The Las Vegas Strip generated nearly 17 times more revenue than the Boulder Strip in 2025. But the Boulder Strip, a smaller locals market, kept far more money after expenses, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s newest Gaming Abstract.
The Boulder Strip, a stretch of Boulder Highway in the southeastern Las Vegas Valley, reported $375.1 million in net income in 2025, more than twice the $154.2 million reported by the Las Vegas Strip, even though the Strip generated $21.1 billion in total revenue compared with the Boulder Strip’s $1.26 billion.
That means the Boulder Strip produced about 2.4 times more income than the Strip despite bringing in only about 6 percent as much revenue, retaining 29.9 percent of its total revenue as net income, compared with just 0.7 percent on the Las Vegas Strip.
The figures come from the 2025 Nevada Gaming Abstract, which tracks financial information for Nevada casinos that grossed $1 million or more in gaming revenue during the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Analysts and industry observers said the gap reflects a very different kind of casino market, one with less debt, lower costs and a heavier reliance on gaming.
“The gap is largely a capital-structure and depreciation story, not an operating-performance story,” said Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with Applied Analysis.
One major reason Boulder Strip casinos kept more money is the makeup of the two markets.
“It is also two different businesses,” Aguero said. “The Boulder Strip is a locals market, with gambling about 69 percent of its revenue, and gaming is a high-margin activity, so a lot of each dollar drops toward the bottom line.”
The abstract puts numbers behind that contrast. Gaming accounted for 68.6 percent of Boulder Strip revenue in 2025, compared with only 26.1 percent of total revenue on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Strip’s revenue base is broader but also more expensive to operate.
The Las Vegas Strip is “a tourism, convention, and entertainment complex,” Aguero said, where much of the revenue comes from “rooms, food, beverage, shows and retail,” businesses that are more labor- and capital-intensive.
Debt was another major factor.
Las Vegas Strip properties carried $21.75 billion in long-term debt in 2025, according to the abstract. Boulder Strip properties carried $141.6 million.
The difference showed up in interest expense. Strip properties recorded $2.23 billion in interest expense, compared with only $10.1 million on the Boulder Strip.
That means interest expense alone was more than 14 times the Strip’s final net income figure for the year.
“These massive debt burdens eat at operating profits,” said casino consultant Andrew Klebanow, principal of Klebanow Consulting.
Several casino companies have also sold real estate assets to real estate investment trusts and now pay rent on properties they once owned, Klebanow said.
Those payments can make the Strip’s bottom line look thinner, even when the properties are still generating significant operating cash.
The gap also widened because the Strip’s income fell sharply from fiscal 2024.
Las Vegas Strip net income dropped 81.2 percent in 2025, while total revenue and gaming revenue each fell 3.7 percent, according to the abstract.
The Boulder Strip was more stable. Its net income declined 4.2 percent, while total revenue increased 0.2 percent and gaming revenue increased 1.2 percent.
Statewide, Nevada’s 305 casinos in the abstract generated $30.82 billion in total revenue and $1.7 billion in net income.
The Strip remained the state’s dominant revenue machine. But in 2025, the smaller Boulder Strip kept far more of what it made.
“High debt loads and thinner margins do make Strip casinos more vulnerable to economic downturns,” Klebanow said. “But when times are good, they do very well.”
