This week’s casino news starts off in Nevada where the state continues to see incredible gross gaming revenues. There could be some headwinds on the horizon, though.
Nevada Casinos Post Record May Gaming Win
Gaming revenue continues to flow through Nevada casinos and they continue to set new records. After May, the state has now been able to post 15 straight months with over $1 billion in gross gaming revenue. The most recent month of May saw them cruise over that $1 billion total, finishing up at $1.38 billion.
This number actually represents the best month that they’ve ever been able to have statistically since the year 1931 when the states regulated gaming industry first came around. On top of that, the recent total was 5.7 percent better than their numbers during May of 2021. Of course, 2021 was ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the downside, there are unfortunately clouds on the horizon for Nevada casinos. Despite the ridiculous hot streak, inflation is expected to severely damper their earnings each month.
Increased costs – especially for gas – have pushed tourists further away and made people prefer to travel less than they originally would want to. Customers are thinking twice about going anywhere given to the expanded day-to-day costs in the average household budget. One estimation suggests that 43 percent of Americans are planning to travel less this summer alone than they did all of 2021 due to inflation. Keep in mind, 2021 wasn’t exactly a banner year for travel either, so this is a big dropoff.
MLB Could Potentially Waive Relocation Fee To Move Franchise To Las Vegas
It’s been no secret that the MLB has been trying to get a professional baseball team over in Las Vegas for a while now. They are doing everything in their power to greenlight a move and do so as fast as possible. With all of that being said, it was reported that they are planning to relocate the Oakland Athletics to Vegas, and could choose to completely waive a large relocation fee in order to get it done faster.
The Athletics have played in Oakland for 54 years but it seems like that time is quickly running out. They are struggling to figure out how to build a new stadium and the league is interested in moving the franchise. Some believe that there will be an official announcement as to their future plans towards the end of July. However, it might depend upon the relocation fee.
At first, the league tried to push the state’s Governor, Steve Sisolak, into having the city pay $250 million for the new stadium. Though, he quickly put that to rest due to the Athletics not being a profitable organization at the moment. We’ll see if they can find some money for the venue from other avenues,
BetMGM, BetQL Join In Partnership
BetMGM has just added another partnership to their portfolio, this time working with the sportsbook of BetQL Network. This company leads the sports betting content for Audacy, a popular sports radio station operator. As it stands right now, the financial side of this partnership wasn’t disclosed to the public, but that information may come out soon.
While this new partnership with BetQL Network may catch some off guard, BetMGM has worked with Audacy for over a year now. They came to an agreement back in March of 2021 to make them the preferred sports betting partner of their company.
This deal between Audacy and BetMGM could wind up benefitting both sides. For BetMGM, they will heavily benefit from the large reach that Audacy has. A swarm of new people getting to know about an already popular sportsbook could help give them another huge jump in profits.
