Nevada Sportsbooks See Spike In Activity As Tourism Rises

• Nevada sports betting handle for June reported $544.8 million in wagers taken by sportsbooks statewide.
• The increase in sports gaming action is believed to be caused by the number of tourists visiting the Silver State because of the lowered COVID-19 restrictions.
• Mobile sports betting continues to be on the decline for Nevada with only 57.7% of wagers being done with the use of apps in June.

LAS VEGAS – Sports betting activity in Nevada went up by 14.2% in June month-over-month, which the state has attributed to the number of tourists visiting. Outside of that, there was nothing special going on as far as sports wagering was concerned to offer up a reasoning for the surge in activity.

The Nevada Revenue Report

The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) released their June report on Thursday for the regulated sports betting industry of the state. June saw $544.8 million in wagers which was a much higher handle than the $477.2 million brought in for May.

Revenue figures also went up by 8% from the previous month with $29.2 million in profits. This resulted in a tax hold of 5.36%. Almost $2 million was given to Nevada in taxes from sportsbooks in June because of it. May had a revenue of $27.1 million with $1.8 million paid to the state in taxes.

Mobile sports betting activity saw a decrease by sports bettors in the Silver State for June. This seems to be a pattern for Nevadans as in April over 65.3% of bets were made through mobile sportsbooks which then dropped to 62.4% in May and then 57.7% in June. Nevada has one of the lowest mobile sports betting industries in the nation as most of the United States see the bulk of their sports wagering done via these platforms.

However, the regulated sports betting industry saw an uptick because tourism began to open back up in Nevada with more people visiting the state since the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Will There Be A Continued Rise For Nevada Sportsbooks?

Unfortunately, as of last week, Nevada sportsbooks and casinos are mandating the need for face masks as the number of COVID-19 cases has started to increase again statewide. This could lead to a limited number of tourists as well as gamblers visiting sportsbooks and placing bets. It would become an overall decline with the exception of the one increase being in COVID-19 positive tests.

However, the upside to all of this is that the NFL season is coming up in a few weeks which is the time of year when sports gaming is at an all-time high. Sports bettors in Nevada will certainly be wagering on football and it’s possible that if it’s not at a land-based operation that mobile sportsbooks in Nevada may see a spike in users rather than the downward amount of activity it has seen in recent months.

News tags: COVID-19 | Las Vegas | Nevada | Nevada Gaming Commission | NFL