Gaming win up 7.4 percent in September

Nevada casinos reported a total win of $958.8 million for September, the second-highest amount this calendar year and a 7.4 percent increase over the previous September.

The September number follows the 11.2 percent increase in August, when casinos raked in $955 million.

But the Carson Valley Area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, didn’t fare as well. Its $8.45 million in winnings was nearly 4.2 percent less than the prior year. Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton said Carson and a number of other smaller, local venues were affected by the fact September had one fewer Saturday than the same month in 2012.

Carson Valley’s $368,000 increase in win this calendar year still leaves the area 2 percent below last year in total win.

Statewide, the story was game and table win, which jumped 13.5 percent over last year to $337.9 million. Baccarat was a major contributor with $116.6 million, a 50 percent increase. But even without Baccarat, win was still up 3.4 percent. It was driven by “21” play, which raked in $104 million, an increase of nearly 35 percent.

Those two games along with a 3.8 percent boost in slot win, to $580.9 million, created the month’s increase, Lawton said.

That game and table play was helped along by the Floyd Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez fight at MGM in Las Vegas.

South Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe had the best month of any reporting area with a 23.2 percent increase, to $22.2 million. Slot win there was up more than 30 percent, but Lawton said the primary reason was the calendar. August ended on a Saturday, which means that final weekend’s slot win wasn’t reported until September. The result: August was down, September was up. The increase was further boosted by a 7.8 percent increase in game and table win this year on top of the 39 percent increase for that category last year.

Win at North Shore casinos at Tahoe was off by 5.8 percent. That translates to $160,000 in a $2.59 million total. The area was up against a difficult comparison, given that September 2012 reported a 6.8 percent increase.

Like North Shore, every reporting area in Washoe County was down in September, overall by 3.79 percent to $66.2 million. Sparks took the biggest hit with an 11 percent decrease.

Cold and blustery weather through the Street Vibrations celebration probably contributed to that decline, Lawton said. But Washoe is still up by 3.3 percent for the calendar year. In fact, fiscal year 2013 was Washoe’s first year-over-year increase in gaming win since 2006.

Churchill County reported an overall increase in win of 6.88 percent, to $1,68 million. That increase came despite a 44 percent decrease in total games win. But games make up only a small fraction of gaming win in Churchill’s 10 non-restricted gaming locations — just $49,000 of the total.