Gaming win up for 3rd straight month

Nevada's gaming win rose 3.66 percent in July - the third straight month of increases over the same period a year ago.

Despite the fact that this July was going against a weak month a year ago, there were good signs in the numbers, including that the total win would have been higher even without counting the 20 percent increase in baccarat play, said Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton.

The "win" is the total amount that that casino takes in from gaming.

The high points statewide were mostly in Game and Table win, as blackjack tables posted a 96 percent increase and craps tables a 20 percent increase from July to July.

Baccarat tables - primarily on the Las Vegas Strip - raked in $89.7 million to boost total Game and Table win to $315.7 million in July. Game and Table win is up more than 9 percent so far this calendar year.

Statewide, total win for the month was just over $860 million - $136.9 million more than the previous July.

Lawton noted that this July had one more Sunday than last July.

He said that because the month ended on a weekend, an estimated $49 million in slot winnings won't be reported until the August numbers come out - so the increase is actually even better than 3.66 percent.

The Carson Valley area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, didn't share in the bounty.

Total win was $8.69 million, a 2.26 percent decline from a year ago. Lawton said the total volume of bets was down more than 2 percent in the capital.

North Lake Tahoe casinos took an even bigger hit, seeing just $3.4 million in winnings - a 10.5 percent, $399,000 drop.

But South Shore casinos at Stateline had one of their best months in a long time, reporting $29.8 million in winnings, a 25.4 percent increase over July 2010. Lawton said every category of Game and Table win was up at Stateline, led by a 143 percent increase in blackjack and a 70.8 percent increase in craps winnings. Slots were also up, but only by 3.9 percent. Tahoe, he said, benefited from a healthy turnout for the American Century golf championship at Edgewood.

Clark County was up nearly 3.2 percent in July - but not because of the Strip, which recorded just 1.5 percent more win than a year ago. Lawton said the difference was all in the locals markets in southern Nevada reporting double-digit increases in downtown, North Las Vegas and the Boulder Strip.

He said those local markets were responsible for more than 40 percent of the statewide gain. Only Laughlin was down compared to the previous year.