Las Vegas saw a continued increase in revenue growth for the month of March.  For the third month in a row, Las Vegas casinos made over $1 billion from gamblers, which was a 3% increase from the same time the year before.  Coming in at $1.06 billion, the figures were the second highest ever - only lower than the month of January this year, in which Las Vegas casinos earned a combined total of $1.14 billion.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board released the figures, and went on to say the year of 2006 already shows a 10% increase from 2005 for the same time period.  The Board went on to say that revenue would have been even more if snow storms in Northern Nevada had not kept tourism down in that section of the state.  Washoe County saw a 3.2% decline in revenue, while South Lake Tahoe swallowed a hard loss of 40%.  The reason being was that March was a record time for snowfall amounts that would close connecting roadways between California and Lake Tahoe.

The only other offsetting contribution to casino profit in March was the action at the baccarat tables.  Soft baccarat results were down from the previous year by 10%, despite the fact that gamblers wagered a whopping $350 million at the high stakes game.  If it was not for NCAA basketball's March Madness, the NASCAR DiamlerChrysler 400 and continued popularity of the Wynn Las Vegas casino resort, the results could have been lower.

Not only did NCAA fans bet on more than the basketball games, the NASCAR fans stayed longer than a normal weekend event.  Being a multi-event weekend, most fans arrived on a Thursday and stayed until Monday.  This kept bettors around longer and ultimately increased total revenue and profit by the casinos themselves.  While Clarke County and Strip casinos benefited from the influx, downtown casinos profited by only $59.5 million - a 5.8% decline in revenue from the previous year.

Market analyst are forecasting that although revenue is slowing down, it would not be uncommon for the month of June (which is normally a slow month), to hit over the $1 billion mark.  Considering the Strip has seen an increase of double digits in gaming revenue this year, the remainder of the year still looks very promising.