After a pretty bad February, casino performances rebounded slightly in March, at least sufficiently to probably salvage the quarter. The headline item was Illinois, where grosses seemed to pogo-spring 12%. However, on closer inspection (i.e., a same-store basis) they were just 1% higher. In other words, everybody except the newcomers was treading water.
And by “newcomers” we mean only Wind Creek Southland, which represented almost the entirety of the new revenue. It did $17 million, zooming into undisputed second place statewide. Hard Rock Rockford ($13 million, +99%) exploded as well, pushing Grand Victoria ($12.5 million, -7.5%) further down the food chain. Rivers Des Plaines of course was tops with an unparalleled $43.5 million but it surrendered 8.5% to the two upstarts. Bally’s Casino, downtown, was flat at $11 million, which counts as good news for them. But The Temporary at American Place surged 12% to $11 million, showing again that all the growth is in the suburbs while central Chicago stagnates. Hollywood Joliet ($9 million, +4.5%) held up well despite its age but sister property Hollywood Aurora did not ($8 million, -9%). Harrah’s Joliet ($11 million, -8%) suffered somewhat at Hollywood’s hands.
In the St. Louis area, DraftKings Casino Queen was flat at $7.5 million but Argosy Belle enjoyed a 3% nudge to $3 million. Par-A-Dice slipped 6% to $5.5 million, Bally’s Quad Cities gained 3.5% to $5.5 million and Golden Nugget Danville jumped 15% to $4 million, while last-place Walker’s Bluff Casino ($3 million) had a 3.5% bounce.
Staying in St. Louis, we see that Missouri casinos also enjoyed but modest upside: +1.4%, largely concentrated in one market. Ameristar St. Charles was flat at $26.5 million but that was sufficient to lead the Show-Me State. Hollywood St. Louis gained 4.5%, presumably at Ameristar’s expense, but got no closer than $22.5 million. River City had a very strong month, hopping 8% to $24.5 million and second place, and even Horseshoe St. Louis got in on the act, up 7.5% to $15 million. But the puissance of St. Louis was not seen much elsewhere. In Kansas City the best-performing casino was flat: Ameristar Kansas City’s $19 million. Argosy Riverside slipped 6% to $15.5 million, Harrah’s North Kansas City ceded 1.5% to $15 million and Bally’s Kansas City dipped 2% to $12 million. Outstate the strongest performance by was Century Caruthersville‘s $5.5 million, a 17.5% surge. By contrast, Century Cape Girardeau dove 8% to $6 million. Of the remainder, two were flat and one down.
To the east, in Indiana, an advance of 2% turned into a 4% retreat once it was recalibrated on a same-store basis. Worse is to come for tribal Caesars Southern Indiana, battered by labor strife this month and recently closed due to spring flooding. Last month it was down 3% to $22 million. Despite a 9.5% pitfall (the Wind Creek Southland effect, we presume), Hard Rock Northern Indiana remained dominant in the Hoosier State, posting $38.5 million. Horseshoe Hammond was only pinched 3.5%, recording $24 million, while Ameristar East Chicago got walloped ($14.5 million, -16%). Blue Chip was steady at $12 million but Chicagoland competition has little effect on its numbers.
In the Indianapolis area, Horseshoe Indianapolis dipped 3.5% to $32 million, still awfully robust, but Harrah’s Hoosier Park ran right up its back: $24.5% and +15%. Small wonder that Hoosier solons think the market can stand more casino capacity and soon. The strongest southern-tier performance was turned in by Hollywood Lawrenceburg ($14 million, +2%), as opposed to Belterra Resort ($7.5 million, -5%), Bally’s Evansville ($15 million, -7.5%), French Lick Resort ($6.5 million, -10%) or Rising Star ($4 million, -3.5%). Not to be forgotten, newcomer Terre Haute Casino ponied up $13 million.
Sports books didn’t have a good month in Indiana, their revenues down 9% to $36 million, despite a 10.5% upswing in betting to $553.5 million. DraftKings was prevalent, with $13.5 million to FanDuel‘s $12.5 million. BetRivers and Bet 365 scared up $2 million on a shared skin, and Caesars Sportsbook cobbled $1 million together, while BetMGM garnered $3 million.
Whilst on the subject of sports wagering, DraftKings scored a major upset online last month in New York State, surpassing FanDuel for the first time in at least 15 months. FanDuel winnings plunged 18.5% while DraftKings shot 28% upward. The latter went home with $62.5 million, the former $59.5 million. Fanatics continued to outperform with $13 million, followed by BetMGM ($11 million), Caesars Sportsbook ($8.5 million) and ESPN Bet ($4 million). Neither last-place BallyBet nor Resorts World Bet made it anywhere near the Mendoza Line ($1 million).
And then there were 10. Scratch a New York City casino applicant. Saks Fifth Avenue pulled out of the running this week, putting a merciful end to a daffy business plan: a high-end casino atop the venerable department store, catering to high rollers. Bottom line, the Saks chain is in serious trouble and has neither the time nor the resources to screw around with gaming. Putting a casino across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral was a thumb in the eye of the faithful. Saks had the fanciful notion that its gambling hall would be flooded with tuxedo-clad James Bond wannabes, sipping from flutes of champagne handed out by uniformed staffers. Get real!
Furthermore, “support for it among the theater community didn’t materialize in a public fashion. The venue also would have lacked a hotel and many other amenities associated with Las Vegas-style casinos, meaning it wouldn’t have created the number of jobs comparable to rival bids.” This doesn’t bode well for the Caesars Entertainment play for Times Square, either, another low-budget/low-profile plan that won’t cause much economic impact. The consensus at the moment appears to be that the highly controversial Wynn Resorts proposal is the front runner, and that MGM Empire City and Resorts World New York will be grandfathered into Class III status, recent regulatory headaches notwithstanding. It would be an object lesson to MGM Resorts International and Genting Group if their money-laundering cost them the brass rings in NYC … but the community would probably take a dim view of five casinos (three Class III, two VLTs-only) where only three had been promised.
Finally, one state unequivocally disappointed last month and that was Maryland. Casinos in the Free State were down 3.5%, perhaps because Elon Musk has gone all Genghis Khan on the resident federal workforce. It’s kind of hard to gamble when you no longer have an income. Other than an aberrant, 5% gain by Ocean Downs ($8 million), the closest thing to a revenue-positive performance was Horseshoe Baltimore‘s $17 million of flatness. Hallelujah! The Mistake by the Wharf has finally scraped bottom, seems like. Maybe, just maybe that’s a baseline from which Caesars Entertainment can build back … but let’s not go praying for miracles, shall we?
MGM National Harbor got punched in the nose, down 6% to a still-whopping $70.5 million. Maryland Live slipped 1.5% to $64 million and Hollywood Perryville was down 2.5% to $8 million. Too bad for Century Casinos that the economy is cratering just when they seemed to have halted the skid of Rocky Gap Resort: It plunged 10% in March to $4.5 million. By the way, if we had a picture of J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff, we’d paste it on the side of a milk carton. He’s not been heard from since posting the Maryland data earlier this month. We sure hope he’s all right and will be back in action soon.