Casino Attendance Remains Moribund Throughout August

The casino attendance doldrums in the United States are still ongoing, with August proving another difficult month for the industry.

Although sector unemployment has been improving, the fact remains that casino visitations are down by 5.4% in the month and a whopping 17.5% from pre-pandemic levels, as per a report by Jefferies Equity Research and analyst David Katz.

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Footfall, though, did not go off a ledge in August, but rather remained consistent with projections and the pace of visitations so far in the year. Things have even picked up a bit since July, which was marked by a steeper decline in visitation.

However, fewer players and visitors do not mean that casinos are raking in less revenue, with the gross gaming revenue metric steadily improving since the “late spring.”

Katz also identified single states as drivers of positive results for the industry nationwide, citing the openings of Churchill Downs’ The Rose in Virginia and Penn Entertainment’s Hollywood Joliet as positive events that will attract visitors and boost the overall results.

Pennsylvania, for example, was an outlier, registering an 18.8% jump compared to 2019’s results. Illinois and New Jersey, however, both saw a significant slump in their results.

“Our take is that the monthly performance reflects the volatile path toward the normalization of traffic trends post-COVID, as well as the heightened competition and renovations in specific locations,” Katz explained.

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Katz also argued that Las Vegas and Nevada are not the only benchmarks to measure against, saying instead that regional gambling is set to continue improving as the former two experience slowdown and stagnancy to some extent.

Katz believes that this trend will continue until the last trimester of the year, when Las Vegas may finally see some stronger signs of improvement. Overall, there is widespread pessimism as the numbers are less than ideal, but Katz believes that this is temporary and the slump is nearly over.