Nevada casinos see profit surge, first female gaming board chair

Nevada casinos enjoyed a serious surge in profitability in their most recent fiscal year, despite only modest gains in revenue over that period.

On Friday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) released its annual Nevada Gaming Abstract, which covers the performance of the 272 casinos in the state that grossed $1m or more in gaming revenue in the 12 months ending June 30, 2017.

These 272 casinos generated total revenue of just under $26.2b in FY17, up 3.7% from the previous year, while net income shot up 59% to $1.55b. The NGCB didn’t offer a reason to explain the significant disparity in between the revenue and profit gains. The gaming industry has made a huge turnaround since FY15, which saw net losses of $661.8m.

This disparity was significantly more pronounced at casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, which saw revenue rise 3.9% to $17.7b while profits leaped 191.4% to $814m. Downtown Las Vegas casinos got in on the action, with revenue up 10.3% to $1.2b and profits up 111.3% to $110.3m.