The Nevada Gaming Control Board has released its latest gaming revenue report revealing that the state’s licensed gambling operators have now broken the $1 billion mark for ten months in a row.
In October Nevada’s state’s licensed sportsbooks took in over $1.1 billion in betting wagers. December’s figure of $1.15 billion means that gambling operators in the state generated over $13.45 billion in revenue for the calendar year 2021—almost double the amount made in 2020 and a new state record.
Revenue for the year was almost 71% higher than in 2020 and comfortably beat the previous record of $12 billion set in 2019. The state has only topped the $12 billion mark on three previous occasions — 2019, 2007, and 2006.
Gaming Control Board Senior Economic Analyst Michael Lawton told the Nevada Independent that casino and gaming revenues improved as a direct result of vaccine rollouts and the lifting of capacity restrictions on gaming floors. According to Lawton consumer demand was “driven by healthy consumer savings as the result of stimulus payments and the sustained rebound of leisure travel.”
Casinos on Las Vegas Strip reported a drop in revenue to $650.8 million for December although this was a 10% increase on the same period in 2019. As a result, the Strip’s casinos generated over $7.07 billion in revenue for the year marking a 7.4% increase on 2019’s benchmark of $6.58 billion. This beat 2007’s all-time record of $6.8 billion.
The control board has also revealed that 11 of the state’s 18 gaming submarkets set all-time revenue records for 2021. Downtown Las Vegas casinos generated over $842.2 million gaming revenue throughout 2021, setting a single-year record.
The report also gives a breakdown of wagers made during the year revealing that Nevada casinos accepted more than $160.4 billion in wagers. Of this total, $129.4 billion was through slot machines and $31 billion came through table games and sports betting.
Despite the expansion of sports betting across the United States, Nevada’s sportsbooks fared well during 2021 setting single year records for both revenue and wagers. The state also has a regulated poker industry (with both live and online poker regulated & legal), in contrast to most other U.S states.
December saw sportsbooks close out the year with another $1 billion handle for the third month in a row.
Sportsbooks accepted over $8.1 billion in wagers during the year, generating over $455.1 million in revenue. This broke the previous records set in 2018 when sportsbooks generated $329.1 million in revenue from $5.3 billion in wagers.
2021 also saw mobile sports betting activity increase as online wagers accounted for 64.6% of all sports bets. This was up from the 57.1% market share reported in 2020.
There are currently 396 Casinos, sportsbooks, racinos or bingo-halls in Nevada, and 170 casinos in Las Vegas.
An experienced iGaming commentator and analyst based in New York City - Jenny reports on regulation and gambling industry news and events.