Wendover was one of the few bright spots on a very dismal February Gaming Win report released last week by the Nevada Gaming commission.
Wendover clubs reported a 9.13 percent increase in total win to $15.1 million.
It was the second largest increase of the fiscal year which ends in June and comes after a phenomenal 20 percent increase from January.
Like the preceding month weather or the lack of it got most of the credit. In February 2013 Wendover was still in the grips of a deep freeze for most of the month.
“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.
In slots, win was up 7.7 percent to $11.4 million. Slot play was up 6.9 percent to $210.3 million. Slot hold increased from 5.4 to 5.44 percent. On the tables win was up 13.9 percent to $3.7 million. Play was up 9.0 percent to $15.6 million. Hold increased slightly from 22.44 to 23.44 percent.
In the balance of Elko County win was down 1.28 percent to $7.2 million. Slot win was down 2.2 percent to $6.3 million. Slot play was down 0.5 percent to $94.5 million. Hold fell from 6.74 to 6.63 percent. Win from table games was up 6.7 percent to $842,000. Table play was down 6.0 percent to $3.3 million. Hold increased from 22.56 percent to 25.62 percent.
For the whole state gambling revenue in February dropped 13.7 percent, a decline blamed on a huge drop in baccarat winnings.
Casinos statewide reported a win of $926.1 million in February, down from nearly $1.1 billion raked in during the same month the year before.
According to the most recent gaming figures baccarat play accounted for slightly over 25 percent of the states total January gaming win. Given the fact that well over half the profits generated by baccarat come from just six Las Vegas Strip casinos and fewer than 10,000 Asian high rollers it is understandable that any notion of some kind of disruption in flight traffic from Asia to Las Vegas is enough to cause casino execs, gaming commissioners and state and county assessors to reach for either anxiety meds, heart burn pills or both.
“It goes without saying the income generated by baccarat is very important,” said Michael Lawton chief analyst for the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Not only did China and the so called little tigers of Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan and Singapore weather the world wide economic down turn better than the rest of the world, their economies have also rebounded much faster and so has the demand for baccarat.
But while the new source of revenue is welcomed in the Silver State it is still very fragile.
According to analyst a short term bump would be significant turning a monthly report from a plus to a minus.
That happened in February, Casinos on the Las Vegas Strip there reported gambling revenue of $555.7 million, down 20.1 percent.
Clubs in downtown Las Vegas posted a 3 percent gain in gambling revenues to $43 million, while Reno casino revenue inched up nearly 1 percent to $44 million. At South Lake Tahoe, casino winnings fell 9.5 percent to $14.7 million.
February’s report for the first time broke out revenue from online poker. Nevada has three companies licensed to offer Internet poker to players physically present in the state. Online poker brought in $824,000, representing 8.9 percent of the $9.3 million total card-game revenue. Since its inception in Nevada 10 months ago, online poker has generated $8.5 million in gambling revenue.
