- South Lake Tahoe casinos won $26,458,775 in September, up 12.5%, while Laughlin’s win fell 16.8% to $33,766,970.
- Slots drove both swings, rising 15.3% to $22.87 million at South Lake Tahoe and falling 17.5% to $30.94 million at Laughlin.
- Laughlin slots kept 7.46 cents of each dollar played, down from 8.82 cents a year earlier, while dollars played slipped about 2.5%.
- South Lake Tahoe slot play grew nearly 10% and the machines held 9.94 cents per dollar, up from 9.47 cents.
STATELINE, Nev. – South Lake Tahoe casino revenue climbed 12.5% to $26,458,775 in September while Laughlin’s fell 16.8% to $33,766,970, the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported Oct. 28. The board calls the figure gaming win, the amount casinos keep after paying out winning bets, and its South Lake Tahoe line covers the Douglas County casinos on the Nevada side of the lake.
Multi-Denomination Slots Added $4.24 Million At South Lake Tahoe
Slots produced $22.87 million of South Lake Tahoe’s win, 86% of the total, according to the board’s Gaming Revenue Report for the Douglas County South Shore area. Multi-denomination machines carried the gain. Their win rose 28.9% to $18.92 million, an increase of $4.24 million that is larger than the market’s entire $2.94 million gain. Every other slot denomination fell, including dollar machines at 33.48% and penny machines at 22.34%.
The board defines the slot win percentage as win divided by the total dollars players put through the machines, which lets the figures be split into play and hold, the share of each dollar the machines keep. South Lake Tahoe’s slots held 9.94% in September, up from 9.47% in the board’s report a year earlier, and the same math puts slot play at about $230 million, nearly 10% above last September’s $209 million.
Roughly two-thirds of the $3.04 million slot gain came from the extra play and the rest from the higher hold. The 9.94 cents kept per dollar compares with 8.73 cents over the quarter and 8.03 cents over the past 12 months.
Table, counter and card games, a board category that includes the race and sports books, slipped 2.6% to $3.59 million, or 13.5% of the win. Blackjack, which the board lists as Twenty One, rose 43.69% to $1.63 million, while roulette finished $82,000 in the red for the month. On the lake’s north shore in Washoe County, win slipped 1.11% to $2,220,353.
Laughlin’s Slots Kept 7.46 Cents Per Dollar, Down From 8.82
Slots produced $30.94 million of Laughlin’s $33.77 million, and their 17.5% drop, worth $6.58 million, accounts for 96.5% of the market’s $6.82 million decline. Table, counter and card games fell 7.79% to $2.82 million, with blackjack down 11.71% to $696,000 and craps down 37.13% to $300,000.
The slot drop was more a hold story than a volume story. By the same math, players put about $415 million through Laughlin’s 5,757 slots in September, about 2.5% below the $425 million of a year earlier, while the machines held 7.46% against 8.82%. Players got back about $92.54 of every $100 played, against $91.18 last September. More than $5.6 million of the $6.58 million slot decline traces to the lower hold and the rest to the smaller volume.
Multi-denomination machines, 69% of Laughlin’s slot win, fell 16.18% to $21.31 million on roughly the same $302 million in play as a year earlier, with hold dropping to 7.06% from 8.41%. Penny slots fell 21.15% to $7.99 million as hold slid to 9.68% from 11.26%.
September Reversed August In Both Markets
Laughlin’s win rose 9.92% to $39,871,185 in August after a 0.11% gain in July, according to the board’s August and July releases, while South Lake Tahoe slipped 1.95% to $26,274,077 in August after a 5.13% gain in July. September flipped both.
The turn leaves the July-to-September quarter split. Laughlin’s win is down 2.69% to $114,673,560, after a 4.71% gain through August, and South Lake Tahoe’s is up 4.94% to $92,355,894. Over 12 months, South Lake Tahoe is up 6.74% to $263.9 million and Laughlin is flat at $488.8 million, up 0.05%. Statewide win slipped 0.05% to $1,282,542,554, so both markets moved against a flat month.
Both districts sit near the California line, but the board reports win by area rather than by where players live, so the figures cannot show how many Californians were among the players or how many chose a Nevada drive over gambling in California. The board said win totals reflect the most recent data available and are subject to revision.