Churchill’s casino’s gaming win rises 2% in October

Nevada casinos reported $986.2 million in winnings for October, an 11.1 percent and $98.7 million increase over October 2015 despite a decrease in the amount wagered.

Gaming Control Board Analyst Mike Lawton said with the total wagered down 2.4 percent to $11.8 billion, the reason for the increase was the amount the casinos held compared to October 2015.

Slot play won $631.6 million, up 10.4 percent because the casinos held 6.77 percent compared to just 6.1 percent the previous October. The total amount bet during the month was actually down. The total wagered on Game and Table was down as well but the win was actually up because the casinos held 14.3 percent compared to 11.1 percent a year ago.

Overall, gaming win has been up compared to the previous year now for five months.

For the calendar year, only two markets are down overall: Wendover and, unfortunately, the Carson Valley Area that includes the capital and valley parts of Douglas County.

Churchill County reported a 2 percent increase in win for the month. Table Games and sports betting accounted for $81,000 in winnings, a 12.7 percent increase over October 2015.

Slot win totaled just more than $1.6 million. That too is an increase but by just 1.48 percent

Carson Valley casinos were actually up 1.2 percent in October to $8.8 million, their second consecutive increase since January-February.

Both Lake Tahoe reporting areas saw decreases in October because of a decrease in visitation caused by bad weather and wildfires in California.

At North Shore, the decrease was 2.7 percent to $1.9 million. But for the calendar year, the casinos there are up 5.9 percent.

South Shore casinos at Stateline were down 22 percent to $14.2 million as wagering volume fell more than 15 percent.

Washoe County casinos had a better month, reporting an increase of 2.4 percent to $69.6 million or $1.6 million.

Sports betting had a great month with $517.2 million wagered, the third highest monthly total ever. But it wasn’t the Cubs/Indians World Series that drew bettors. Baseball accounted for just $66.4 million of that total while fans wagered a total of $400.5 million on football during October.