NV: May gaming slides again in northern Nevada

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May gaming slides again in northern Nevada

By John Stearns

Wednesday July 11th, 2001

Washoe County gaming revenues continued their 2001 slide in May, falling almost 3 percent below the same month last year and marking the fourth drop in the first five months of 2001 and the seventh drop in the last 10 months, according to state data released Tuesday.

“Basically you can tie it to the depression that they’re having in the Silicon Valley area,” Steve Trounday, marketing director at Fitzgeralds Casino/Hotel, said of the dot.com crash and tech wreck rippling through Reno-Sparks’ key San Jose-San Francisco Bay feeder market.

Stateline didn’t fare any better, with revenues declining almost 4 percent; Elko County also slipped in May, by 3.6 percent.

Only the Carson City-Carson Valley market managed an increase, albeit a modest 1.3 percent.

The total gaming revenues, or “win,” for the state gained 5.7 percent, driven by an 11.9 percent increase on the Las Vegas Strip.

Win is gamblers’ losses and the amount left for casinos before taxes and expenses. It is considered a key indicator of economic activity. It also is an important component of state funding since the tax on win comprises more than a third of the general fund revenues used for diverse programs and services.

“One of the things we’re seeing is (that) volume is a concern,” Frank Streshley, senior research analyst with the state Gaming Control Board, said of northern Nevada casino operators’ comments on play levels.

The amount wagered on Washoe slot machines and table games each month this year has been below the corresponding months in 2000, Streshley said. In May, slot wagers totaled almost $1.5 billion, down 4.9 percent, and table wagers totaled $132 million, down 1.3 percent.

Fitzgeralds’ Trounday said his hotel occupancies are comparable to last year and his average room rate is higher, but people are gambling less.

“That’s the uncertainty of where the economy is going,” he speculated, noting the additional California burdens of rolling blackouts, soaring energy bills and high gasoline prices.

Fitzgeralds has managed to beat the local market performance, but “it’s still not a stellar market right now,” Trounday said.

He said he wondered where the market would have been without the Feb. 10-July 1 American Bowling Congress tournament at the National Bowling Stadium.

The market’s struggles are more reason to build the downtown events/convention center, Trounday said.

“We’ve got to stop talking and arguing and get something done,” he said. “We don’t have time to argue like we used to, we can’t wait anymore. We’re going to wait until we’re all out of business.

“As I understand it, the downtown events center is the catalyst to get Cordish and all the other projects moving,” Trounday said of the three-block retail-entertainment project planned by Baltimore developer David Cordish west of the center on North Virginia Street.

Ken Adams, Reno gaming analyst and chairman of the Downtown Improvement Association, said various factors are behind Washoe’s gaming slide.

“Cost of gasoline, cost of power, an alternative to Reno and (softer) national economy as well as the California economy — and in the alternative would be Indian gaming,” Adams said.

When people’s costs to drive are high and home bills are high and they’re surrounded by uncertain economic news that affects their confidence, “that would cause a person to go, ‘Huh, what am I going to do?’ ” Adams said of weighing a 100-mile-plus drive to Reno vs. a gaming experience closer to home.

Southern Nevada fared better last month, with Clark County up 7.8 percent.

Streshley said the 5.7 percent increase statewide was the largest this year, with table games driving the gain.

“The (Las Vegas) Strip pretty much carried the state (with an 11.9 percent gain),” he said.

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/business/994910155.php

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 11, 2001


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