Nevada Sports Betting Revenue Up for August

Nevada casinos have been hit hard due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but sportsbooks were an uplit in August. The state of Nevada saw sports betting revenue jump 65% in the month that had a full slate of MLB, NBA, and NHL action.

Overall, casinos are down 22% since last summer, and 39% for the year. Casino revenue also dropped another 22% in August.

Overall, gaming numbers across the board have been in decline since March. Casinos across the country had to shut down when the coronavirus broke out in 2020. This decimated profits for Nevada and other states.

However, even as COIVD-19 keeps people away from the casinos, sportsbooks are helping pick up the slack with major sports back in the mix. That is what Nevada saw in August when three major sports returned to action.

Nevada Sports Betting Numbers

Nevada sportsbooks won $743 million in August, according to the Nevada Gaming Control board. This is a 26% increase from July’s sports betting numbers, which is nice to see as Las Vegas has been getting hit hard in a lack of gaming.

Clark County, which is where Las Vegas is at, saw 593.9 million won in the county. When breaking down the county, the Vegas Strip saw the most money won at $317.3 million. A nice sign of recovery since the pandemic broke out. Even with COVID-19 affecting the area, the strip is still bringing in a majority of the revenue.

Although it is an increase from July, it concerns that numbers remain down from August 2019. The state saw a 22% decrease in year-over-year. August is generally a slow sports betting month as the only major sport to bet on baseball. Sure, there could be some years that have early college football in August, but overall not much is going on as the country prepares for football season in September.

With the MLB, NBA, and NHL all in action in August and still not increasing betting revenue from last year is concerning. A lot of this also has to do with mobile betting. Other states like New Jersey have seen an increase in mobile betting since the pandemic.

Las Vegas East hit an all-time high in August thanks to mobile betting, which is not as popular in Nevada because of the retail sportsbooks in the Silver State. If mobile betting were more accessible in Nevada, then sports betting would most likely be hitting all-time highs.

Regardless, the state government collected $78.29 million in gambling-related taxes in August, which is still a nice chunk of change.

Nevada Gaming Recovery

The Silver State continues to struggle with attracting customers to the casinos. COVID-19 has been a huge hurdle that the state cannot overcome as tourists normally travel to Nevada for the gaming industry.

The state should slowly continue to recover as the country slowly works its way out of the pandemic. Fortunately, sports betting has been a bright spot for the state.

Although the numbers are still down, the increasing numbers month-to-month encourage a state that desperately needs the revenue. Sports betting keeps Nevada gaming afloat and should continue to do so in the fall when football brings in more revenue.