Carson City gaming win down again in July

Carson Valley casinos reported a 3.5 percent decrease in gaming win for July.

Carson Valley, which includes valley portions of Douglas as well as the capital, has now recorded three consecutive decreases in monthly win and seven decreases in the past eight months when compared to the same month a year earlier.

Total win for the area was $8.14 million, a decrease of $298,000.

Gaming Control Board Analyst Mike Lawton said $270,000 of that decrease came from Game and Table play — primarily “21” which saw a 42.6 percent reduction in win for the month.

Carson Valley casinos are now down 2.3 percent for the calendar year.

While North Shore casinos at Tahoe did well in July, their South Shore counterparts fared badly — at least on paper.

North Shore casinos at Crystal Bay reported a 5.38 percent increase in total win to $3.58 million, an increase of $182,000. Slot win was up 3.4 percent, $87,000, on higher coin in and hold percentages. Game and Table win rose 11.4 percent or $95,000.

South Shore casinos at Stateline reported a 22.5 percent decrease in win with slot win down a whopping 40 percent compared to last July. Total win was just more than $25 million for the month.

But Lawton said most of that was caused by the fact June, 2013 ended on a weekend. That means the winnings from that final weekend were reported as part of the July, 2013 totals, artificially beefing those numbers up.

Game and Table win at South Shore was actually up 4.4 percent or $556,000 primarily because of “21.”

Other than North Shore, Washoe County casinos were pretty much flat — down just a percent from a year ago. Total win for the county was $66.4 million.

But Lawton said it’s a good sign both slot coin in and Game and Table drop were up. He said the problem was a lower hold by casinos. Washoe has been down compared to the previous year in five of the last six months.

Churchill County reported $1.63 million in win for the month, a decrease of just under eight tenths of a percent.

Slot win was the culprit, falling 1.85 percent to $1.58 million.

Although tiny compared to slots, Churchill’s Game and Table win helped offset that decline with a 42.1 percent increase at the four locations with tables.

Over the past three months, Churchill casinos have seen total win decline 1.8 percent to just under $5 million.

There are 10 nonrestricted casinos in Churchill.

The state as a whole was basically flat compared to July, 2013 — up just two-thirds of a percent to $931.3 million. Although small, that’s the third consecutive increase in win.

The Las Vegas Strip reported a 4.8 percent increase to $536.2 million, fueled by a 7 percent increase in Game and Table win. The credit goes to Baccarat which now accounts for 25 percent of win on the Strip. Without Baccarat, the increase would have been cut to just 1.6 percent.