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Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012 | 10:32 a.m.
CARSON CITY — The trend is continuing and growing at Strip casinos that make more money off their rooms, restaurants and entertainment than from the table games and slots.
Forty-two states have a casino, and people across the nation are coming to Las Vegas for its other amenities, said Matthew Maddox, chief financial officer for Wynn Resorts.
“They are not sitting at the blackjack tables at 2 a.m.,” said Maddox, one of the five members of the Economic Forum that must judge how much tax revenue the state will collect in the next two fiscal years.
The state Gaming Control Board produced figures Friday at the meeting of the Forum that showed 62 percent of the revenues at Strip casinos come from rooms, entertainment, food, drinks and retail sales in fiscal 2011, up 1 percent from the previous year.
Michael Lawton, senior research analyst for the control board, said, “You can gamble anywhere, but they can’t offer what’s in Las Vegas and Reno.”
“Spending patterns are changing,” Lawton told the forum. His chart showed that since 1999, the nongaming revenues have surpassed the games and slots.
And baccarat is showing the greatest strength in the casinos. “Baccarat figures are volatile,” said Lawton, who predicts baccarat win will increase 5 percent this fiscal year and increase an estimated 3 to 4 percent in the coming biennium.
Maddox said the Wynn properties market to the high-end players. He said the casinos “overly rely on 150 international customers willing to wager millions of dollars.”
The major customers come from China and Mexico, Maddox said.
Slot machine revenue is expected to rebound in the coming two fiscal years. It is down this year, but Lawton expects the win to grow in the coming two years by 3 to 4 percent.
The number of slot machines fell from 165,995 to 158,788 in the past year, Lawton said.
But Russell Guindon, deputy fiscal analyst for the Legislatures, said slot machines now offer a variety of games compared with the old model of pulling the handle and waiting for cherries or a jackpot.
Lawton predicts that tax revenue from gaming will increase by 3.3 percent next year and by 5.3 percent by 2015.
Janet Rogers, deputy state budget director, is not that optimistic. She said the national economy still is shaky and is forecasting 2 percent growth followed by 3.4 percent growth.
Guindon is predicting a stronger recovery with a 4.1 percent increase in fiscal 2014 and a 3.4 percent the following year in statewide gaming win.
The Economic Forum will meet Nov. 29 to predict how much the state will collect from all taxes in the coming two years, and that figure must be used in budget preparation.
And Maddox said the Legislature, if it plans to raise taxes, should look at mining and not casinos, which had a bad downturn during the recession. He called mining the most profitable industry and said the casinos have had problems.
are you kidding me !!!! this is news !!!! just look at the pictures from spyonvegas.com and see how packed tryst,xs,tao,pure and other clubs are on a nightly basis.just go ask any of the dancers at rhino and others how this has affected there busines. your not going to get young people in there 20's and 30's to sit and gamble .there is no excitement in that .young single males are not going to spend money gambling at a table you cant get a date in a casino it is easier in a nightclub to pick up women i told my bosses that many years when it was 1 am and the tables were empty .we didnt have a club and everybody was on the strip . if i remember right vegas has like the top 7 out of 10 nightclubs in the usa in terms of revenue . forgot about renab at the hard rock look how much money they make there .if you area single male you going to gamble inside or look at the beautiful women in bikinis all day
For the older folks, as long as the Strip casinos offer gaming that has similar odds to Carny games, the adults will be skipping them. Losing money, with almost no possibility of winning, isn't fun.
That's because most of the tourists have finally figured out that the games suck
of course this "trend" is continuing--because it used to be if you blew $1000 cash at a table---you got the dinner or nightclub bill comped--right away by the floor person---so you were ok to some degree losing money---because you got a great dinner for you and your girl, or you got something...now you get a stinking players card and some bs points that you can trade for a fanny pack----so they have gotten cheaper with the comps--so cheap you have to beg for every little thing--so people don't want to piss away thousands of dollars and get absolutely nothing---so the real gamblers don't play as much and the kids are young and stupid and keep coming and figure--why not drink and party and try to get laid instead..
The word is out that the machines are too tight. The casinos traded profit for customers. When you play a slot and can lose 4-5 hundred an hour on a .25 cent machine, it's not fun anymore. It's more fun to walk the strip than waste your money on the machines. They don't get it.
Less table action means more people walking the strip. It's an ugly experience trying to walk anywhere on the the strip these days.....stuck in a slow moving herd...with long stoplights and too many pedestrian bridges. Enjoying the strip less each visit...... the only enticement has been the free or greatly reduced room prices. Without that, there's no allure.
@ mrlucky your observation is spot on. years ago if you gambled you were comped....big time. even if you won you got things. you're right the bs points and fanny pack is all you can look forward to. another thing is the niteclub venues. the younger folks think that a dj is a talented entertainer. they don't have to pay the big buck to see real entertainment so thats the crowd that is attracted here.
These bean counters will eventually try to charge for the comps - and no longer offer comp drinks...Think about the airline model and you can imagine how this will change the casino experience. If they cannot get your money on the table or machine, they will get it with 6 dollar Heineken and 3.50 styrophoam cups of stale coffee.
Dream on for any revenue rebounding ! The election has written that in stone . People can't gamble on part time wages and self funded medical care.I can't speak for the rest of the country because I live here , Las Vegas. All I know after Tuesday night the recovery here got a lot longer a lot slower and a whole lot more painful.