It may seem unlikely, perhaps even impossible, but Las Vegas managed to pull off something of a miracle. New numbers on revenues for Las Vegas gaming during the month of July show that the city pulled in an estimated billion dollars. The city was able to do this even though tourism for that same month was down.
Most analysts suggest that one of the major reasons the city was able to make such a stunning amount of money in a single month was tied to several high rollers arriving in town to play their favorite game, baccarat. In the month of July alone, baccarat raked in nearly $190 million.
While many people do not play baccarat, or even know how to play the game best known for its appearance in many James Bond movies of yesteryear, many of those who do enjoy the game are very well-heeled. Their love of the game helped the city to increase its revenues by over 100 percent when compared to numbers from July 2011. What surprised many analysts was that during this same time tourism to the city was down.
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Vegas hosted an estimated 3.4 million visitors in July of 2012. This represented a decrease of about 0.8 percent from what was reported for July of 2011. The number of visitors during that time period was estimated to be almost 3.5 million.
Even though the increased revenues for July were a welcome sight for many struggling gaming concerns, analysts suggest that no one get a swelled head just yet. They suggest that the city’s gaming concerns need to see a steady increase in revenues, month after month, before assuming that the worst is over in terms of the sluggish economy. They caution that with some much of July’s revenues coming from a single game (baccarat, in this case) and from such a select clientele, the loss of that clientele would bring revenues back down. They would prefer to see more across the board revenues being generated by more diverse activities and players.
In related news, Atlantic City also saw a big increase in its revenues for August. Some of the casinos located in Atlantic City saw double digit increases in the monthly revenues for August when compared to revenues a year ago. Even smaller casinos and hotels were able to see profits in what is now considered a “financially struggling locale”. While there are no hard and fast reasons for this increase, good weather and a wide array of local, public events are being touted as possible reasons for Atlantic City’s good fortune.
At the same time, plans for a new casino in Atlantic City were nixed on September 12. The reason for canceling the project is said to be the city’s sluggish economy as well as lower revenues for casinos that are already in business in the area. This would seem contrary to what most of the casinos are reporting in the revenue reports, at least for the current time period.