Vegas Grand Prix Did Nothing for Locals

Tens of thousands of race fans, a global television audience, the racers themselves, and all of them in Las Vegas – it sounds like a match made in heaven. Unfortunately for businesses in Las Vegas, it didn’t quite work out the way it was supposed to.

The Vegas Grand Prix was supposed to bring in millions in slot machine and gambling revenue to the Fremont Street based gambling market, however, it did the opposite. The downtown casino win was actually down 3.3% according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Originally the board had reported a downtown win increase of 8%, to bring them to $56.5 million. This was heralded as joyous news as they have been experiencing ten consecutive months of decline. However, after the board’s announcement, an analyst took a closer look at the figures and saw that they actually lost money. They say that it was a reporting anomaly, all having to do with when slot machine money was deposited. It looked like money that was actually earned in March was earned in April, thus leading experts to think otherwise.

Experts say that the fact that they had to close the streets around Freemont Street Experience for the race actually prevented people from going to the casinos and gambling. They say that if they are planning on bringing back the race next year that they need to make it easier for people to walk around downtown or they will lose money again.

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