This week’s casino news starts off with a focus on Nevada. They’ve been ravaged by the pandemic, but there has been some positive news of late.
As of July 28, Nevada collected $344,027 in gambling taxes, down 99.39% compared to the $56,519,013 recorded last July. News:Las Vegas airport passenger volume down 91.5% in May during casino shutdown. Palazzo & Venetian Casinos Sale Gets Interest From MGM and Hard Rock Kristen Adams January 12, 2021 Las Vegas Sands Corp. Shocked the casino market in late 2020 when they announced that they were looking to sell their Las Vegas casinos.
Nevada Sportsbooks Set Record In Month Of October
It’s been a struggle in Sin City with the pandemic, but there is some good news to report from October. This week, Nevada reported that sportsbooks saw players gamble roughly $659.9 million during the month of October. This number happens to set the record for the most action in a single month in state history (for sports betting). This number now defeats the previous record that was set back in November of 2019 at $614.1 million.
However, casino revenue is still on the decline as a whole. Casinos in the state of Nevada were able to reel in $822.7 million from bettors throughout the month, a 19.5 percent drop in year-over-year. Clark County got the worst of that drop, falling 23.5 percent. Of course, this has to do with the drop in tourism and traffic.
The good news is that Nevada is still performing quite well outside of Clark County. We’ll see if The Strip can start to recover as we (hopefully) move towards the end of the pandemic.
Boyd Gaming Drops Nevada Casino
Boyd Gaming looks like they are taking a step back in the Nevada gaming scene. The company has recently announced that they are finishing up a sale over a casino stationed in Nevada. The Eldorado Casino is the property in the spotlight for this deal and it soon to be a part of DeSimone Gaming.
Eldorado was one of the few casinos that didn’t reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic first started. The company had felt that reopening it wouldn’t help out their revenue since tourism is way down. Instead, they decided to cut their losses and keep it closed. For DeSimone, they are buying in at a low as they now get a property at what we can only assume was a great price. The location is also great given that it’s well-stationed in a very popular gambling state.
Many people may not have ever heard about DeSimone Gaming as they pale in size to other giants in the betting industry such as MGM and Caesars Entertainment. However, DeSimone has a lot of familiarity in the betting industry and should be able to maximize the profit of The Eldorado Casino.
Mexico Brings In New Gaming Taxes
Mexico is having a bit of an issue with their casinos. The current president, Manuel Lopez Obrador, wants to cut down on the number of gaming licenses that are issued out to the casinos. That’ll curtail the number of outlets where people can game. At the same time, the government needs the revenue from gaming. The current plan is not only to limit the gaming licenses but to charge the ones who still get to keep theirs a bigger cut.
The Jalisco State Revenue Law is set to take place in 2021 and is going to put a 10 percent tax on all casino game and slot machine winnings. However, this law was already set in place in a way, but it is being put out once more due to lawmakers feeling as if casino operators were getting around this tax without paying.
Gerardo Quirino Velazquez, Jalisco Treasury Commission Deputy, was one of the key voices that helped push this new measure through the legal system. We’ll have to see what impact there as a lot of under-the-table action was taking place to avoid taxes. With the government trying to limit legal casinos, we could see more and more underground venues open up to avoid these taxes.
Nevada is one of the states that has suffered the most due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of its casinos operate with a limited capacity, and there was one period during the spring of 2020 when all casinos had to close.
However, there’s a silver lining at sight, as vaccines are now massively manufactured, and plenty of them are allocated to Nevada and its residents.
Governor of Nevada, Steve Sisolak, decided to make a list of priority workers to be vaccinated, and casino employees are on it. Casino operators now hope to attract more tourists, offering the safety of vaccinated workers.
Casino Workers in Tier 1
Casino workers are labeled in the “Tier 1 lane,” which means they are to be inoculated along with other frontline workers, such as government employees, essential workers, teachers, doctors, and more.
Still, since Nevada is a state that makes a considerable profit from gambling, there are many people employed in the industry. According to some estimates, approximately 25% of all workforce in Nevada is made up of casino employees. Therefore, the authorities have a tough logistical challenge in front of them to get as many casino employees vaccinated as possible.
There’s a good reason why the casino industry is prioritized for the vaccine. Namely, the state hopes that the industry will be able to get back on its feet as soon as possible and help the Silver State’s struggling economy restore to its pre-Covid mode.
Nevada Resort Association President, Virginia Valentine, stated that the inoculation process will “accelerate the consumer confidence.” Moreover, she added that the visitor volume was something that Nevada’s economy depends on.
Getting Visitors Back in Las Vegas
Candice McDaniel of the Department of Health and Human Services added that giving jabs to casino workers was essential for the state to recover and be healthy.
McDaniel also said that the sooner the vaccination process takes place, and rates decrease, the sooner the visitors would start putting Nevada on their travel lists. The fear factor plays an important role, but visitors will be encouraged to visit Nevada, especially Las Vegas, once all employees receive vaccines.
At the moment, Nevada is not in a good spot. There were plenty of visitors who went to Nevada during New Year’s Eve, and not many of them wore masks as advised. This was a fertile ground for the coronavirus to thrive, and Nevada’s officials worried that it could result in another spike of COVID-19 infections.
All workers in Nevada who want to get a vaccine need to apply for it online. However, with 25% of the entire workforce wishing to take it, it may take some time before all of them receive the vaccination.
Las Vegas Restrictions
Hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses are being made daily around the world. With the production ramped up, it will still take some time before we can clearly say that the battle against COVID-19 is won.
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