- Nevada casinos brought in more than $1 billion in April.
- This follows on the heels of another billion dollar month in March.
- Could this be the new normal for Nevada casino gambling?
LAS VEGAS - Nevada’s casino gambling revenue has reached over a billion dollars for the second month running.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported that April’s gambling revenue in the state was $1.039 billion, down only a bit from March’s $1.067 billion.
This seems to be a significant departure from the norm - although direct comparisons year to year are made difficult due to COVID-19.
Overall revenue, however, can still be compared to 2019, and that was done by Michael Lawton of the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s administration division.
Per Lawton, overall revenue is up 34% from 2019 to 2021.
What this means is that from January through April of 2021, casinos have taken in 34% more revenue than they did from January through April of 2019.
In other words, gambling has not only reached pre-pandemic levels, but surpassed them significantly.
The reasons for this remain unclear, but there are a few main theories as to why this is.
First, it could be a boom as gamblers get back to gambling after having very few outlets to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was shown throughout the pandemic, as the return of sports betting yielded record profits for UFC cards, for example.
As advanced as online casinos are, they have not perfectly replicated the Vegas experience, and now that it’s relatively safe to travel post-vaccine, this could be a boom period.
A second theory is that advancing gambling legalization and recognition continued even during COVID-19.
Basically, the idea is that casino revenue would have reached these numbers anyway if there were no pandemic, and this is just where they should be.
Either way, it’s a brave new world out there for both retail and online gamblers.