June casino winnings up 16 % over last year in Nevada

On the Las Vegas Strip, the hub of Nevada's tourism and casino industry, the us$ 506.7 million in winnings represented a 32.3 % gain. Even better news is that the statewide win would still be up 4.5 % without baccarat. The high-roller game favored by Asian players has helped cushion casino win reports during the Great Recession, when tourism tanked and many gamblers kept a tighter grasp on their wallets.

"That's the fifth month this calendar year in which that's occurred," said Mike Lawton, senior Gaming Control Board analyst.  For the Strip, where most baccarat is played, winnings were still up nearly 10 % or us$ 34.7 million without baccarat.

The craze surrounding the World Series of Poker, an event that drew thousands of players from around the world, also helped the casinos' bottom lines. Statewide, winnings attributed to poker totaled us$ 15.7 million, a 3 % increase and the first gain since June 2009. "Casino win" is the amount that was left in casino coffers after gamblers wagered $10.9 billion on table games and slot machines. The us$ 2.3 billion bet on table games was an increase of us$ 292 million, or 14.4 %.

The us$ 8.6 billion pumped into slot machines was up us$ 160.3 million, or nearly 2 percent. "It's the largest percentage increase since June 2007," Lawton said. On the Strip, the "coin in" amount totaled us$ 3.1 billion, an increase of us$ 167 million or 5.6 %. "That's four consecutive monthly increases for volume on the Strip," Lawton said. "That hasn't happened since February-May 2006."

Elsewhere around the state, the us$ 45.6 million won by casinos in Reno was down 2.8 %, while Washoe County as a whole saw a drop of 1.7 %. Clubs at South Lake Tahoe saw a drop of 28.5 %, while Elko County casinos posted a gain of 6.2 %.

For the fiscal year that ended June 30, the total statewide casino win was $10.6 billion, up 3 % from the 2010. Las Vegas Strip winnings of us$ 9.1 billion ended the year up 4 percent.