Every month Nevada Gaming Revenues and Collections issues a press release detailing the state of the industry. Yesterday the NGRC released the numbers for November 2021, and the news is good.
November saw Nevada's casinos report $1,321,624,274 in gaming wins. Where gaming wins refers to revenue from their gambling operations as opposed to their theatres, restaurants, hotels, spas, shopping centers, bars, clubs, sex workers, et cetera. This revenue is taxed differently.
This is the ninth straight month in a row of ten-figure gaming revenues for Nevada.
It also marks a 71% jump from November last year ($771,178,057 in gaming wins).
However, year-on-year comparisons with 2020 are not especially informative. A more useful yardstick is the fact that the previous record for consecutive +$1 billion months was eight in a row. That run ended in May 2007, almost a decade and a half ago.
Another useful yardstick is the fact that November 2021 has the second-highest reported gaming wins ever. The only month to beat it was July 2021 with $1.36 billion in takings.
Put another record on
The records keep coming too.
The record for annual casino takings was previously held by 2007 with $12.8 billion. The first 11 months of 2021 has already seen casinos rake in $12.3 billion. December's figures are still to come.
It is as near to a sure thing as you can find in Vegas that this will be the best year ever for Nevada's casinos. This doesn't account for inflation, but the difference is also likely to be big enough that inflation doesn't matter too much.
Unless the entire industry took a pasting in December that we've yet to hear about, things are looking solid post-pandemic for the Nevada gaming industry.
So, this is all good news. Especially if you are a casino owner in Nevada or that casino owner's taxman. The NGRC's cut of the casino's vig is $93,554,198.
It is a little premature to break out the champagne just yet though.
The term "pent-up demand" should be on everybody's lips right now. This is what economists call it when buyers delay purchases en masse. For a year, holidaymakers were canceling their trips to Vegas while the world came to terms with COVID. Now, they can make that trip and blow their stimmy on blackjack and baccarat.
The real test of Nevada's post-pandemic recovery will be when you can stand upon a peak in Vegas and assess the point at which this wave finally breaks and rolls back to a new normal.
Featured image source: Flickr by Daxis used under CC license
