Carson area lone bright spot in gaming report

The Carson Valley Area, including Carson City, Minden and Gardnerville, was the lone bright spot in April's gaming win report, reporting a 5.3 percent increase to $8.62 million.

The primary driver appears to be completion in March of the $10 million remodeling project at the Carson Valley Inn in Douglas County.

Carson was one of only three of the 15 reporting areas to make gains over April 2009. Mesquite and Wendover were up marginally - 1.7 percent and a half percent, respectively.

Statewide gaming win was down 5.7 percent compared to the same month of 2009. Total statewide win was $810.46 million.

Gaming Control Board analyst Frank Streshley said the statewide slump wasn't a surprise after two months of growth. January and February benefited from high-roller play during New Years, the Super Bowl and Chinese New Year.

Washoe County's numbers were down, but by less than

2 percent thanks to the crowds attending the American Bowling Congress tournaments - which was not in Reno last year.

In Clark County, weak local markets drew the 1 percent decline on the Strip to 6.1 percent down overall. Hardest hit was the Boulder Strip at 25.5 percent below a year ago.

Tourism to the Strip continues to recover but local markets including Boulder Strip rely on local players. They are expected to take longer to regain the financial stability and confidence to gamble again.

South Lake Tahoe had another bad month in April with $12.5 million in win - nearly 21 percent below April a year ago which was down 35 percent from the year before that. Stateline's casinos have fallen to half the win they had in April 2008, depleted by competition from Indian resorts in California.

The state collected $39.7 million in gaming taxes based on April revenues, which is 23 percent below a year ago. That leaves the state about $17 million behind the Economic Forum forecasts used to build the budget.