Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Although given only perfunctory mention in most of the Las Vegas media, the April numbers' release this morning was actually pretty significant. They seem to say that things are headed in the right direction again, but really looking at them raises more questions.

As always, gaming revenue day is a busy one for me. I wrote up my two customary reports for the Center for Gaming Research, which you can find here:

Nevada Gaming Statistics: April Comparison

Nevada Gaming Statistics: The Last Six Months

This month, the Friday Effect seemed to be an important part of the picture. I wrote a short piece for Vegas Seven talking about exactly what that is, and why it matters. Here is that piece: Inside the Friday Effect.

Feel free to read through all 8 pages of numbers and analysis...I'll be here when you get back.

Anyway, the thing that jumps out at me is that, if you normalize the March and April numbers to account for the Friday Effect, the huge wins for April aren't really there. Of course, the flip side of that is that the disappointing March numbers are also deceptive.

I'd love to hear comments from people--did you reach the same conclusions as I did?

Also, I'm wondering just how important the monthly gaming numbers are. I'd argue that they provide an invaluable snapshot of the performance of the Nevada gaming industry. Since they are broken down by area, it's possible to see where the real growth (or decline) is coming from.

Back when gaming was Nevada-centric, they were one of the chief tools equity analysts used to judge stocks. Now, with Nevada being a much smaller part of the global gaming picture, I think the monthly numbers have been somewhat neglected. Granted, they're not going to help you forecast the future (at least I haven't figured out how to use them for that), but they paint a great picture of where the state is.

So is anyone here surprised this wasn't a bigger story today?