Home / Poker News July 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Nevada Revenues Continue to Drop
The Poker Grapevine – Nevada Revenues Continue to Drop
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2012-07-13 04:55
Las Vegas’ live gambling revenues have been in a freefall for a while and as data regarding the newest results emerged, it became clear that the downturn was far from slowing down. What is also clear is that revenues off the Strip dropped by a massive 18% from May 2011 to May 2012. During the same period, overall gambling revenues in Nevada have dropped by a rather astonishing 10%.
To put the percentages in actual numbers: Last May, Las Vegas casinos had registered revenues totaling $580 million. This May that number was $475 million, quite a surprising drop, especially when considering that fact that there was apparently a small increase of 2.4% in the number of visitors this May. It seems like people are becoming less and less interested in wagering against the house, even as they’re more and more drawn to the other attractions the Strip has to offer. Whether or not this revenue loss is fuelling Vegas’ newfound interest towards legalized
online poker is unclear at this stage. One thing is quite clear though: big casino resort execs have to make some kind of a move if they ever intend to see the slide stop.
In other news: Ongame has been shopped around for a while now and it looks like the poker network still hasn’t found a new owner, although – according to bwin.party, the current owner – there are no fewer than 6 potential purchasers interested in the acquisition.
Ongame was on the trade block back in February, when it looked like Shuffle Master would pick it up for $24.5 million, but since then, the online poker market has indeed deteriorated by leaps and bounds, so Shuffle Master dropped the deal, tossing the network back onto the trading block.
Bwin.party are looking to sell Ongame in order to integrate their online poker liquidity afterwards. The aim for the group is to have all their customers on a single technology platform by the end of the year.
