which is experiencing its first ever year-over-year decline, while in Nevada – and the Las Vegas Strip in particular – people keep coming to plunk more money down in the hopes Lady Luck is on their side.

In a report issues this week by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, gaming revenues for the month of May on the Las Vegas Strip increased 1.4 percent to $612 million while statewide revenues increased 1.5% to $1.1 billion. Statewide that was a nine percent jump from May 2006.

According to analysts at Bear Sterns, the Las Vegas Strip numbers “appeared somewhat soft as total win grew only 1.4 percent as a result of both slightly higher drop (+0.7 percent) and hold. They also said table win, which was down a significant 2.9 percent, is actually not so bad when compared to an anomaly in the table game win statistics for May 2006. During that month there was a huge table win that accounted for a 19.6 percent increase, which was fueled by a 49 percent increase in baccarat win. “We think, despite the soft headline, that the result speaks well of continued high end strength,” said a Bear Sterns analyst report. Slot win on the Strip was up 5.4 percent.

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After a strong April in which the locals market grew gaming revenues 21.7 percent, May revenues decreased 0.6 percent year over year. The Boulder Strip was the only region which had year over year growth, up 0.3 percent.  Both North Las Vegas and the Balance of Clark County regions saw revenue declines in May as North Las Vegas revenues fell 4.5 percent and the Balance of Clark County saw revenues dip .2 percent, which is mostly due to Red Rock, which was ramping up at the time. So it looks as if revenues fell when there were really more people gambling at more facilities.

Meanwhile, Atlantic City is continuing to lose ground. According to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, casinos reported $419.8 million in casino win during June, a 1.9 percent decrease over the same month a year ago, with one fewer casino. Results reported to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission show that the 11 casinos won $303 million at the slot machines and another $116.8 million at table games in June. Slot revenue decreased by 4.9 percent while table revenues increased 6.9 percent. It should be noted that June 20006, was the best June in the city’s 30 year gambling history.

Casinos paid $33.6 million in taxes on their gross revenues in June. That money, eight percent of gross revenue, goes into the Casino Revenue Fund which pays for programs that benefit qualifying senior citizens and people with disabilities. In addition, the casinos incurred another $5.2 million in reinvestment obligations. They are required to reinvest 1.25 percent of gross revenues in projects approved by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.

For the first six months of the year, casinos won $2.44 billion, down 4 percent from the $2.54 billion won in the same period last year.

The biggest winner was once again Borgata, which is a joint venture between Boyd Gaming and MGM Mirage Corp. It won $60,456,238 n June alone and $366,884,126 so far this year. Trump Marina pulled in the fewest dollars, taking in $21,044,128 in June and $118,205,417 for the first six months of 2007.

The biggest month ever for casino revenue was July 2005, which saw the city’s then 12 casinos pull in $504.8 million. Second best was August 2006 when the casinos saw $494.4 million revenue. The remainder of the top five includes July 2006 ($480.5 million), August 2003 ($474.9 million) and July 2004 ($473.9 million).

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