Nevada Online Poker Plummets 14.5% In April

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Thursday, May 29th, 2014 | Written by Charles Washington

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has released its gambling results for April, revealing a 1% decline in revenues to $852 million, compared to the $854.3 million taken in April 2013. From than figure, online poker suffered a huge 14.5% fall in revenues to $792,000 in April, down from the $926,000 the state generated in March. Overall, the state collected $47.9 million in gambling taxes last month, up 1.4% from last year.

Worryingly, however, the Silver State’s first ever decline in online poker revenues reflects that of New Jersey’s regulated igaming industry, which also experienced a fall in poker revenues last month, even though The Garden State’s online casino games noted a slight uptick.

Nevada land-based casinos down 1% in April

From the $852 million in gaming revenues generated by Nevada in April, $463 million was accounted for by the Las Vegas Strip. However, baccarat proved a lifeline for the Strip, without which revenues would actually have fallen by 3%. In April, $645.3 million was wagered on baccarat, up 19.8% compared to the same month last year, while Strip casinos collected 40% more win at $90.4 million.

Commenting on the results, Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski, explained: “By and large, we suspect evidence of strong baccarat play disproportionately benefited the operators with established Asian sourcing channels.”

Not including baccarat, table games were down by 0.5% to $136.6 million, while slot machine revenues were down 4.4% to $235.9 million.

Across Clark County as a whole, revenues were up by 1% to $742.7 million, compared to $736.3 million for the same month in 2013. Meanwhile, Washoe County reported a 2.2% drop in revenues to $58.3 million; and South Lake Tahoe plummeted by 42% to $9 million.

Online poker down 14.5% to just $792k

Nevada’s three online poker operators, namely WSOP.com, Ultimate Poker, and Real Gaming, generated $792,000 in revenues last month, breaking the upward trend in revenues noted since the first site was launched in April 2013. This year, for instance, Nevada reported $824,000 in revenue for February, followed by $926,000 in March.

The first 11 months of regulated online poker in Nevada have now generated $10.24 million in winnings for the state, a mere fraction of initial forecasts, although analysts have pointed out that the situation should hopefully improve after an interstate compact is enacted by both Delaware and Nevada. As Union Gaming Group analyst Robert Shore, explains:

“In the future, multi-state poker compacts could be a more impactful revenue event given a larger base of players, and due to the liquidity dynamic.”

Online poker a small market compared to other gaming products

Although a great deal of importance has been attached to the potential windfalls online poker can bring to a state, in actual fact poker represents just a small percentage of both live and online gambling revenues. In 2013, for instance, Nevada’s casinos generated roughly $124 million in revenues from both its live and online operations, representing just 1.1% of the state’s $11.1 billion total gambling market in 2013.

Unlike Nevada, New Jersey offers online casino games and slots in addition to poker, and likewise online poker represents just 20% of NJ’s overall igaming revenues, or $2.6 million of the $11,428,737 collected by the state in April.

Nevertheless, poker will continue to be an important tool in attracting new customers to online casino sites, who may subsequently be tempted to try out the site’s other gambling products once signed up.

WSOP to provide a major boost

Although Nevada’s online poker decline in April mirrored that of the New Jersey market, analysts are keen to point out that at some stage or another a fall in revenues was expected as the industry continues to develop. In addition, Nevada’s next few monthly internet gaming tallies are likely to be given a significant boost as tournament poker’s showcase series, the World Series of Poker, is currently underway in Las Vegas and will continue until mid-July.

This week, Tournament Director Jack Effel declared, “This is our Olympics. This is our Woodstock. This is our celebration,” before Officially launching the 45th Annual World Series of Poker. Over the next seven weeks, 65 tournament are scheduled to take place at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino, with an estimated 80,000 players from more than 100 different countries expected to take part in the Series. Naturally, this will translate into a serious increase in tourism and revenues for Las Vegas casinos and their online poker products.