The Gaming Control Board said the state collected us$ 49.8 million in taxes

Nevada casino winnings down 5.9 % in November

(US).- A three-month rally of bigger winnings by Nevada casinos came to a halt in November, when casinos won us$ 822 million, or 5.9 % less than the same month a year earlier, state regulators reported Tuesday.
2011-01-13
Reading time 1:37 min

The Nevada Gaming Control Board said the state collected almost us$ 49.8 million in taxes based on casino gambling revenues for the month. That tax figure was down 12.7 % from a year ago. For the first five months of the fiscal year that began July 1, the casinos' so-called "gaming win" was up 2.5 %.

The win is the amount left in casino coffers after gamblers wagered us$ 10.7 billion at table games and slot machines. A break down shows the us$ 2.2 billion wagered on table games in November fell by us$ 171.1 million, while the us$ 8.5 billion pumped into slots dropped by us$ 286 million from the same month in 2009.

Additionally, wagering on baccarat, a high-roller game favored by Asian gamblers, totaled us$ 567 million, down us$ 129 million or 18.6 %, said Mike Lawton, a Gaming Control Board analyst. "The bottom line, it was a real tough comparison month, we knew that," he said. Excluding baccarat, the statewide fell 3.3 %, or us$ 25.9 million, Lawton said.

It was also just bad luck for casinos, said Lawrence Klatzkin, an analyst with Chapdelaine Credit Partners in New York. Table hold - the percentage won by casinos - was 11.19 % in November, down from 12.57 % last year.

Adjusting for that, he said the table win on the Las Vegas Strip would have been up about 1 %. Mark Strawn, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, called the report "disappointing relative to recent investor expectations." In a note to investors, he projected revenues on the Las Vegas Strip "to continue to tread along trough levels" but show signs of seasonal improvements in early 2011.

Resorts on the Las Vegas Strip reported winnings of us$ 454.3 million, down 4.1 % from November 2009. Strip resorts account for about half of statewide casino win revenues and are a key indicator on the health of the state's volatile tourism industry. Taxes on casino winnings make up about one-third of Nevada's general fund revenues.

Statewide, November gambling revenues were down everywhere except in North Las Vegas and the Carson Valley area. In Reno, the us$ 38 million won by casinos was down nearly 21 % from the same month a year ago, while clubs in Washoe County as a whole reported a 19.6 % decline.

The us$ 15 million in winnings reported by casinos at South Lake Tahoe was down 5.2 %, while the us$ 18.7 million reported in Elko County was off 11 %.

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