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January 2024 might have been the calm before the storm in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a flurry of activity all over the state during the month. In fact, in terms of gaming win at Nevada’s casinos, the 2024 iteration of January was the best to date.
To utilize an American football analogy, casinos barely broke the plane of the end zone in reaching that goal. Regardless, the new record maintains a larger gain for Nevada’s gambling industry and potentially sets up one of the strongest months ever for the state.
Nevada casinos reap over $1.2 billion in January win
According to a news release from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, all regulated gambling activity under the auspices of the state’s licensed casinos produced more than $1.2 billion in gaming win for January. As a result, the state stands to collect about $99.7 million in tax revenue for the month.
Both of those sums represent marginal increases from January 2023. Regardless of the small size of the increases, they still qualify as the highest such totals ever in the state for the month of January.
That total includes win from in-person betting on slots and table games in addition to win from both in-person and online sports betting. Furthermore, it also entails win from online poker and horse race wagering in Nevada.
Much of the slight annual growth came from massive increases in gaming win from Washoe County. Compared to January 2023, gaming win across the county was up over 35.4% in January 2024. In Reno specifically, there was a 55% year-over-year improvement.
Casinos in North Lake Tahoe also saw an annual increase of more than 13.8% during January. While the year-over-year comparison is not as favorable in the rest of the state, isolating the sports betting numbers alone presents a similar growth narrative.
Nevada sportsbooks record strong January
The Nevada Gaming Control Board further reports that sportsbooks across the state won over $64.7 million from players during January. That’s the largest such sum for January in any of the past seven years. It’s also an improvement of more than 28.3% compared to January 2023 and the fourth-highest monthly total since June 2018.
To put that performance in greater context, win from statewide table games dropped 7.5% year-over-year in January while win from slot play increased only marginally in the same comparison. Thus, sportsbooks played a big role in the overall gains for January 2024.
However, even the effect of wagering on the NFL playoffs in Nevada this year couldn’t fend off some weakening of Nevada casinos’ momentum. It looks like they might just squeak out a new fiscal year record for gaming win, too.
Fiscal year gains diminish after January
After December’s activity, the statewide gaming win total in Nevada for the current fiscal year was up more than 5% compared to FY2022-23. While the overall total is still up in that annual comparison, the rate of growth has slowed to what is now a marginal increase.
Not all is lost on that front, however. For one thing, FY2023-24 includes an extra day, as 2024 is a leap year. Additionally, the effect of Super Bowl LVIII on Nevada casinos is not yet official. Preliminary figures suggest that could make a substantial difference, however.
An unaudited statement from the Gaming Board shows more than $185.6 million in bets on the Super Bowl alone in Nevada. That led to $6.8 million in win. Of course, there will be win from wagering on other events during February’s 29 days in the official report that the Gaming Board will release next month.
If sportsbooks performed well, it could boost the running total of gaming win in Nevada for the fiscal year back to where there is a substantial year-over-year improvement. However, as things stand, the final tally might be as close as Super Bowl LVIII.
