Nevada casinos reported their 15th straight month of declining win for March.
The 11.6 percent drop was far less than the 18 percent average decrease for the previous five months. Gaming Control Board Analyst Frank Streshley said resort operators are telling him they believe the industry's economic condition is finally beginning to stabilize.
Streshley said convention and room cancellations are slowing and advance bookings are returning to normal.
"It's not a recovery yet, but it appears the market is close to the bottom," he said. "It's normalizing."
Statewide win fell
$121 million to $918.2 million in March compared with March 2008.
State gaming tax collections for the period were down 8.69 percent to $74.7 million. For the nine months of this fiscal year, that puts total collections $100 million below what the state collected in fiscal 2008.
The Carson Valley Area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, got off relatively light, reporting a dip of just 6.6 percent to $8.35 million. That, however, is from the March 2008 number, which was down 18.5 percent from the same month of 2007.
Washoe County was hit hard " 23.3 percent overall with a more than 26 percent decline in Reno. The county reported a total of $64.8 million win, $46.2 million of that in Reno.
Washoe County has had two large resorts, Fitzgerald's in downtown Reno and the Silver Club in Sparks, close in the past five months. It was Washoe's 21st straight month of declining win, primarily because of competition from major tribal casinos in California.
South Lake Tahoe was down 34 percent, but that is mostly because the win is being compared to a 54.6 percent increase in total win reported for March 2008. South Shore casinos also continue to suffer because of competition from tribal casinos " in this case, the new tribal Red Hawk Casino along Highway 50 in California.
North Lake Tahoe was down 23.6 percent for the month to just $1.8 million in win.
The only reporting area in the state to see an increase in total win was North Las Vegas. The $31.9 million reported by casinos there is a 9.7 percent increase from a year ago, fueled by the opening of Stations Alliente.
The Las Vegas Strip saw total casino win fall 12.26 percent in March to $456.1 million. Clark County as a whole was off 9.8 percent to $786.5 million.