According to the Gaming Control Board, Nevada Casinos collected only $10.392 billion from gamblers in 2009, the lowest one-year total since 2003 ($9.62 billion). The 10.4% fall in gaming revenues is the worst percentage in state history. Nevertheless, the overall performance could have been even lower, as the declines lessened in the latter half of the year. Frank Streshley,chief of the Control Board Tax and License Division, said gaming revenues in the first six months of 2009 were down by 13.4 percent compared to the same period in 2008, while in the last six months of the year saw gaming revenues decline by 7.2 percent. “We improved in the second half of the year – he said – but the stretch between October 2008 and March was really a horrendous period for the industry”. The 2009 decline follows a 9.7 percent decrease in 2008 when statewide gaming revenues generated $11.6 billion.
Gaming revenues over thelast decade
The Gaming Control Board started keeping records of gaming revenues in 1956. Until now, the only year-to-year drops have occurred in the past decade. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the relative consequences on the international travel and gaming industry, revenues fell by 1.3 percent in 2001 and 0.3 percent in 2002. Subsequent years have not been productive either, but according to Streshley “When you see the industry fall back to 2003-2004 numbers, there is nothing to make any comparison with”. Consequently, there is nothing in Nevada’s gaming history that can be correlated to gaming revenue losses in the past two years. The Gaming Control Board has released the details of gaming revenues for 2009 showing that players wagered $111.9 billion on slot machines (down 10.8% from 2008) and almost $28.6 billion on table games (- 4%).
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