not as though gambling advertising will be entirely scrubbed from the broadcasts. For example, "half of the Premier League's shirts will be emblazoned with gambling companies' logos during the 2019-20 season."
Photo: "Planet Hollywood Las Vegas at night in 2009,” SchnitzelMannGreek, CC BY-SA 3.0.
