Las Vegas has more hotel rooms - 132,000 - than any other city
in the U.S. and it attracts more than 39 million visitors each year.
Unlike New Jersey, the Nevada Gaming Control Board does not
break down its slot statistics by individual properties. Rather,
they are classified by area.
The annual gaming revenue report breaks the Las Vegas market
down into two major tourist areas: the Strip and downtown. There is
also a very large locals market in Las Vegas and those casinos are
shown in the gaming revenue report as the Boulder Strip and North
Las Vegas areas.
When choosing where to do your slot gambling, you may want to
keep in mind the following slot payback percentages for Nevada’s
fiscal year beginning July 1, 2006 and ending June 30, 2007:
1˘ Slot Machines
The
Strip - 88.80%
Downtown - 89.21%
Boulder Strip -
89.86%
N. Las Vegas - 90.25%
5˘ Slot Machines
The
Strip - 88.79%
Downtown - 91.30%
Boulder Strip -
94.44%
N. Las Vegas - 94.07%
25˘ Slot Machines
The
Strip - 91.36%
Downtown - 94.60%
Boulder Strip - 96.40%
N. Las
Vegas - 96.14%
$1 Slot Machines
The
Strip - 93.56%
Downtown -95.31%
Boulder Strip -
96.26%
N. Las Vegas - 96.89%
$1 Megabucks
Machines
The Strip -
88.02%
Downtown - 88.08%
Boulder Strip
- 88.03%
N. Las Vegas - 87.07%
$5 Slot Machines
The
Strip - 94.60%
Downtown - 94.51%
Boulder Strip -
95.89%
N. Las Vegas - 96.83%
$25 Slot Machines
The
Strip - 96.50%
Downtown -
97.80%
Boulder Strip - 93.81%
N. Las Vegas -
N/A
All Slot Machines
The
Strip - 93.19%
Downtown - 93.59%
Boulder Strip - 94.85%
N. Las
Vegas - 94.50%
These numbers reflect the percentage of money returned to
the players on each denomination of machine. All electronic machines
including slots, video poker and video keno are included in these
numbers and the highest-paying returns are shown in bold print. As
you can see, the machines in downtown Las Vegas pay out slightly
more than those located on the Las Vegas Strip.
Returns even better than the downtown casinos can be found at
some of the other locals casinos along Boulder Highway such as
Boulder Station and Sam’s Town and also in the North Las Vegas area
which would include the Fiesta, Santa Fe and Texas Station casinos.
Not only are those numbers among the best returns in the Las Vegas
area, they are among the best payback percentages for anywhere in
the United States.
This information is pretty well known by the locals and that’s
why many of them do their slot gambling away from the Strip unless
they are drawn by a special slot club benefit or promotion.
All LasVegascasinos are open 24 hours and, unless otherwise
noted, offer: slots, video poker, blackjack, craps, and
roulette.
Some casinos also offer: sports book (SB), race book (RB),
Spanish 21 (S21), baccarat (B), mini-baccarat (MB), pai gow (PG),
poker (P), pai gow poker (PGP), Caribbean stud poker (CSP), let it
ride (LIR), three-card poker (TCP), sic bo (SIC), keno (K), big
6 wheel (B6) and bingo (BG). The minimum gambling age is 21.
