Nevada Casino Win Down 15.2% in May

Nevada casinos had a bad month in May -- their worst in at least 10 years -- winning $969.9 million from gamblers for a 15.2% drop compared with the same month a year earlier, a state report showed Thursday.

The slump was the fifth consecutive monthly decline statewide. A market-by-market breakdown in the Gaming Control Board report showed a similar month-over-month decline for the Las Vegas Strip -- and the 11th consecutive monthly slump for the Reno-Sparks-North Tahoe area.

Control Board analyst Frank Streshley says, "People are coming to Nevada but they're not spending."

Gov. Jim Gibbons, trying to deal with a state revenue shortfall expected to hit $1.2 billion by mid-2009, says taxes based on the casino win were "significantly worse" than amounts estimated only three weeks ago. But he's confident the casino industry will turn around.

The $969.9 million win was the amount left in casino coffers after gamblers wagered $13.8 billion during May, including $11.2 billion in slot machine bets and the balance on table games.

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Major details:

--STATEWIDE: $969.9 million, down 15.2%.

--LAS VEGAS STRIP: $513.5 million, down 16.4%.

--DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS: $48.2 million, down 17.3%.

--LAUGHLIN: $48.6 million, down 7.8%.

--BOULDER STRIP: $58.4 million, down 30.2%.

--MESQUITE: $13.5 million, down 3.2%.

--RENO: $61.7 million, down 7.5%.

--STATELINE: $24.4 million, down 24.1%.

--ELKO COUNTY: $25.3 million, up 0.1%.