Las Vegas is heading into one of its biggest stress tests of the year: can Formula 1 and a surge in baccarat play keep Strip casino revenues rising even as visitor numbers fall?
In October, Nevada casinos won roughly $1.35 billion, up about 5% year-on-year. The Las Vegas Strip accounted for close to $749 million of that total, growing more than 8% compared to the same month in 2024.
The surprise star of the month was baccarat. Strip baccarat win jumped to around $116 million, a staggering 69% increase from a year earlier, underlining just how dependent casino results have become on high-end play and international VIPs rather than pure foot traffic.
At the same time, traditional indicators are flashing yellow. Harry Reid International Airport reported an 8.2% drop in passengers in October, the steepest monthly decline of 2025, and Las Vegas has logged ten consecutive months of falling visitor counts even as gaming revenue continues to climb.
That paradox is the backdrop to this year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. When F1 first hit the Strip in November 2023, Nevada posted roughly $1.37 billion in gaming revenue, up 12.6% year-on-year, with the Strip recording one of its best months in history. Analysts tied much of that surge to F1-driven hotel rates, premium spend and strong table games performance.
Now, casino executives and investors are watching to see if the combination of a second F1 running and another big month in baccarat can repeat the trick. The risk is clear: a model that leans heavily on big-spending visitors and marquee events is more volatile, especially if air traffic and mass-market tourism continue to soften.
For now, the Strip is still winning. But the question hanging over Las Vegas is whether fast cars and high rollers are a sustainable engine of growth, or just a high-octane patch on deeper structural changes in how, and how often, people come to gamble.
