Las Vegas Tourism Totals, Casino Gaming Wins Up in June

Posted on: July 30, 2021, 02:10h. 

Last updated on: July 30, 2021, 03:10h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

Almost 3 million people visited the Las Vegas area in June, the sixth straight month with an increase in tourists. Also in June, casinos in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, won over $1 billion for only the third time ever.

Paris Hilton
Celebrity Paris Hilton uses a computer during a performance at the June 24 grand opening of Resorts World Las Vegas. The Strip casino’s opening contributed to an increase in visitors in June. (Image: Newsweek)

The 2.9 million visitors who made their way to Las Vegas in June was 3.2 percent higher than May’s 2.8 million total, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

The visitor total last month was aided by the June 24 opening of the $4.3 billion Resorts World Las Vegas, the most expensive hotel-casino in Nevada history. Resorts World was built on the west side of the Strip, where the Mob-connected Stardust once stood. The grand opening attracted celebrities such as Paris Hilton, and an estimated 20,000 visitors.

The millions of tourists who visited Las Vegas this June helped with hotel occupancy rates. The weekend occupancy rate was almost 90 percent, but fell to 70.9 percent during the week, the newspaper reported. Tourism experts have said the lower midweek rate can be attributed to the small number of international visitors and convention-goers during the recovery.  

The number of tourists who came to Las Vegas in June 2021 was 178.8 percent higher than the visitor total in June 2020, three months into the coronavirus pandemic. 

However, the June 2021 visitor volume was still 17.6 percent below the 3.6 million tourists who arrived in June 2019, nine months before the first COVID-19 cases surfaced in the state.

In March 2020, Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) ordered casinos shut down at the onset of the pandemic. He allowed them to reopen in June 2020. That month, 1.6 million tourists visited Las Vegas.

Casinos Record Big Wins

The higher visitor total last month led to bigger wins for casinos. Statewide, casinos won $1.19 billion from gamblers. Clark County took in $1.015 billion, down from May’s total of $1.052 billion, the newspaper reported.

In June, properties on the Strip collected $610.6 million in gaming wins. Downtown Las Vegas registered $79.1 million in wins, a record that beat April’s $76.3 million. That result was helped by the opening late last year of Circa Resort, the first new hotel-casino in Glitter Gulch in 40 years.

With June added to the mix, casinos statewide had four months in a row of wins totaling $1 billion or more. That has not happened since January-April 2008, the newspaper reported.

Tourism Warning Signs

With the national rollout of stimulus checks and COVID-19 vaccinations, tourists began returning to Las Vegas casinos after the first of the year, fueled by pent-up travel demand. 

McCarran International Airport, which lost millions of passengers last year, has seen an uptick in arrivals and departures in recent months.

However, the delta variant’s rapid spread throughout Southern Nevada threatens to halt those positive trends. Officials in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Hawaii have cautioned against traveling to Las Vegas because of its low vaccination rate and increasing infections. 

Beginning Friday, face coverings were required in public spaces in Nevada counties, including Clark County, with high COVID-19 transmission rates. This requirement applies to people whether they are vaccinated or not.