July gaming win breaks $1B but Churchill County declines

Nevada casinos recorded their largest total win since November 2013 this July, raking in just more than $1 billion.

That’s just the third billion dollar month in the past 36 months and puts the total win up 1.5 percent for the calendar year.

In fact, every market in the state is up for the calendar year except one. Unfortunately, that one market is the Carson Valley area which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital. Carson was down 1.5 percent in July at $8.8 million, a decrease of $137,000 compared to July 2015.

That’s the opposite of what happened in July 2015 when Carson was up more than 10 percent and the state was flat.

Carson is down 1.6 percent for the calendar year so far and has now recorded five consecutive month over month decreases.

Slot win was the problem in Carson Valley, falling 2.1 percent. But it was a tough comparison since slot win was up nearly 11 percent last year.

Game and Table win softened the blow a bit, increasing 10 percent this year.

Churchill County’s 10 non-restricted casino licensees reported a 5.5 percent decrease in win for July. The total was $1.67 million. Both the table game and slot numbers were off by about the same percentage.

Statewide, casinos benefited from the fact this July had two extra weekend days. But while that helped the Strip and all table game counts, it hurt the slot win totals since those final two weekend days’ win won’t be reported until the August numbers come out.

Lake Tahoe South Shore casinos at Stateline reported $28.3 million in total win, an increase of 20 percent compared to a year ago. The increase is because of table game win that rose by a huge 170 percent compared with July 2015. Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton said blackjack increased more than 300 percent but that’s because it was “pathetic” a year ago. The story was the hold percentage — 12.3 percent this year versus 2.4 percent a year ago.

That market is up 5.8 percent for the calendar year.

North Shore was down 1.7 percent primarily because of a 3 percent dip in slot win. Total win was $3.3 million.

But that market is up 7.8 percent for the calendar year.

Washoe County as a whole had a good month, reporting $76.1 million in win. That is an increase of $6.5 million or 9.3 percent. Slot win was up 6.4 percent but table games were up 23 percent in Washoe.

Lawton said the increase was, “driven by nice increases in volume” — a healthy increase in the number of visitors that came to town.