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US – October revenue and visitor levels hit by Route 91 massacre

By - 4 December 2017

Nevada’s casino sector reported an increase in gaming revenues of $988.74m, a 0.27 per cent increase year-on-year in October although revenue on the Las Vegas Strip fell 6.05 per cent to $528.68M following the massacre at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

Michael Lawton, Senior Research Analyst for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, highlighted that the Strip had a particularly strong October a year earlier in 2016 when GGR was 14 per cent up.

“Of course, this is in addition to the events which occurred on October 1,” Mr. Lawton said. “We aren’t surprised the Strip was down 6.1 per cent. The decrease on the Strip was driven by decreases in both slot volume, down 3.8 percent, and game and table volume, down 6.5 per cent. Still, overall the trend line remains intact as the Strip is up 2.6 per cent for the calendar year to date with much softer comparisons ahead for November and December.”

The more local market of Downtown Las Vegas casino revenue was up 10 per cent during the month.
Statewide, total slots revenue increased 3.8 per cent to $655.53m, table gaming revenue fell six per cent to $333.2m whilst football betting increased by 47 per cent.

Despite McCarran International Airport reporting it’s the busiest month in its history with 4.3 million passengers coming through in October, visitor levels to Las Vegas actually dropped by 4.2 per cent after the October 1 shooting. Numbers released by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority October passenger showed that passengers at McCarran International Airport were up 1.5 per cent whilst daily auto traffic declined by 1.6 per cent and hotel occupancy fell by 2.7 per cent. Convention attendance increased by 35.9 per cent.

Kevin Bagger, Executive Director of research for the LVCVA, said the decline was due to the shooting.
“The shooting did have some effect on the leisure side, specifically the leisure drive side, because at the same time we had strong convention business,” he explained. “The decline was on the drive side, and that’s because it is easier to cancel a drive trip as opposed to air trip.”

Union Gaming analyst John Decree said: “While the airport traffic numbers released last week (a 1.5 per cent increase for the month) alleviated some concerns about the worst-case scenario, many had feared gross gaming revenue could be down double digits in October in the face of a difficult comparison (up 14 per cent in October 2016) and the October 1 tragedy. However, a 6.1 per cent decline in revenue on the Strip for October is a relatively resilient outcome in our view.”

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