Nevada casinos close fiscal year with 11% increase in June win; biggest June ever

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada casinos closed out the fiscal year with an 11.6 percent, $108 million increase in total gambling win.

Meanwhile, the $1.04 billion in win recorded for June ended a streak of five consecutive decreases to start the 2019 calendar year and set an all-time record for the month of June, according to new figures released by the Nevada Gaming Control.

Gaming Control Board Analyst Mike Lawton said the driver in June was Baccarat, with a total win of $157.9 million. That is a 114.3 percent increase over June 2018, fueled by a win percentage of 20.7 percent that Lawton said is one of the highest hold percentages ever.

I marks the second monthly increase in Baccarat win in the last seven months for Nevada's casinos.

Baccarat was also responsible for the first increase in total win on the Strip (17.7 percent, $616.6 million) for a month since last November. Without Baccarat, statewide win would have increased by just 2.8 percent for the month.

Carson Valley leads way for Northern Nevada

The Carson Valley reporting area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, also ended its losing streak in June, taking in $9.4 million — a 3.4 percent, $313,000 increase over the same month a year earlier.

The increase came despite a tough comparison, as June 2018 was up 8 percent. The driver was slot win that increased 3.8 percent or $324,000.

This ends four consecutive declines for the market.

South Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe did not have a strong June. They reported $16.5 million, down 12.1 percent or $2.3 million. There the problem was slots that reported a 24.9 percent decrease compared to a year ago — the story was the hold percentage, which dropped to 5.3 percent compared to 6.8 percent.

Lawton said table games tried to make up the loss. Win there was up 37.1 percent or $1.4 million. That was fueled by a 103.6 percent, $745,000 increase in the “Other Games” category. That's the category where Baccarat is counted in Nevada's smaller markets. Volume of play was up 29 percent and the hold percentage a whopping 28 percent.

North Shore casinos at Crystal Bay/Incline Village won $2.1 million. That is a 4.2 percent, $94,000 decrease compared to a year ago, though the area was up against a moderately tough comparison since win was up 5 percent last June. Game and Table win was the culprit, falling 30.2 percent, or $152,000. Primarily, that's because of the 37 percent decrease in “21” win.

Washoe County as a whole was also down significantly — some 10.1 percent to $69.8 million. Washoe also had a tough comparison, since last year had a strong convention center event calendar, plus the 2018 U.S. Bowling Congress Women's Championships were last June, resulting in a 15.8 percent increase over June 2017.

June win in Churchill County was down 5 percent to $1.55 million. Both slot and games win fell, the former by 23.5 percent to just $37,000. Slots, which make up the vast majority of Churchill's win, were down 4.9 percent to $1.52 million.

A strong fiscal year

For the 2018-19 fiscal year, Nevada casinos raked in $11.9 billion, marking a 0.8 percent increase from last year, meaning total gambling win has increased four consecutive years and in eight of the last nine fiscal years.

Of the 16 markets the Nevada Gaming Control tracks, Lawton said 11 were up year over year. The largest gain was in Wendover on Nevada's northeastern border at 6.2 percent, followed by downtown Las Vegas at 5.9 percent.

North Lake Tahoe suffered the biggest decline, down 2 percent in fiscal 2019.

Statewide slot win increased 3.5 percent to $7.8 billion, but Game and Table win fell 3.9 percent to $4.1 billion.

A decline of two-tenths in Washoe County to $855.3 million ended that area's streak of six consecutive FY increases.

Carson Valley finished the year at $110.8 million, up 2.3 percent — its fifth consecutive yearly increase after three consecutive decreases.

South Shore was down 1.8 percent to $222.7 million for the fiscal year.

Finally, Churchill was down for the year by seven-tenths of a percent to just over $21 million.