Nevada casinos post 5th straight monthly gambling win loss

CARSON CITY, Nev. — The statistics blame Baccarat for the fifth monthly decrease in gambling win across the Silver State.

May's total win was $981.8 million, 6 percent less than the win reported in May 2018, according to monthly statistics from the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

While win numbers were up across nearly all of the state, Baccarat win — primarily on the Las Vegas Strip — was just $54.6 million. That is 54.8 percent or $66.2 million less than the amount reported a year ago.

And Gaming Control Board Analyst Mike Lawton said the reason was not volume of play that was down just 3.3 percent.

“The culprit was the win percent or ‘hold,'” he said.

Hold this May was 7.55 percent compared to 16 percent a year ago

“The play was there. We just didn't hold,” he said.

As a result, gambling win is down 2.3 percent for the state, while the Strip is down 4.9 percent, for the calendar year. Lawton said if you remove Baccarat from the calculation, gaming win would be up 1.6 percent, and the Strip up 2.4 percent, for the calendar year.

But the rest of the state is doing pretty well. Slot win was up 1.5 percent to $679.7 million, about $9.8 million and most other markets were in the black as well — with the exception of the Carson Valley Area that includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital.

Carson suffered its fourth consecutive monthly decrease, raking in $9.8 million. That is a 1 percent dip equivalent to about $12,000. But Lawton said Carson was up against a difficult comparison since it was up 14.5 percent last May. Those four consecutive decreases come after a stretch of 20 consecutive increases.

Table games were the reason for the decrease but only because the win and total wagered on Blackjack was huge a year ago — a 100 percent increase over May of 2017.

South Lake Tahoe casinos did well, notching an 11.5 percent, $2.1 million increase to $20.1 million in May. Slot win was up 18.6 percent or $2.6 million. But Table Games win was down 13.9 percent or $548,000.

North Shore casinos at Crystal Bay reported a 3.6 percent increase worth $68,000 despite facing a very difficult comparison. That area was up 25.1 percent a year ago. Slot win increased 2.3 percent or $32,000 and table games were up 7.6 percent or $36,000.

But for the calendar year, North Shore is still down 6.2 percent.

Washoe County reported total win of $74.8 million in May, up 2.3 percent or $1.7 million. That increase came despite a difficult comparison. The county was up 7 percent last May. Lawton said despite the rough winter that cut into customer traffic across the Sierra, Washoe is only down seven-tenths of a percent heading into the busy summer months.

Churchill County reported total win of $1,911,000. That is a decrease of eight-tenths of a percent. A 1.32 percent decrease in slot win was partially offset by a 12 percent increase in table games, primarily in the sports pool. The vast majority of Churchill's win comes from slot play, $1.83 million of the total.