Poker Web Watch / Dave Allan / 24 September 2009 / Leave a comment

Most businesses would be delighted to be able to report year-on-year profits of $872 million but when this figure represents a drop of 12.48% then the Nevada Gaming Control Board are right to be concerned.

The global financial crisis seems to be easing up, with more and more countries reporting economic growth it may have been expected that the revenues, or "win", of casinos in the gambling Mecca would have followed the trend but it appears this is not the case, and by a long way.

The Las Vegas Strip, which houses some of the most popular, poker-friendly casinos such as the Bellagio and Ventian, reported an 11.14% drop in revenue compared to the previous year-on-year results. Total casino win was $461 million, which could have been much lower had the 40th World Series of Poker not been as successful as it were.

Downtown Las Vegas fared slightly worse, reporting revenues of $39.8 million, a fall of 11.54%. Downtown's most popular casinos include the former home of the WSOP, Binions and the venue of the latest series of High Stakes Poker, the Golden Nugget.

The State of Nevada collected $57.3 million in fees, which was only a drop of 1.64%, but also signalled the 19th consecutive month that revenues had fallen in the gambling state year-on-year. I am sure there will be some sort of inquest into how and why these falls are happening, along with plans into how to get Las Vegas back to how it was two years ago.