Nevada’s gaming is one of the most diverse gaming industries in the world. Very small locations with a few slots and one or two table games are present at the same time as humungous casinos with thousands of slot machines and hundreds of table games.

There are over 1,200 gaming licenses in Nevada; however, most of the state’s gambling revenue is brought in by fewer than 200 large casinos. Larger casinos tend to be more financially stable and more profitable. Therefore, they have to worry about economic downturns less than small casinos. One of the reasons for this is that large casinos tend to offer other services in addition to gambling so that even if gambling is experiencing a downturn, people are still attracted to the casinos.

Hotel-casino corporations have recently begun to emerge in Nevada. The corporations are generally publicly owned and they generate about half of the state’s gaming revenues. Again, these corporations tend to operate the larger casinos that have hotels, restaurants and other accommodations attached to them. These corporations haven’t existed for a long time because they were prohibited until 1964 when state laws changed and licensing requirements became looser.

In Nevada, the casino industry is divided into seven geographic locations. Each has a different revenue pattern, operating style and profitability. The Las Vegas Strip location is where the largest casinos are located. Each of these areas also has a different “game mix” meaning ratio of slot machines to table games and the ratio of 21 tables to crap tables. The locations are also differentiated by their revenues. Generally, as the size of the casino increases so does the revenue. Therefore, the Las Vegas Strip has one of the highest revenues.

Gaming in Nevada is governed by a Gaming Control Board. It has the primary responsibility for enforcing gaming laws and proper collection of taxes. The Nevada Gaming Commission is in charge of licensing of applicants. Gaming policy is controlled by the Gaming Policy Committee, which holds hearings and makes recommendations to the Control Board. The recommendations are only advisory, though, and the Control Board can ignore them.