Gaming win up statewide

Nevada’s statewide gaming win increased by 5.4 percent in April.

“For the first four months of the calendar year, every market we track in the state is up with the exception of North Shore Tahoe,” said Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton.

He said the driver behind the increase over that period is the steady increase in the volume of slot play. He said the state has seen volume increases in four of the past five months. In April, statewide slot win was up 6.1 percent to $601 million.

The volume increases are a welcome trend, indicating the return of the average player to Nevada’s casinos. And that trend is helping to smooth the impact of the rollercoaster that’s Baccarat win.

In April, Baccarat was up 5.6 percent but that’s only the second increase back to back in the past nine months.

The most impressive increase for the month was that reported by South Shore casinos at Stateline. There, total win increased by 59.9 percent to $14.5 million.

Lawton said, however, Tahoe casinos were facing an easy comparison since April 2014 was down more than 42 percent from the year before that.

In the Carson Valley Area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County, the increase was 6.16 percent. Total win of $8.49 million was up $493,000 over a year ago. The increase was 7.3 percent in March.

Lawton said April marks five consecutive increases in gaming win for the Carson Valley area that, for the calendar year, is up 5 percent from the same period of 2014.

North Shore casinos at Crystal Bay didn’t fare well in April, reporting a 16.5 percent decrease in win to $1.33 million. Both slot volume and game and table play were down for the month. Of the $263,000 decrease, more than $200,000 was in the slots category.

Likewise, Churchill County had a rough April.

The 10 unrestricted gaming licensees there reported an increase of just 0.29 percent to $1,737,000. Slot win, the vast majority of Churchill’s gaming numbers, was up 1.13 percent but game and table win fell dramatically — 20.9 percent to just more than $50,000.

Gaming’s economic driver, the Las Vegas Strip, saw a 7.77 percent increase to $498.8 million.

That was offset a bit by the 1.5 percent decrease in Washoe County win — $57.4 million. Despite having the women’s bowling congress in town, Reno’s win fell 2.74 percent to $42.2 million.

Total statewide win was $897.9 million in April.