Facing a tough comparison with May 2015, Nevada’s gaming win fell 4.5 percent this May to $958 million.
The comparison was difficult because this May had one less weekend than the same month a year ago and there were several major events in Southern Nevada that brought in significant numbers of high rollers. The biggest of those was the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight.
“That was a huge deal,” said Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton.
As a result, game and table win fell dramatically this May. Baccarat win was down 18.9 percent to just $89 million, but other table games also suffered including “21” which fell more than 15 percent. Overall, Game and Table win was $328 million, an 18.4 percent or $74 million decrease.
Another factor that impacted reported gaming win was that casinos took $24,7 million worth of transferable tax credits they purchased from Tesla, effectively reducing the reported win total by that amount. That accounts for more than half the $45 million decrease in total win this May.
The fact this May had one less Friday and Saturday also hurt, especially in the smaller markets. The Carson Valley Area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County, saw gaming win fall 6 percent to $8.68 million — $557,000. That’s the area’s third consecutive decrease this calendar year. The rest of what is happening there is Sharkey’s in Douglas County opened a year ago in March. So until this April, that casino’s numbers were an add on over and above the rest of the market. Now that opening is more than a year old so the monthly numbers are now apples-to-apples, accounting for Sharkey’s winnings in both years.
South Shore casinos also suffered from the weekend issue but more importantly faced a tough comparison. May 2015’s win was a 19 percent increase, largely because of big jumps in game and table win. As a result, this May was down 15.1 percent to $13.7 million because of a 41 percent decrease in game and table win.
North Shore casinos at Crystal Bay also saw a significant dip, 7.4 percent to $1.6 million — a difference of $131,000. Nearly all the decrease was in slot play, $121,000.
But this is North Shore’s first negative month this calendar year. For the year, win is up 9.1 percent.
Washoe County as a whole is down 3.4 percent or $24 million to $68.2 million. Lawton said visitation there was also down nearly 2.5 percent.
In Churchill County, gamign win was down a hair — just about three-tenths of a percent. Total win was $1.7 million from the county’s 10 non-restricted locations.
Game and Table win was up 19 percent but that category makes up only a tiny portion of Churchill’s gaming win — in May about $74,000.
A decrease in slot win of just 1.1 percent to $1.63 million overwhelmed that increase.