While July’s gaming numbers were essentially flat statewide, the Carson Valley Area had a banner month, reporting a 10.35 percent increase in total win to $8.98 million.
Game and Table win was up just 1.5 percent in the area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as Carson City. But slot win was up $836,000 over the same month of 2014, a near 11 percent gain.
Key changes over the past year include the opening of COD Garage and the remodel ands reopening of Sharkey’s in Douglas County.
In Churchill County, total win increased 8.5 percent to $1.77 million. Game and table win rose 2.3 percent, but that makes up just a small part of Churchill’s gaming business — $56,000 in July.
Slot win was up a solid 8.67 percent at the county’s 10 non-restricted gaming locations.
Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton said this is the area’s eighth consecutive year-over-year increase. For the calendar year, he said, Carson Valley is performing well and, so far, is up 6.6 percent.
Statewide, total win was down a percent to $922.88 million. The story there was, as usual, Baccarat, which was down 23 percent or $31.2 million to $104.3 million for the month.
South Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe didn’t fare as well as Carson, reporting a 7 percent decrease to $23.3 million despite being up against an easy comparison a year ago when win was down 22.5 percent. Slot win was up nearly 67 percent but game and table win offset that, falling 73 percent or $9.7 million compared to last year. The win percentage was the story, falling from 16.4 percent a year ago to just 4.5 percent this July.
The good news for South Shore is for the calendar year, total win is up 6.6 percent.
The story was similar at North Shore casinos where total win fell 5.65 percent driven by decreases in both slot and table games. Slot win was down 3.1 percent or $82,000. Game and table win fell 12.9 percent or $120,000. The volume of betting was actually up a bit but the percentage the casinos held fell.
North Shore was the only part of Washoe County that was hurt in July. Overall, Lawton said, total win was up 4.86 percent to $69.66 million.