The Las Vegas Strip may be the most famous gambling corridor in the world, but new data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board reveals that the smaller Boulder Strip generated more than twice the net income of the Strip in 2025, despite bringing in only a fraction of the revenue. The findings 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 ending June 30.
The Boulder Strip, a stretch of Boulder Highway in the southeastern Las Vegas Valley, reported $375.1 million in net income. The Las Vegas Strip reported $154.2 million in net income for the same period, as detailed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The contrast is stark: the Strip generated $21.1 billion in total revenue, while the Boulder Strip brought in $1.26 billion. That means the Boulder Strip produced approximately 2.4 times more income than the Strip despite generating only about 6 percent of the Strip’s revenue. The Boulder Strip retained 29.9 percent of its total revenue as net income, compared with just 0.7 percent on the Las Vegas Strip.
Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with Applied Analysis, said the gap reflects fundamentally different business models. “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,” he told the Review-Journal. The Las Vegas Strip, by contrast, derives much of its revenue from rooms, food, beverage, shows, and retail, businesses that are more labor- and capital-intensive. Gaming accounted for only 26.1 percent of Strip revenue in 2025.
Debt is another major factor driving the disparity. Las Vegas Strip properties carried $21.75 billion in long-term debt in 2025, resulting in $2.23 billion in interest expense. Boulder Strip properties carried just $141.6 million in long-term debt, with only $10.1 million in interest expense. Interest expense alone was more than 14 times the Strip’s final net income figure.
“These massive debt burdens eat at operating profits,” said casino consultant Andrew Klebanow of Klebanow Consulting. Several Strip casino companies have also sold real estate assets to real estate investment trusts and now pay rent on properties they once owned, further thinning their bottom line.
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. The Boulder Strip was more stable, with net income declining just 4.2 percent and total revenue increasing 0.2 percent. Statewide, Nevada’s 305 casinos in the abstract generated $30.82 billion in total revenue and $1.7 billion in net income for the year.
“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.” The data underscores the contrasting financial profiles of the two markets, with the locals-focused Boulder Strip offering stability and the tourism-driven Strip offering higher upside but greater risk.
