Carson City area posts 18th consecutive gaming win increase

Statewide gaming win was up 6.4 percent in November to $967,168,553.

While the Carson Valley reporting area only increased about 3.5 percent, Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton said that’s Carson’s 18th consecutive monthly increase. Carson, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, reported $8.97 million in win largely because of a huge increase in “21” play. Lawton said that’s a 173.2 percent increase over November 2017. That translates to a 32 percent hold percentage, double normal.

For the calendar year to date, Carson casinos are up 6 percent.

The Las Vegas Strip reported a 10 percent increase to $534.5 million. Lawton said the driver behind that increase was Baccarat, which won $97.8 million, a 50 percent increase over last November. The total bet on Baccarat in November was $804.4 million.

Without Baccarat, the state would still have been up 3 percent in November.

Slot win totaled $634.9 million, a 1.3 percent increase.

The other significant increase, he said, was in sports betting where licensees won $27.1 million. Sports bettors set an all time record for total bets at $581.1 million.

South Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe won $17.1 million in November, a 10.5 percent, $1.6 million increase. That market is up 5.7 percent calendar year to date.

North Shore casinos at Tahoe didn’t fare as well. They reported $1.76 million total win. That’s a 5.3 percent, $99,000 decrease compared with November 2017. North Shore was up against a difficult comparison since win was up 18.9 percent last November. But the market is up 3 percent year to date with just a month left.

Churchill County also had a tough month. The 10 non-restricted licensees there reported total win of $1.72 million. That’s a 7.18 percent decrease and comes despite a 12.4 percent increase in game and table win. Slot play, which makes up the vast majority of Churchill’s win, was down nearly 8 percent in November.

Washoe County also had a strong month, rebounding with a 9.5 percent increase to $69.3 million. That comes after two consecutive decreases that ended a streak of 16 consecutive increases in Washoe.