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Published Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 | 8:41 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 | 10:27 a.m.
Sun Coverage
CARSON CITY – Baccarat and sports betting helped Las Vegas Strip casinos register $580.5 million in gross win in September, a 2.8 percent increase over a year ago.
“The baccarat win kept us where we had positives,” said Michael Lawton, senior research analyst for the Nevada Gaming Board, which issued its monthly report Wednesday. Without baccarat, the win at Strip casinos would have been down 3.2 percent.
The board reported, however, that downtown Las Vegas casinos suffered their 28th consecutive month of lower win figures, down 3.9 percent from a year ago. Gaming win is calculated before taxes and business expenses.
The board said statewide win was $917.8 million, an increase of 0.73 percent. Lawton said this was the first time since September and October 2007 the state has reported an increase in gross win for two consecutive months.
The 17 casinos on the Strip that have baccarat reported winnings from the game of $127.8 million, an increase of 29.7 percent. It was the largest September win in history.
The 36 Strip casinos that have sports books registered a win of $18.3 million, an increase of 12.7 percent boosted by the opening of the football season.
This was the second consecutive month of increased win on the Strip, which accounts for more than 50 percent of the state’s gaming revenue.
Lawton said there were no major special events this September. What was encouraging, he said, is that in September 2009, there were two conventions that brought 125,000 people to Las Vegas.
Those conventions were in August this year. So the gain on the Strip this September was without the Magic and World Market conventions of 2009.
The win on blackjack games on the Strip fell by 3.1 percent; craps was off 7.2 percent; roulette dropped 20.1 percent and slot win declined 1.8 percent.
The only other areas in Clark County that showed increases were in Laughlin, up 1.4 percent, and the Boulder Strip, with a 3.6 percent gain.
Gaming win in Mesquite fell 8.5 percent; North Las Vegas was off 6.9 percent and win at the balance of Clark County casinos dropped 1.3 percent.
Statewide, Washoe County casinos reported gross win of $68.3 million, down 5.3 percent.
The board said the Carson Valley area had a win of $8.9 million, up 10.8 percent; South Lake Tahoe fell by 8.2 percent and Elko County was off 4.3 percent.
Good stuff overall. It sucks that Downtown is still in such a slump, but I suspect some of that has to be with more long term structural issues. The Strip is slowly coming back. Vegas has to readjust to "the new reality" of slower growth and not depending so much on the casinos for economic survival, but it's certainly nice to see more green shoots of recovery emerge.
If the idiot bean counters would simply get rid of the 6/5 blackjack-table winnings would be much higher.
North Las Vegas was off 6.9 per cent: Yes, I saw that!!! Santa Fe Station was like a ghost town casino, empty most of the time, no waiting on the buffet line, which was really good for me as I was in the hurry and the food and service quality in the buffet was outstanding. 2 thumbs up :) Sorry to see the dealers in the pit standing alone, boring and no work to do. The casino is definetely in a crisis and too bad for Stations that they did not find an agreement with Boyd Gaming. Lucky for Boyd for not having bought this loss leader. Even the Aliante Station Casino was dead, but that's no news for nobody I guess. A great casino in a neighborhood that was fully under construction but then was hit by the recession and all construction was halted. Otherwise it would have been another booming casino, guaranteed. This way, it's another ghost town casino. Hard to believe, what a great casino but how good is a casino if there are no customers?
Amazing actually that on Boulder Highway business has pulled up. Must be because of the many full pay deuces and sevens wild machines at the Skyline Casino. This place is awesome. Have never seen so many full pay deuces wild at one place compared to all machines, percentage wise. I loved this Deuces Wild Corrall :) No place on this planet has more 100.76 per cent machines I guess. Keep it up.
From Switzerland