Nevada casinos post $11.8 billion for fiscal year, most in a decade

CARSON CITY, Nev. — For both June and fiscal year 2018, Northern Nevada markets did significantly better in gaming win than the state as a whole.

Statewide, June win was up 4.2 percent to $895.7 million and, for the fiscal year, increased 3.2 percent to $11.8 billion in total win, according to mid-year statistics recently published by the Nevada Gaming Commission. That’s the largest win since FY2008.

Gaming Control Board Analyst Mike Lawton said total statewide win has now increased in three consecutive fiscal years and seven of the last eight.

He said an important statistic is for the fiscal year all 16 of the major markets gaming control reports individually were up in FY2018.

“We haven’t produced a report like that since FY2000,” he said.

The Carson Valley area, which includes valley portions of Douglas County as well as the capital, was up 7.34 percent for June to just more than $9 million. For the fiscal year, Carson was up 7.9 percent to $108.7 million. That number was helped considerably by the 15.6 percent increase in table game winnings, even though games account for less than 10 percent of total win in the area.

For Carson Valley, June was the 13th consecutive monthly increase and, for the year, the fourth consecutive increase.

Washoe County had a banner month in June, reporting a 15.92 percent increase — which translates to a lucky sounding total of $77.77 million.

Lawton said that’s Washoe’s 14th monthly increase. For the year, Washoe was up 6.4 percent as casinos raked in $857.1 million.

Even the tiny North Tahoe casino market at Crystal Bay/Incline Village did well, reporting a 5 percent increase to $2.22 million for June and $26.78 million total win, up 5.8 percent, for the fiscal year.

Churchill County’s seven non-restricted licensees reported total win of $1.64 million in June. That’s only 2 percent up from the previous June but, for the year, Churchill casinos won $21.19 million, a 4.36 percent increase.

The vast majority of gaming win in Churchill is from slot play with table games making up just $707,000 of the total.

There was one exception in Northern Nevada reporting areas. South Shore casinos at Lake Tahoe were actually down 8.65 percent for June but Lawton said most of that was because of the tough comparison with last June when win increased 9.3 percent.

Both slot win and table game win were down significantly, resulting in a decrease of just under $2 million to $18.7 million for the month.

South shore was up for the fiscal year but only by 1.7 percent. Casinos there raked in $226.7 million, about $4 million more than fiscal 2017. But that increase came against a tough comparison since the area was up 7.3 percent in FY2017.