September revenue figures for Nevada online poker are in, and the numbers are less than promising. Nevada iPoker sites took in $693,000, which is 6.7% less than the previous month. Moreover, September’s take of $693k is the worst since Nevada began making online poker revenue reports public earlier this year.
WSOP Hangover
As expected, the Silver State received a big boost from the 2014 WSOP, when over 80,000 players hit Vegas during the summer. June saw over $1 million in monthly revenue for the first time in the market’s short history. And average cash game traffic was over 200 players an hour in both June and July.
Unfortunately, things have come back down to reality with traffic dropping noticeably in August and September. According to PokerScout, WSOP.com features 80 players an hour, Ultimate Poker has 55 players and Real Gaming, which finally came out of “soft-launch” phase, still averages 0 players. Measuring the 200+ players from June/July to October’s average of 135 players, this is over a 30% decrease in traffic.
Entire Nevada gaming industry is struggling
Aside from the disappointing iGaming revenue, Nevada’s brick-and-mortar casino industry has also seen declines the past two months. In August they experienced a 3.66% decrease while September saw a 5.96% decrease on $901.7 million. The Vegas Strip was the hardest hit as its $494.9 million take in September represented a 12.2% plunge.
Despite the downward trend in Nevada’s gaming market, those overseeing the operation don’t seem overly alarmed. “I wouldn’t say it’s cause for concern,” said Michael Lawton, Nevada Gaming Control Board senior research analyst. “We are facing some difficult comparisons the past two months. No reason to push the panic buttons yet.”
Will Nevada gaming revenue rebound in the near future? It’s difficult to say for the brick-and-mortar operation, however, colder weather usually causes a spike in iGaming revenue. Nevada has a bit warmer climate than most places, though, so we’ll have to see if they still benefit from seasonal trends as we head towards winter.