Gaming beats fiscal ’13 projections

Statewide gaming revenue collections jumped nearly 11 percent in June, finishing the fiscal year 3.9 percent above last fiscal year.

Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton said the $678.7 million in total revenue to the state during the past 12 months is a full 1 percent — or $6.3 million — more than projected by the Economic Forum.

The forum projections are used to build the state’s budget and are based on the gaming-percentage fees assessed on casinos statewide. The percentage fee, essentially the gaming taxes, ranges as high as 6.75 percent of total gaming win reported by Nevada’s largest casinos. It produces nearly 30 percent of state general fund revenue.

May gaming win came in at $897.2 million, just 1.37 percent or $12.1 million above the same month of 2012.

That is essentially flat, despite a 6.4 percent increase to $505.4 million on the Las Vegas Strip. The Strip increase was almost completely offset by significant decreases in most of the other Clark County reporting areas, including a decline of nearly 20 percent in North Las Vegas and 18 percent on the Boulder Strip.

That also offset the vast majority of gains in Washoe County, South Lake Tahoe, North Shore and the Carson Valley Area.

The Strip did well because of a favorable calendar, with one more Friday than last year along with special events. There was a high-profile Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight, a Rolling Stones concert, and the Michael Jackson Immortal show, which opened May 24.

Those events helped generate Baccarat play, which jumped more than 25 percent compared with a year ago. But that was an easy comparison, given that the game fell 48 percent in May 2012.

Nonetheless, total statewide win would have been down nearly 1 percent without Baccarat.

The Carson Valley area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County, reported a 7.4 percent increase to $8.86 million. Lawton said the capital was up against a very easy comparison, given that the win was down 10 percent in May 2012. He said the May numbers are the first increase for Carson Valley since September 2012.

South Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe reported a 9.7 percent increase entirely because of play in what, for smaller markets, is called “other games.” Translation: Baccarat.

That category grew by nearly 6,000 percent compared with a year ago, bringing in $3.1 million for the Tahoe resorts. Without “other games,” South Shore would have been down 13 percent for the month.

Total win reported was just over $14.6 million.

Churchill County also did very well in May, reporting an 8.1 percent increase in total win to $1.77 million. That helped offset the area’s losses over the past 12 months. But Churchill still didn’t break even. The county’s nonrestricted gaming licensees are down a half-percent over the year — in part because the total number of those locations was reduced by one during the year, to 10.

North Lake Tahoe didn’t fare nearly as well as some other Northern Nevada reporting areas, but it still was up for the month. The increase of just over 0.1 percent, however, represents that area’s fifth consecutive monthly increase. Total win was $1.8 million.

Washoe County had a banner month, reporting an overall 7.5 percent increase.

The boost was 9.7 percent in Reno, which is enjoying both the men’s and women’s annual bowling congress events. Since the United States Bowling Congress began Reno play in March, Washoe County has reported three consecutive monthly increases in gaming win.

That is the first time that area has had three consecutive increases since June 2006, according to Lawton. Total win was $66.98 million.

Sparks and the other Washoe reporting areas were basically flat in May.

Gaming “win” is the take casinos kept after players wagered $12.5 billion on card and table games, and slot and video gambling machines.