Super Bowl drives up gaming win

Nevada casinos reported total win of $989.8 million in February, an 8 percent increase over the same month last year.

That is an increase of $73.7 million. Gaming win has now increased in three of the last four months.

Churchill County casinos had a 6 percent increase to $1.78 million total win. Just $77,000 of that total came from table games although that category was up 43 percent compared to the same month of 2015. All together, $1.2 million of that total comes from multi-denomination machines and most of the rest, $501,000, from penny slots.

The Carson Valley Area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, did nearly as well, seeing a 7.7 percent increase to $8.2 million in win. The total increase is $588,000 and Carson has now seen only one decrease in the last six months.

But Gaming Control board Analyst Mike Lawton said a large part of the increase can be attributed to the calendar.

First, February had an extra day this year because of leap year. Second, all of the run-up to the Super Bowl that occurred in January last year happened in February this year because the game was on Feb. 7 instead of Feb. 1.

Game and Table win totaled $380.4 million for the month. While that’s up 8.3 percent, it’s comparing to a weak game and table win a year ago when the total was down 9 percent.

Unlike many months, game and table win this year had little to do with Baccarat which was up less than a percent. In fact, Baccarat has seen only four increases in the last 12 months.

Slot win was up 7.8 percent to a bit more than $609 million. That’s the fourth consecutive increase in slot win for the state’s non-restricted gaming licensees.

Sports betting saw a 99 percent increase this February, up $13.9 million to about $28 million.

Because of the calendar, Lawton said every market in the state was up in February.

North Shore casinos at Tahoe reported an increase of 17.7 percent to just more than $2 million. The increase was evenly split between table games — 25.3 percent — and slots — up 14 percent. The total increase was about $311,000.

South Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe were up 3.8 percent in February, a total of $598,000 to $16.2 million. That’s South Shore’s fourth consecutive monthly increase.

Washoe County was up 8.6 percent to $65.8 million. One driver for the area was a 7.8 percent increase in visitation. Washoe has now had just one decrease in the last six months.