Gambling revenues held the line in Missouri last month, flat with last year. The $155 million tally was also 8% better than in June of 2019. At $25 million, Ameristar St. Charles continued to dominate, up 4.5%. River City edged sister property Hollywood St. Louis $21 million to $20.5 million. River City was up 4%, Hollywood 1.5%. Horseshoe St. Louis, despite its downtown presence during the height of baseball season, plunged 17% to $11 million.
Bally’s Kansas City continues to add market share, up 2% to $11 million, while Argosy Riverside added even more, +5% to $14 million. Ameristar Kansas City was down a point to $16 million while Harrah’s North Kansas City dropped 6% to $12.5 million. Downstate, Isle of Capri Boonville shed 10.5% to hit $6.5 million. Century Casinos was up 5.5% in Caruthersville ($4 million) and 4% in Cape Girardeau ($6 million). Maybe someday we’ll be able to report Show-Me State sports betting numbers but not soon: Support for a ballot initiative is polling around an anemic 38%, compared to the 54% support it enjoys in one Texas poll. Who’da thought?
Casinos in Motown still haven’t recovered their pre-Covid-19 altitude (down 11% last month) and appear unlikely to ever do so. However, Detroit‘s three gambling halls were up 2.5% last month from 2023, reaching $104.5 million. No surprise, MGM Grand Detroit was out front with $48.5 million, a 3.5% improvement. It’s a category killer. MotorCity was next with $27 million, falling 10.5% off the pace, while Hollywood Greektown lost 3% to MGM but hung in fairly impressively with $22 million.
Scarcely had we reported June casino tallies from Illinois than May’s sports betting numbers fell across the transom. Sports books made $101 million, up 13% from 2023, on handle of $1.1 billion, thanks to 10% hold. Considering that handle was up 24%, players actually made out fairly well, despite high hold. Fanatics continues to make inroads, to the tune of $6.5 million, nipping at the heels of BetRivers ($7.5 million). The other operators to lose market share were Caesars Sportsbook ($3.5 million) and BetMGM ($3 million). ESPN Bet improved exponentially but still grossed only $5 million. All other books were outstripped by FanDuel ($43 million) and DraftKings ($31 million), both of whom posted high-double-digit increases.
What kind of worm threatens to sue a children’s charity? They’d have to be just one step up on the evolutionary ladder from the slime who steal from children’s cancer funds. Meet pinhead and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who lowered the boom on a raffle designed to raise money for kids suffering from autism. Yeah, real decadent gambling, huh? Chirped a Marshall underling, censoriously, “Although we understand that you are a non-profit organization, the operation of a raffle, where tickets are sold for a chance to win a prize of value, are illegal lotteries under Alabama law cannot be operated or offered in this state without violating Ala. Code 1975 § 13A-12-20 et seq. and the prohibitions of our state constitution against illegal lotteries in our state.”
While Marshall probably should have taken a narrow construal of the law in question, it points up the need for it to be changed. Alabama is way, waaaay behind the rest of the United States when it comes to gambling policy. That seems unlikely to improve soon, judging by the cretinocracy that is Gov. Kay Ivey‘s administration and the upper house of the Lege. As Bill Britt writes, “the legal quagmire surrounding gambling in Alabama continues to criminalize well-meaning initiatives while failing to address the broader issues of illegal gaming.” Amen, brother.
Speaking of cretins, the board of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority elected to grease the palm of CEO Steve “The Shill” Hill. His salary was raised to a princely $495,000 and he was further gifted with a $190,000 bonus. Let’s try not to think how many Las Vegas families could live on that bonus money. For imposing terrible ideas like the Las Vegas Grand Prix and a vanity park for feckless billionaire John Fisher upon the long-suffering Vegas community, Hill is being bathed in greenbacks. Such offensive largesse follows hard upon the LVCVA, at Hill’s instigation, showering the Las Vegas Aces with over $1 million in salary ‘enhancement.’ Granted, WNBA players are grossly underpaid, no argument. But using taxpayer money to right that wrong is beyond the pale. That’s today’s Sin City for you, where the rich get richer and the poor … well, you know.
Speaking of the deserving poor, a controversial tax proposal, currently under fire from the Culinary Union, looks upon close scrutiny to be a bait and switch. Tipped workers might pay less in income tax (as opposed to payroll tax) but the long-term effect will undoubtedly be depressive on their earning power. It’s an idea that’s good for Big Gaming’s bottom line. For its workers, not so much.