Vegas Strip Revenue Down 1.9% In February

The Nevada Gaming Control Board on Thursday released its report on gaming revenue for the Las Vegas area in February.

What Happened

Nevada's non-restricted gaming licensees reported a total “gaming win” of $1.011 billion in February, a 0.6-percent year-over-year decrease.

Statewide revenue is now up 0.8 percent in the current fiscal year.

More than $591.7 million — about 58 percent — of Nevada's statewide gaming win in February came from the Las Vegas Strip.

Why It's Important

Shareholders of strip mega-resort operators Caesars Entertainment Corporation CZR, Las Vegas Sands Corp. LVS and MGM Resorts International MGM watch Strip numbers closely. The gaming win for the Strip was down 1.9 percent from a year ago in February.

Strip gaming win is now down 1 percent overall in the fiscal year, making the Strip the one of the worst-performing regions in the entire state from a growth perspective.

Downtown gaming win was up 9 percent on the month and is now up just 5 percent in the fiscal year.

Shares of Boyd Gaming Corporation BYD, which operates three downtown casinos, are up 33.6 percent in the past three months.

What’s Next

Despite relative strength in Vegas, casino stocks have struggled in the past year as the ongoing trade war and weakness in the Chinese economy have weighed on gaming revenue growth in Macau. However, casino stocks are off to a hot start to 2019 on hopes that an end to the trade war may be imminent.

Macau is expected to report its monthly revenue report on Monday. Last month, Macau reported a 4.4 percent gain in gross gaming revenue after reporting its first year-over-year decline in more than two years in January.

Related Links:

Casino Analyst Bullish On Vegas, But Not Macau

Casinos Among The Hardest-Hit Businesses During Economic Downturns