This week’s casino news includes two much different stories about Las Vegas, plus the ongoing experiment with land-based casinos in Massachusetts. We’ll start in Nevada, where the latest casino revenues have been reported. As expected, slot machines paid out casinos in a big way.
Bettors Give Up $900 Million To The Nevada Slot Machines Last Month
Slot machines are known to be one of the most profitable entities in Las Vegas and the last month of action reinforces that. It’s been announced by the Nevada Gaming Control Board that slot machines across the state had brought in a total of $901.1 million. This all happened during the month of March, roughly 7.5 percent of the total money wagered at the time.
This also happened to be a record for Nevada in a single month. Never have the slot machines broken this total in just one 30-day span. The board later said that $396 million of that money came from casinos on the Las Vegas Strip as well, which is no surprise. All of this money was made in person, as Vegas doesn’t currently have any online casinos.
All gaming operators were able to combine together to report $1.355 billion worth of winnings in March. This would represent a large 26.83 percent increase when compared to March of 2021. Back then, they were only able to bring in $1.068 billion. Plus, this recent month helped push their billion-dollar months all the way to 13, their longest ever.
Las Vegas Poker Player Nails $300K Jackpot
One player in Las Vegas just struck gold while playing a hand at a $4-$8 limit hold’em table. The player, who was named Maria M., was playing at Red Rock Casino when she found out that she hit the $303,000 bad beat jackpot. She had quad threes before getting bested by a seven-high straight flush in hearts. Who could possibly imagine losing on quad threes?
At any rate, there were approximately 118 eligible players at the Red Rock poker room that could have won the jackpot. On top of those players, there were 62 eligible players from the Santa Fe Station’s poker room and 43 at Boulder Station.
These Station Casino bad beat jackpots grow every single day. The winner of the hand receives about 10 percent of the jackpot while the loser wins about 15 percent. The rest of the players at the table will split five percent.
Massachusetts Gaming Officials Criticize Casinos For Small Poker Rooms
State regulators in Massachusetts aren’t too happy with the size of the poker room offered in casinos. The notable comments came from their latest hearing featured their live poker rooms. Apparently, there was growing resentment in Massachusetts regarding the pitiful amount poker rooms that were open to the public given the size of the population.
According to a quote by Commissioner Brad Hill, he said, “Just disappointed is all I can say at this point.” This was in regard to a statement that read the state only has 27 poker tables.
Not only was the size of the poker rooms a brought-up topic, but the hours of them were talked about also. It’s unclear why the casinos in the state are doing this as to whether they simply aren’t in much demand or for some other purpose.