Baccarat high rollers bailing out Vegas

April 11, 2007

In online gambling news today, we want to share a bit of Vegas news with our readers. According to a report released today, even the huge NBA event that recently took place in Vegas did not produce many gambling fans – just NBA fans. It seems that recent large events and conventions brought to the Las Vegas Convention Center have brought many visitors, but not so many gambling visitors. What is Las Vegas relying on to earn its much needed gambling income? Baccarat we think.

In February, thousands of NBA fans and party revelers went to Vegas to witness the NBA All-Star Game. This event is one of many that have taken place in the past year that have produced many parties with big name celebrities, so why not gambling income too?

While it is sure that conventions and other planned events bring tons of money into the local economy, it seems they are not bringing tons of money into the gambling economy. Casinos are not making the figures they expect during these events.

Here is what our online gambling news department learned today - Nevada's gambling earnings for February was about $1.055 billion. This figure does see a 2.9% increase from $1.026 billion from February 2006. But more income was surely expected. After all, there are a lot of construction sites to pay fro an casino companies are relying on bigger numbers to pay for the improvements they have to constantly create to keep visitors intrigued.

Gambling income analysts state that the increase was due almost completely because of large betting by wealthy baccarat players. These gambling enthusiasts – high rollers and whales have been enticed to the Strip's high end casino properties for the10 day Chinese New Year celebration which took place during February. During the same month in 2006, the gambling win statewide jumped 12.8% compared to February 2005.

On the Las Vegas Strip, gambling earnings were $574.7 million in February, up nearly 4.3% compared with $551 million a year ago. During the month of February, casino gamblers wagered $1 billion on baccarat, 54.3% more than was bet in February 2006. The casinos' total earnings from baccarat came in at $116.4 million, up $37 million or 46.9% from a year ago.

So, to our online gambling fans out there reading this – it seems that baccarat is saving the day. It is the big helper for times when gambling is not what some visitors are doing in Vegas. At least this rings true for February, but we are sure this takes place other months as whales and other high rollers frequently visit their favorite high end casinos. Even though the Chinese New Year brings big time gambling on baccarat – a favorite game of wealthy gambling enthusiasts – we think we will see continuing numbers in the coming months as well.

It is being reported that without baccarat the Strip casino earnings would have been down 2.9%. This figure reflects the big money won from huge baccarat bets. Baccarat was totally reflective of Chinese New Year, and that obviously helped the month. We will be interested to following the coming months.

According to airport numbers regarding visors, the town was very busy – but the gambling numbers from many casinos do not reflect that in their earnings. It is interesting that many events taking place did not turn in some beiger gambling numbers we think.

But, even though modest February revenue numbers on the Strip, many in the business are confident that high end gambling is staying very strong.

Some casino companies said fans in attendance of the NBA All-Star Game frequented casinos' well known restaurants and trendy nightclubs, but otherwise walked right by the slots and table games.

Gaming win was off in most areas of the state during February. The total win from slot machines statewide was $634.1 million, down 2.1% from February 2006, while the win from table games was $408.4 million, up 11.5% which was simply due to baccarat. All in all, gambling enthusiasts bet more than $14 billion statewide in February 2007.

Many analysts will be eagerly watching how the rest of 2007 fares.

It is also being reported that slot machine earning have been a bit soft the since January, while table casino games have seen an increase from high end players betting large amounts.

Gaming analysts also say that the baccarat numbers were a good sign for some casino companies.

Clark County (Vegas) reported gambling income of $901.8 million, about a 3.7% increase from $870.1 million the same month in 2006. But, other than the Vegas Strip, casinos in Mesquite and the balance of the county were the only other places reporting an increase.

Casinos in downtown Las Vegas posted earnings together with a drop for the ninth month in a row. They won $50.7 million in February, down 6.2% nearly from $54 million the same month in 2006.

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