Nevada bookmakers could not wait for football to start, perhaps even more than their counterparts around the nation.

Nevada sports betting handle was $408,874,947 for August, the lowest amount for the state in more than two years. The last total less than that was $163.55 million in July 2020, when sports schedules were still heavily affected by COVID-19.

Last month’s wagering action for sports was down 2.5% from the $419.4 million in the Nevada report for July and a 4.3% drop in a year-over-year comparison with August 2021 ($427.4 million).

The mobile sports betting handle of $293.26 million was a 7.1% increase from July’s $273.7 million in a month-over-month comparison, but down 1.1% from $296.48 million 12 months earlier. Mobile sports betting handle was 71.7% of total handle for August at the best online casino apps.

The revenue for sports betting in the Silver State fell to its lowest monthly output in 2022, dropping 0.9% from $16.221 million in July to $16.069 million. That figure was a 12% increase from the $14.342 million in August 2021, according to figures from the Nevada Gaming Commission.

As one would expect in the middle of summer, baseball was by far the most popular wagering option in Nevada for August, taking $270.2 million in handle. Other sports outside of the traditional “big four” (football, baseball, basketball and hockey) accounted for $73.8 million in wagers for the month.

Expect a massive surge in sports betting numbers in September because NFL betting as well as college football are underway. Football is the runaway leader in American sports wagering, both at Nevada’s famed brick-and-mortar casinos and at the top mobile gaming apps in states across the country where legal, regulated mobile sports betting is functioning.

The August total gaming win was $1.209 billion, the 18^th consecutive month that the state exceeded $1 billion in that category, though online blackjack and other popular iGaming options are not available in Nevada.

Nevada does have online poker, but is not one of the six states offering the best online casino options. Those states are Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Even in a small state, the coffers can benefit from a true iGaming market – for instance, Delaware broke its revenue record in August for online gaming for the second consecutive month.

In other news about Nevada casinos, Bally’s Corporation completed a previously announced deal to buy the Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip from Gaming & Leisure Properties and Penn National for $148 million cash.

The transaction was announced in April 2021.

According to a news release, the facility, at the corner of Tropicana Boulevard and Las Vegas Boulevard, has 1,470 hotel rooms, 50,000 square feet of casino space and 100,000 square feet of convention and meeting space.