Casino gaming revenue often interesting to those who risk money on games. Understanding how and where casinos win in games isn’t always intuitive. There are more craps and roulette tables than baccarat tables in Nevada casinos but the latter wins much more money for the casino. In 2017, blackjack reclaimed its crown the most game that won the most money for Nevada casinos.
Nevada casinos won $1,207,019,000 in blackjack last year. That’s an increase of 5.44% from 2017. Here’s a look at how much money some different table games generated for casinos.
Blackjack: $1.2 billion
Baccarat: $1.1 billion
Craps: $393.5 million
Roulette: $367.3 million
3 Card Poker: 141,760 million
No other table games generated more than $100 million in win for Nevada casinos.
Casinos won 14.81% of the money played from blackjack. The win percentage was slightly more than 13.4% in 2016, 12.16% in 2015, and 12.01% in 2014. Most casinos in downtown Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip were in line with this win percentage.
Fewer Blackjack Tables In Nevada
As usual, Nevada casinos had more blackjack tables than any other game by a large margin. In fact, out of 5,767 table games in Nevada casinos, there were 2,539 blackjack tables. However, the number of blackjack tables has seen a sharp decrease in Nevada and particularly on the Las Vegas Strip since 1985.
Let’s focus on the Las Vegas Strip for this since it’s often seen as a predictor for what casinos around the country will see in the future. In 1985, blackjack games accounted for 77% of table games on the Las Vegas Strip. Thirty-one years later, In 2016, just under 51% of the table games on the Las Vegas Strip were blackjack.
Even though baccarat win and the number of tables are on the rise, that’s not really affecting the number of blackjack games in casinos. The games listed as “other” have increased to almost none in 1985 to approximately 20% of games in Las Vegas Strip casinos. These are the newer, non-traditional, casino games such as 3 Card Poker, High Card Flush, Pai Gow Poker, and so on.
Blackjack Revenue On The Rise On The Vegas Strip
Even though the number of blackjack tables on the Las Vegas Strip has been decreasing, revenue is on the rise again. In 1985, blackjack accounted for just over 50% of table game revenue on the Las Vegas Strip. Even though blackjack only accounts for less than 30% of table game revenue today, it’s been increasing each of the past five years.
Casino operators can thank the continual increase of games with bad blackjack rules and side bets for increasing the house edge and thus revenue. While many experienced players know to avoid certain games, the majority of gamblers don’t know or care too much about games with a large house edge.
In case you were curious, baccarat is now the table game revenue king on the Las Vegas Strip. Even though it only had 12.18% of the table games, it accounted for 39.70% of all table game revenue in 2016.
