Fueled in part by an extra week of NFL games, Nevada sports books recorded their fourth-highest monthly win of all time in January.Altogether, sports pools won $52.4 million, a 160%, $32.2 million increase over January 2020, according to new monthly figures released Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Gaming Control Board Analyst Mike Lawton said football wagering benefited from an additional week of games in January compared to the same month a year ago.
Despite the sports-betting success, overall casino win across the state came in at $761.85 million for January, a 26.58% decrease from the same month a year ago when they won over $1 billion, according to Thursday's report.
Southern Nevada accounted for the majority of the loss, with the Las Vegas Strip down 43.8%, a $250.7 million decrease, accounting for 90.9% of the state’s total decrease in January.
The main culprit on the Strip was Baccarat, which reported win of just $28.2 million, down $81.7 million from last year. While the YOY win percentage was down from 11.9% to 8.25%, the amount wagered on Baccarat was off even more — down $580.9 million, or 62.9%.Despite Southern Nevada’s continued casino woes, other markets, especially in the north, reported a fairly successful January.Washoe County as a whole was up 4.91% in casino win to $68.7 million in January, while the Reno market won $48.4 million, a 1.86% increase.Sports betting win was up 581% in the Carson Valley area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital. Carson’s total win was up 12.9% to $9.78 million, primarily because slot win increased $1 million or 12.4%.
Churchill County’s 10 non-restricted gaming locations reported $2.05 million in win. While sports book win totaled only $28,000, it still represents a 624% increase over a year ago. The vast majority of Churchill’s win — $1.9 million of that total — comes from penny slots and multi-denominational machines.
At Lake Tahoe, it was a mixed bag, with South Shore casinos reporting a win total of $17.5 million in January, down 11.46% from $20.1 million reported in January 2020. Again, sports books did well at South Shore, reporting a 230% increase to just over $1 million in win.
North Shore casinos, meanwhile, reported total win of $1.99 million, a 23.8% increase. Sports book win was up 797% in that market.
