It’s been two days since Hollywood Joliet opened and the reviews are in. Suffice it to say that Wall Street is raving about what Penn Entertainment accomplished on a mere $185 million. (One analyst even likened the finished product to Durango Resort in terms of quality.) It will be October before we know how much of a sparkplug it will prove to be, but solid business should (thanks to superior access) solidify into something quite a bit more. After all, Joliet hasn’t seen a new casino in 30 years.
The bigger question is where it will gobble up business in a Chicagoland marketplace that has seen multiple new-casino openings in the last couple of years. It probably can’t claw back business from Wind Creek Southland but other ‘burbs might have cause for worry. Chicago-area denizens will have even less reason to go downtown in search of a gambling fix, reminding us of the folly of pinning so many hopes on Bally’s Corp., whose ability to finish $1.7 billion white elephant Bally’s Chicago is still in some doubt on The Street.
Even with some changeover in the Joliet market, Illinois still had a very good July, with $167.5 million taken by casinos. That’s a 23% vault … or still-impressive 8.5% jump when Wind Creek and Fairmount Park are removed from the equation. Don’t read anything into the 44% slump at old Hollywood Joliet ($4 million), as it closed earlier to facilitate the move to Hollywood Joliet 2.0. Fairmount Park didn’t make a dent in anybody, grossing just $1 million for the month. With so many full-service casinos in the Land of Lincoln, do racinos even meet a need?
The reigning champ, Rivers Des Plaines, rose 6% to $44 million, while Wind Creek (too new for % comparisons) did $19 million. Hard Rock Rockford shot up 114% and past Grand Victoria ($12 million, 8.5%) with $13 million and third place in the state. Instead of picking up business from old Hollywood, Harrah’s Joliet actually slipped 2.5% to $10.5 million. That was the only apples-to-apples decline in the state. The Temporary at American Place, in Waukegan, went on a tear, up 22% to $11 million. Nor did due-for-replacement Hollywood Aurora slouch, up 8% to $9.5 million. Bally’s Casino downtown gained a percentage point, grossing $10.5 million. If that’s the kind of revenue to be made in the heart of Chicago, the permanent Bally’s is going to have a devil of a time making its nut.
In Peoria, the city fathers want Boyd Gaming to either fish or cut bait. Build a permanent casino, they say, or get out of town. Nevertheless, business at Par-A-DIce ticked up 2% to $5 million last month. Bally’s Quad Cities jumped 10% to $6 million while Harrah’s Metropolis hopped 3% to $5 million. Walker’s Bluff Casino leapt 8% to $3 million, while Golden Nugget Danville also made $3 million on a 6% improvement. DraftKings Casino Queen erupted 12% to $7.5 million whilst Argosy Alton was flat at $3 million. So not a bad month, really, for anybody except Harrah’s Joliet. Caesars Entertainment might want to look into that, especially with a new casino in town.
Next door, in the Hoosier State, things were less volatile. Gambling revenues were only up 1.5%, on a gross of $209 million. Wind Creek Southland continued to cut into northern Indiana revenues. Even Hard Rock Northern Indiana was flat at a state-leading $37 million. Ameristar East Chicago fell 12% to $12.5 million, as Horseshoe Hammond slid 5% to $19 million. Michigan-facing Blue Chip, meanwhile, gained 2% to reach $12 million. As for the Indianapolis-area racinos, they both galloped 9% ahead. Horseshoe Indianapolis made $29 million while Harrah’s Hoosier Park got by with $21.5 million. Still, Caesars Entertainment is in no hurry to share the Indianapolis market with Full House Resorts. The latter is in full Br’er Rabbit mode, pleading with Caesars not to throw it into the briar patch (Fort Wayne) that it actually covets.
Gaining 9%, Terre Haute Casino squirreled away $12.5 million and French Lick Resort took a 9.5% licking, falling to $7 million. Bally’s Evansville was flat at $14.5 million, Belterra Resort was up 3.5% to $7 million and Rising Star rose 22% to $4 million. Hollywood Lawrenceburg was up 5% to $13 million and tribal Caesars Southern Indiana suffered a rare slippage, down a point to $20 million. Hoosier sports betting was good for $34.5 million on handle of $285 million, for a tight 12% hold. DraftKings bested FanDuel, $12.5 million to $11 million. BetMGM garnered $3 million and Caesars Sportsbook did $2.5 million. ESPN Bet split $3 million with Fanatics (due to a shared license), while BetRivers and Bet365 did the same with $2.5 million.
More-volatile results were to be had in Missouri, up 8% to $167.5 million. Foot traffic grew 3% while spending increased 5%. Little Century Caruthersville continued to outperform the state, vaulting 32% to $5 million. Sister property Century Cape Girardeau was much less spectacular, flat at $6 million. Only Bally’s Kansas City was revenue-negative, slipping 5% to $11 million. It lost ground to Harrah’s North Kansas City ($14.5 million, 14%), Argosy Riverside ($13.5 million, 2%) and Ameristar Kansas City (pictured, $17.5 million, 4%). St. Louis was led by Ameristar St. Charles, out in front with $25.5 million, up 6%. River City ($22 million, 7.5%) fought to a standstill with sister property Hollywood St. Louis ($22 million, 7%), while Horseshoe St. Louis leapt to $14.5 million, a 21% jump.
See you Friday.
I walked past the Bally’s location on Halsted Street a couple of weeks ago and there were two construction cranes on the site so maybe they start building soon. As I walked south on Halsted Street past the casino site about 100 yards away I was at the 6 way intersection of Halsted Street, Milwaukee Avenue and Grand Avenue. There is a Blue Line train stop there so this will definitely help Bally’s.
The Brown Line train stop is around 1/4 of a mile east of Bally’s on Chicago Avenue. There is a somewhat new residential area just south of the 6 way intersection so that area is starting to get developed more.
But $10.5 million dollars for the month of July for Bally’s in River North in downtown Chicago is obviously not good. Bally’s has been around that number consistently and I will be downtown on Sunday to see how busy it is.
I stopped by Bally’s casino in downtown Chicago last Sunday at around 6:00 PM and the first floor was sparsely crowded. As I have said previously when you walk in there is a nice looking casino bar with about 30 seats but unfortunately there are no video poker machines on the bar so there were only 6 people sitting at the bar.
Floor 2 was about half full at the gaming tables and there were some $15 minimum blackjack tables which is a great idea by Bally’s to encourage customers to gamble more at a reduced price. The area where there were slot machines was sparsely crowded. Floor 3 was hardly busy at all and most of the table games were empty.
There are also three small restaurants in Bally’s and none of them were crowded. From what I can tell Bally’s will probably stay around the $10 to 12 million dollars in revenue for the foreseeable future. Lastly I do give Bally’s credit for reducing the table game minimums on blackjack to try and get more gamblers inside the casino.