Wendover casinos held steady while the rest of the state plunged in May according to the Gaming Win report from the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Wendover clubs were essentially flat posting a total gaming win of $14.2 million down just 0.14 percent from May 2011.
“Win” is a gross figure, with no operating costs or other expenses deducted. And it’s casino revenue only _ separate from hotel, restaurant or bar revenues generated by the resorts.
While win indicates a casino market’s profitability another statistic “play” is an indicator of how casino workers are fairing. With some casino workers dependent on tips for up to half of their total income, play, the amount of money wagered by gamblers is a good indicator of how much casino workers received in tips and how many gamblers are actually in the casino.
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Slot win in wendover was up 3.0 percent to $11.3 million. Slot play was down very marginally at 0.3 percent to $203.6 million . Slot hold declined from 5.57 percent to 5.39 percent. On the tables win was down 10.9 percent to $2.9 million. Play was down 4.1 percent to $13.8 million. Hold increased from 20.7 to 21.27 percent.
While the slight decline was not exactly good news it was relatively speaking one of the least bad results in the report.
Casinos in the rest of Elko county saw total gaming win plunge 17.87 percent. Slot win fell 16.9 percent to $6.8 million. Slot play was off 4.7 percent to $102.3 million. Slot hold declined from 7.61 percent to 6.4 percent. Table games also took it on the chin in the balance of Elko County post one of the lowest wins in recent history at just $767,000, down 25 percent. Table play was off 9.4 percent to $3.7 million. Hold was down from 25.14 percent to 20.82 percent.
clink for complete report: mrrmay12
With just one more month in the fiscal year total win for Elko county is just 1.53 percent above last year’s year to date total at $189.5 million.
May’ carnage was not just confined to Elko, statewide Nevada gaming revenues took a big tumble in May, shrinking by nearly $100 million over the same month a year ago to $885 million for a 10.1 percent decline, the state Gaming Control Board reported today.
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Michael Lawton, senior research analyst for the control board, cited two primary reasons for the double-digit decline: May 2011 was an exceptionally strong month, so the comparison with May 2012 was expected to be a challenge; and high roller card players on the Las Vegas Strip had exceptionally good luck.
The two factors led to an 18.2 percent revenue decline on the Strip to $475.1 million in May over May 2011.
The decline came even as a number of strong special events, including the Chinese Labor Day celebration and a Floyd Mayweather fight versus Miguel Cotto on May 5, lured visitors to Nevada and the Strip in particular.
The “comp” to May 2011 was a challenge because the May 2011 statewide win was 16.1 percent, and the Strip was up 28.9 percent. May 2011 also saw the largest win recorded by the state since September 2008. Since May 2011, there has been only one month where the win exceeded that amount, in January 2012.
Lucky gamblers were the other factor.
“ The state was definitely negatively impacted by some really, really poor performance in table games,” Lawton said. “Table games win of $282.7 million was down 26.4 percent, or $101.6 million.”
Baccarat win of $74.3 million was down 48 percent, or $68.5 million in May compared to May 2011. The hold on the game, or the amount retained by the casino out of all the money wagered, was only 8.1 percent versus 12.2 percent last year.
“We don’t normally expect to see single-digit hold percentages for baccarat,” he said.
The hold was low on 21, the other big card game, as well, Lawton said. The win was $72.4 million, down 29 percent, or $29.5 million. The hold was 8.6 percent, versus nearly 12 percent in May 2011. It was the lowest 21 hold percentage ever seen going back to the 1980s, he said.
“We really noticed some statistical anomalies with these table games, and that happens,” Lawton said. “The table games are a lot more volatile than the slot machines. And every once in awhile you will have months where this happens. It’s just unfortunate on a month when the comparison was so difficult.”
There were some bits of good news in the monthly report and in related information. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported today that visitor volume was up in May, by 2.4 percent to 3.45 million visitors over May 2011.
And some smaller casino markets fared well, including a 20.1 percent gain in Laughlin and a 9.2 percent increase on the Boulder Strip. Downtown Las Vegas was down, but only by 2.1 percent.
Washoe County was down 5.2 percent, a better performance than the state overall.
“The Las Vegas locals had a good month, up 6.59 percent, which is good,” Lawton said. “For the calendar year the Las Vegas local markets are up 5.43 percent.”
