Statewide gaming win dipped 3.15 percent in March, reporting a total of $951.2 million.
But casinos were up against a tough comparison as March 2014 had one more Saturday and a strong showing on the Baccarat tables. At $68.1 million, Baccarat win was down 33 percent from a year ago when that game produced a 40 percent increase over the same month of 2013.
Gaming Control Board Analyst Mike Lawton said the problem was the hold percentage was just 8.7 percent compared with 14.7 percent last year. The total money played was actually up more than 16 percent to $818.5 million.
Baccarat win has now been down year over year in seven of the last eight months.
With Baccarat removed from the calculations, gaming win was actually up three-tenths of a percent.
The Carson Valley Area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, reported a 7.3 percent increase in win to $8.6 million. That’s a $588,000 increase coming from both slot play and table games. Table games were up nearly 59 percent while slot win was up 3.8 percent. Lawton said the amount wagered was also up in both games and slots for a solid month in the capital.
March was a weak month at both ends of the Tahoe Basin. North Shore casinos reported a 15.3 percent, $276,000 decrease in win with the bit hit coming from a 37 percent decrease in game and table win. Slot play was also off but by just 4.1 percent.
At South Shore casinos in Stateline, the month was 6.8 percent down from a year ago but Lawton said it was a difficult comparison since March 2014 was up 31.6 percent from the year before that. This year, games win was down 30 percent primarily because “21” win fell more than 58 percent. Total win was $13.9 million.
Churchill County casinos reported gaming win of just $1.62 million for the month. That’s 10.9 percent down from a year ago. Game and Table win was up 17.6 percent, but those games made up only a tiny fraction of total gaming win in Churchill — $53,000.