Nevada Casinos Down 2.8% To $884m In January

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has released its casino figures for January, revealing a 2.76% fall in revenues to $884.2 million, compared to the $909.3 million taken in the same month last year. Commenting on January’s results,  Mike Lawton, senior control board analyst, explained:
“It was a strong month..Volumes were up both for slots and tables, but we were impacted by hold issues, mainly table games and baccarat.”
The table profit (or hold) is the proportion of money wagered that the casino wins, and last month lady luck favored the players over the house with table games reporting a decline in their hold percentage to 11.87% from 12.17% in January, 2013, while baccarat dropped dramatically to 8.9% compared to 12% a year earlier.
Overall, the Las Vegas Strip generated 1.4% less revenue at $499.8 million, down from $507 million a year earlier. Similarly, Downtown Las Vegas revenues also declined by 3.4% to $43 million; and South Lake Tahoe casinos plunged 12.4% to $14.7 million. On the positive side, northern Nevada’s Washoe County reported a 1% increase in revenue to $53.3 million, while Reno casino revenues rose by 1.3% to $38 million.
The state of Nevada subsequently collected $69 million in gambling taxes for the month, 1.7% higher than a year ago, and for the first eight months of the fiscal year gaming taxes are currently up by almost 1%.
One figure that hasn’t yet appeared in Nevada’s monthly gambling results are those belonging to the state’s online poker operation, which are expected to be posted for the first time next month after Nevada finally launched a third real-money website venture. Nevertheless, Union Gaming Group believes that online poker revenue were around $200,000 in January, and added:
“The recent addition of a third entrant into the market should provide increased transparency going forward.”