August nights were on the tepid side for Wendover casinos which a slight decrease in win from the same month last year.
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According to Tuesday report from the Nevada Gaming control board Wendover gaming win fell just half a percentage point to about $13 million from August 2010.
“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.
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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.
Slot win accounted for the decline. According to the report win from Wendover slot machines was down 2.2 percent to $10.2 million and slot play was off 6.0 percent to $172.6 million. Slot hold increased from 5.66 percent in August 2010 to 5.89 percent this year.
Win from table games and sports books showed a healthy 5.8 percent increase to $2.7 million. Table play was up 1.6 percent to $12.6 million. Table hold also increased from 20.61 percent to 21.47 percent.
In the balance of Elko county win fell 6.62 percent to $8.07 million. Slot win was 4.6 percent to $7.3 million. Slot play however increased 4.0 percent to $105 million. Win from table games and sports books dived 23.1 percent to $730,000. Actual play fell just 7.6 percent to $3.6 million the difference was in hold, where in 2010 hold was at 24.14 percent, the odds got a whole lot better in 2011 with a hold of 20.1 percent
The entire Nevada gaming industry reported a drop in win of 6.10 percent. Baccarat accounted for the biggest drop in revenues among table games statewide. Casinos statewide won $96.4 million at the game in August, a drop of nearly 40 percent compared with the same month one year ago. Mini-baccarat revenues were down 20 percent.
After three months of increases for Nevada’s casinos, August saw gaming revenues in the state drop once more, this time by 6.1% To $887 million. From the figures, Nevada’s slots revenue remained largely unchanged and were up by less than 1% yoy to $584.3 million
The Nevada Gaming Control Board’s latest results show a $57.9 million decrease in gaming revenue compared to the same month last year, with state gaming taxes collected at $47.2 million compared with $61.8 million in August 2010.
Breaking the figures down further, the Las Vegas Strip, which accounts for around half of Nevada’s gaming revenue, saw an 8.7% fall in revenue to $496.9 million, even though visitor numbers had risen by 2.8% to 3.29 million in August.
However, August last year marked a record high for Baccarat on the strip, making comparisons between the year-on-year result less meaningful. Last August, Baccarat increased by 37% to $165 million and as JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Joseph Greff explains:
“Backing out baccarat results, total win on the Las Vegas Strip was actually up 4.7% in August. We believe our gradual recovery thesis for the LV Strip remains intact.”
Elsewhere around the state, South Lake Tahoe bucked trends and was up 16.2% to $27 million. The rest of the numbers were not so good, though, with Washoe County down almost 10% , Clark County down 7%, Downtown Las Vegas down 4.2%, North Las Vegas down 6.5%, Laughlin down 5.6% and Carson City down 5.9%.
Nevertheless, Nevada casinos are still up by 5.2% for the first eight months of the year and summing up the overall results, analyst Steven Wieczynski from Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets said:
“ We would caution investors from reading too much into today’s report. Excluding highly volatile baccarat play, we believe August results provide further evidence of stabilization in Las Vegas Strip gaming trends.”