Vegas Strip Revenue Surges 15.4% In January, Downtown Slumps

On Friday, the state of Nevada Gaming Control Board released its monthly report on the state's gaming revenue for the month of January. Here's a summary of the Gaming Control Board's report. (http://gaming.nv.gov/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=9753) The numbers Nevada's nonrestricted gaming licensees reported a total "gaming win" of $952,704,123 in January, a 7.75 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) increase. The updated fiscal year picture is not quite so good, as total win from July 1, 2014 through the end of January is down 2.12 percent from the same period in a year ago. Las Vegas Strip More than $576 million (over 60 percent) of the Nevada's gaming win in January came from the Las Vegas Strip. Shareholders of strip mega-resort operators Las Vegas Sands Corp LVS, MGM Resorts International MGM, Wynn Resorts Ltd WYNN and Caesars Entertainment Corp CZR are watching Strip numbers closely. Win numbers for the Vegas Strip were some of the strongest in the state, as the January number represented a 15.4 percent (Y/Y) increase. However, the current fiscal year totals for the Strip are the worst of any gaming area in the state, lagging the state's overall numbers and trailing the previous fiscal year's total by 4.19 percent. Downtown Vegas The historic Downtown Las Vegas' numbers reflect opposite trends as the Strip. While the fiscal year numbers for Downtown Vegas are slightly ahead of last year's numbers, the January total gaming win for downtown was $38,639,197, a 10.63 percent drop from last January's numbers. Shares of Boyd Gaming Corp BYD, which operates three downtown casinos, are trading down about 4.5 percent Friday on the news.