Gaming win soars to near-record heights after a busy March

A perfect storm of positives — big concert and sports draws, robust convention attendance as well as above-average gaming holds and steady high volume in the state’s casinos — turned March into one of the best months for gaming win in recent history.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board on Thursday said the state’s 452 major casinos won $1.427 billion for the month, an 11.8 percent increase over a year ago and just under the record $1.433 billion won in December 2023.

The board also reported Strip win was up 14.4 percent to $780 million and downtown Las Vegas climbed 20.8 percent to $103.1 million.

Shelley Newell, senior economic analyst for the Control Board’s administration division, said there were a wide range of entertainment dates across the valley in March, a month that historically has had a high volume of well-attended conventions and trade shows.

This year, that included ConExpo-Con/Agg in Las Vegas, a major construction equipment trade show that only comes every three years.

Sports drew well with the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 14-15 and bettors in town to watch the NCAA college “March Madness” basketball tournaments.

More importantly, gaming volume, win and hold percentage had a rare trifecta of increases in baccarat, table and card games, slot machines and, except for volume, sports wagering.

Table, counter and card games win hit $457.1 million — a 27.9 percent increase from March 2025, or $99.7 million. Games drop of $3.1 billion increased 3.8 percent, or $115.7 million, and the games hold percentage was 14.5 percent versus 11.8 percent last year.

Baccarat win of $154.1 million more than doubled (105.13 percent or $79 million). Baccarat drop of $786.6 million increased 43.8 percent, or $239.6 million, and the game’s hold percentage was 19.59 percent compared with 13.74 percent last year.

Slot win of $969.8 million increased 5.5 percent or $50.6 million and coin-in of $13.3 billion was up $324.2 million or 2.5 percent.

Nevada sportsbooks won $46 million, up 107 percent or $23.8 million compared with March 2025 on a hold percentage of 6 percent versus about 2.6 percent last year. Sportsbook wagers totaled $763 million, down 11.3 percent compared with last March when $860.6 million was wagered statewide. Mobile wagers totaled $550.4 million, down 10.1 percent or $61.9 million, and accounted for 72.1 percent of all wagers.

While none of the win statistics hit record highs in March, several of the amounts were close to record territory.

The statewide slot win was the second highest in history and overall gaming win was fifth best ever.

Win from slot machines on the Strip were seventh best ever.

Overall Strip win ranked 12th overall and statewide table game win and Strip table game wins were No. 17 overall.

Newell said win again exceeded prepandemic levels with statewide win up 39.5 percent over March 2019. She said gaming win exceeded $1 billion for the 61st straight month.

The high gaming win translated into higher gaming tax collections for the state, which go to Nevada’s general fund.

Based on collections through April 22, 10 months of gaming tax collections now total $868.8 million, up just over 3 percent from the amount collected in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.