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Nevada gaming win dips 3 percent in November; Lake Tahoe casinos slightly down

Despite several major events on the Las Vegas Strip, Baccarat win fell 22.7% in November, causing statewide win for the month to dip by 3.1%.

Total win reported by major casinos finished in the money at $937.47 billion, a $29.6 million decrease from the previous November.

Normally, major events produce an increase in Baccarat play and November had shows by Guns and Roses, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac and a light heavyweight championship bout between Canello Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev.



Baccarat win totaled just $75.5 million, a $22.2 million decrease from November 2018. That game is now down 11.6% for the year with the volume of play down nearly 31% to $557 million.

Without counting Baccarat, total win would only have been down eight-tenths of a percent.



The bright spot of the month, according to Gaming Control Board analyst Mike Lawton, was the sports pool that reported a record $614.1 million in total wagers and $32.1 million in winnings for the month. For the calendar year, sports pool betting totals $4.7 billion, a 6.7% increase, and total win of 292.8 million, a 14.2% percent increase.

Slot win was down in November to $616.7 million, a 2.9% decrease worth $18.1 million. But slot play volume continued its gradual increase, rising 1.3% despite the decrease in win. In fact, Lawton said slot volume has only seen two monthly decreases in the past 24 months.

Churchill County was also another comparatively bright spot in the monthly numbers, reporting a 7.9% increase in total win to $1,853,000. While table games and sports win fell by nearly 53%, those categories account for just $29,000 of the Churchill total.

Slot win more than made up for that small loss with a 10.2% increase to $1.82 million.

In addition, it was an easy comparison since slot win was down nearly 8% in November 2018.

North Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe were down but only by two-tenths of a percent — roughly $4,000. Total win there was $1.7 million.

North Shore is down 5.9% for the calendar year.

South Shore casinos at Tahoe reported $13.9 million in win, a 19.2%, $3.3 million decrease. It was a difficult comparison since total win was up 10.5% a year ago.

Both slot win and table game win were down double digits. Slot win fell 17.8% and table games 23.1%. The primary culprit was “21” which was down $604,000 or 35.6%.

Washoe County casinos won $68.9 million, a half-percent, $353,000 less than a year ago. Since a year ago was up 9.5%, it was a difficult comparison. Washoe is now down nine-tenths of a percent for the year.

The Carson Valley Area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County, also reported a decrease. Total win of $8.8 million was down 2.2% or $194,000 compared to a year ago.

Slot win was actually up 2.8% or $234,000 but game and table win was down 59.8% or $428,000. That category was facing an extremely difficult comparison since game and table win was up 138% in November 2018. In “21” play, the hold percentage was 9.5% compared to 18.7% a year ago.

But the Carson Valley is up 1.2% for the calendar year.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the information is from November.


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