State's casino income passes $2 billion in 2006

Carson-area casinos and the south shore resorts at Tahoe rebounded in 2006, reporting major increases in net income compared with last year.

Net profits for the 13 Carson Valley-area casinos - which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital - came in at $5,068,869, according to the 2006 Gaming Abstract released Thursday.

That stands in sharp contrast to the $1.3 million loss those casinos reported in 2005.

Stateline casinos reported net income of $46.2 million - a 166 percent increase over 2005's net income of $17.3 million. Net income is the amount of profits from gaming, restaurants, rooms, beverages and other attractions before taxes .

Although gaming accounts for 49 percent of resort revenues statewide, it brings in 65 percent of revenue in the Carson Valley reporting area and 62 percent of the total at Tahoe.

Net income for Nevada's 274 casinos with revenues of $1 million or more totaled $2.1 billion in 2006, according to the annual Gaming Abstract.

That is 8.8 percent of their $24 billion total revenue, and an increase of more than 16 percent over the $1.8 billion net in 2005.

Carson-area casinos reported low net incomes in 2005, primarily because of capital expenses such as the expansion of the Flamingo and Slot World. Total revenue reported was up 6.5 percent over last year, to $184 million.

Tahoe casinos were able to economize this year because of the purchase of Harveys by Harrah's Corp. and by the sale of Caesar's Tahoe, now the MontBleu, to Columbia Sussex, which also owns the Horizon.

The result was significant decreases in general and administrative costs, as well as several million in savings in departmental expenses at all four operations. At the same time, total revenues increased at Stateline by 4.2 percent to nearly $548 million.

With the resurgence of the mining industry, Elko's 16 casinos also did well, with a total net income of $36.9 million.

The vast majority of the reported income came from the 165 casinos in Clark County, where the net there was $1.86 billion out of total revenues of $20.8 billion.

Washoe County's 38 casinos reported a 5.4 percent increase in net income to $127.8 million for the year from total revenues of $1.9 billion.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.