$1 billion gaming win streak extends to 12 months statewide; Strip win way up

Healthy hotel bookings have room rates 15% higher than 2019

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — With a $1.113 billion gaming win in February, Nevada has now exceeded $1 billion every month for the past year.

And tourism numbers from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) show that resorts have returned to healthy bookings, with average room rates climbing to $149.52 per night. That’s 15% more than hotels were charging before the COVID-19 pandemic. Available rooms grew by 3.7% to 150,702 in February.

GAMING WIN

A report released Wednesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board shows the gaming win was up 44.1% over last February, when the win was $772.5 million. The record-shattering streak began in March of 2021.

The state collects taxes on the gaming win and as of March 28, the state collected $58.9 million from February revenue. Since June 2021, the state has collected a total of $711.3 million.

Clark County — and the Las Vegas Strip, in particular, showed big gains over last year’s numbers. The gaming win in the county was $949.8 million — 85% of the total gaming win for the state. Casinos on the Strip won $599.1 million — 71.94% up from February of 2021.

South Lake Tahoe was the only area in the state that saw the gaming win drop compared to February of last year, falling almost 4% to $19.6 million.

Downtown Las Vegas jumped by 33.91% to $69.1 million, with Laughlin close behind at 31.16%, $43 million in February.

Compared to January of this year, the statewide gaming win increased by just over 3%.

Gaming win is defined as the amount casinos collect from slot machines, table games and other forms of casino gambling.

TOURISM NUMBERS

Also on Wednesday, the LVCVA released tourism numbers that showed strong growth in visitor volume compared to February of last year — 69.9% growth, with 2.6 million visitors during the month. Those numbers still fall short of the levels from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. February visitors were down 19% compared to 2019 levels.

Overall hotel occupancy was at 69.3% in February 2022, up 27.3% compared to February 2021.

Convention attendance — which was barely coming back a year ago — grew to 439,000 in February. The enormous difference since last year showed 2,285.9% growth — but remains more than 41% below February 2019 levels.

A measure of revenue per available hotel room — known as REVPAR — also grew dramatically from February 2021 levels — up 151.7%, and only 8.4% below pre-pandemic levels.