Gaming win up in Carson area, down for state

Gaming win fell 5.87 percent in November as totals declined in every major reporting area in the state except North Las Vegas and the Carson Valley Area, which consists of the capital and valley portions of Douglas County.

Gaming Control board analyst Mike Lawton said most of the decline was because of "a tough comparison" with baccarat win in November 2009. Baccarat raked in $94.2 million that month. It was down $25.4 million this past November to less than $70 million.

Lawton said table games suffered in November across the board and across the state with a lower than average win percentage. In addition, he said sports books reported a win of just 1.9 percent compared with 8.4 percent a year ago. Casinos actually lost money to football bettors.

Total statewide win was just $822 million for the month with every Clark County category down single digits and Washoe County down a whopping 19.66 percent overall.

The exception was Carson Valley, which saw total win increase 2.57 percent to $7.66 million.

The one bright spot in the monthly numbers was that slot win increased for the second month in a row - the first time that has happened since Septem-ber/October 2007. Lawton said that is a good indicator that the average player is beginning to return to the casinos. For the past six months, a good month depended heavily on how the high-end players did.

"We want to see that mass market come back," he said.

That also would help explain why Carson was up since the vast majority of the monthly win in the capital comes from slots, not table games.

South Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe were down to more than $15 million in winnings. While that is a decline of just 5.25 percent, it comes on top of a 26.7 percent decline in November 2009 as California's Indian casinos continue to take their toll on the lake.

In Washoe County, the players simply did much better this year. Where the hold in 21 was nearly 23 percent in November 2009, it fell to 15 percent this year, cutting profits from that game in half.

Total win for Washoe casinos was $52.49 million.

North Shore casinos also took a hit but, at 7.7 percent, a much smaller one than the rest of Washoe. Win declined just $129,000 to $1.54 million.

The state collected $49.79 million in gaming taxes during December. That is 12.7 percent or $7.24 million less than the same month of 2009. Even so, collections are up 2.49 percent so far this fiscal year.