Nevada gaming win totals slip for the month of March

Nevada's gaming win was down three-quarters of 1 percent in March with local markets hurt most by a softening economy.

The Carson Valley area, which includes valley portions of Douglas as well as the capital city, was the exception, growing 4.3 percent over the same month of 2006 to a total of $10.9 million in win.

But other markets which depend more heavily on local gamblers than tourists were down by double-digit amounts: 20.5 percent in North Las Vegas, 16.4 percent on the Boulder Strip.

The Las Vegas Strip was down one-half percent for the month but Frank Streshley, analyst for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said the decrease there and overall in the state is most likely the result of March ending on a weekend. He pointed out that means that final weekend's slot revenues weren't reported until April 1 and, therefore, will show up on that month's win totals. He said the evidence for that is while slot win dropped nearly 3 percent to $709 million, coin in was up 3.6 percent.

That mirrors the January and February numbers for statewide slot win. Those months were also flat or down.

By comparison, game and table play was up 3.7 percent to $330.5 million statewide.

Sportsbooks suffered a 26 percent drop in win compared with a year ago. Streshley said that appears to be because most of the favorites in the NCAA basketball tournament won in the early rounds and most bettors bet the favorites so the casinos lost more of those early-round bets.

Washoe County casinos had their best month in more than a year, increasing total win more than 9 percent to $91.2 million.

North Shore casinos did even better, posting a 12.4 percent gain over March 2006 to $3 million.

But Stateline casinos were off by 5.8 percent to $19.3 million for the month.

The statewide total win was just over $1 billion. Based on those returns, the state collected $92 million in gaming taxes for the month. That raises total collections for the fiscal year $680.6 million - 1.6 percent less than the Economic Forum projected.

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