It may not look like much from the outside, but new Hollywood Joliet (above) is driving the bus for Chicagoland casino grosses. It will very soon have competition from within the Penn Entertainment family, as even newer Hollywood Aurora opens this month. In fact, mega-kudos to Penn for finishing the newest casino one entire month ahead of schedule. That’s a feat unheard-of in Big Gaming, where the place usually isn’t even complete when it debuts. Let’s hope Penn has set an influential example.
Illinois casinos in general were up 9% for $193 million. Going from strength to strength, Hollywood Joliet had its best month yet ($13 million), rocketing 73% from May 2025. Without it, Illinois casinos were just up 6.5%. Impressive. The only casino in the metro area feeling pain was old Hollywood Aurora, fading 14% to $8 million in its final days. Rivers Des Plaines hopped 7% to a state-leading $48.5 million. Wind Creek Southland jumped 14% to $21 million and The Temporary at American Place surged 23% to $12.5 million. Bally’s Casino in downtown Chicago did $12.5 million as well (up 1.5%). Harrah’s Joliet came out of its slump to gain 4% to $10.5 million, while venerable Grand Victoria was up 4.5% to $13 million. Slowing a bit, Hard Rock Rockford was up 3% to $14 million.
Outside the Windy City, the most impressive performance was by the racino at Fairmont Park. It vaulted 106.5% to $2.5 million. Also showing strength was Golden Nugget Danville, leaping 16% to $4 million. The weakest performance wasn’t that bad: Argosy Belle slipped 2.5% to $3 million. Also in the St. Louis area, DraftKings Casino Queen was flat at $8 million. Par-A-Dice was up 3.5% to $6 million, Bally’s Quad Cities moved 1.5% to $6.5 million and Harrah’s Metropolis was up 2% to $5.5 million. Finally, Walker’s Bluff Casino gained 2% to $3 million. Hardly a bad month.
On the other side of the Big Muddy, casinos also fared well. Missouri gambling palaces nudged up 3% to $183 million. Strong slots (6.5% up) carried weak table winnings (-15%). With a few exceptions, the gains were not as dramatic as in the Land of Lincoln. Ameristar St. Charles and Hollywood St. Louis both ran in place, with the former flat at $27.5 million and the latter becalmed at $23.5 million. River City ($24.5 million) continued to outdo its Penn Entertainment sibling, up 2.5%. Horseshoe St. Louis gained a point to reach $14.5 million. In Kansas City, Penn had even more to celebrate as Argosy Riverside leapt 13.5% to $16 million. That still put it behind Harrah’s North Kansas City ($16.5 million, -3%) and market leader Ameristar Kansas City ($19.5 million), which put on a 9% burst of speed.
Outstate, customers have clearly come to terms with slots-only Mark Twain Casino, which surged 16% to $3.5 million. St. Jo Frontier, by contrast, was flat at $4 million. Century Cape Girardeau outperformed with an 18% vault to $7.5 million. Century Caruthersville wasn’t to be outdone, up 9.5% to $6 million. Isle of Capri Boonville rounded out the Show-Me State with $9 million, up 5% for the best result in the boonies.
Hoosiers either won more or played less, as revenues slipped 1.5% to $213.5 million in Indiana. Both normally outperforming Hard Rock Northern Indiana ($36.5 million) and rival Horseshoe Hammond ($22 million, below) dropped 8%. Ameristar East Chicago, by contrast, hopped 5% to $13.5 million. Michigan-facing Blue Chip jumped 7.5% to $12 million. The outstanding performance in the state went, of all unlikely places, to French Lick Resort, leaping 11% to $7.5 million. Number-two performer statewide Horseshoe Indianapolis was flat at $27 million but Harrah’s Hoosier Park gained 4% to $20.5 million. Bally’s Corp.‘s flagship casino, in Evansville, was flat at $15 million, little Rising Star slid 5% to $3.5 million and Belterra Resort was up 3% to $7.5 million. Hollywood Lawrenceburg gained 6% to $14 million but player favorite Caesars Southern Indiana dove 9% to $21 million (still good for fourth place in the Hoosier State). Relative newbie Terre Haute Casino was up 2.5% to $13 million.
Despite a tiny dip in handle (to $428 million), the house played lucky in sports betting, as winnings surged 15% to $50 million. Nice hold if you can get it. FanDuel edged DraftKings, $18 million to $15 million. BetMGM, bet365 and Fanatics were all bunched up at $4 million apiece, while Caesars Sportsbook settled for $2 million. theScore Bet brought up the rear with $1 million.
That leaves the Free State. Casinos in Maryland were down 3.5% to $170 million. Again, slots (1% up) made up for table-game debility (-14%). The big boys felt most of the pain, with MGM National Harbor sinking 7% to $70 million. Maryland Live was down 2.5% to $62 million. Horseshoe Baltimore, by contrast, was up 2% to $15.5 million. Ocean Downs was a standout performer, up 7% to $9.5 million. Hollywood Perryville fell 4% to $8 million and Rocky Gap Resort was up 2% to $5 million.
Last week we observed that casino profits on the Las Vegas Strip had withered by 81%. This was also noticed by Vital Vegas. In a surprisingly penetrating analysis, Scott Roeben pegs two root causes for the problem. One is rent payments, the downside of the vaunted ‘asset-light’ strategy. Landlords Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. and Vici Properties, of course, will be laughing all the way to the bank. The second Achilles heel on the Strip is debt servicing—which is due to get much worse if the Tilman Fertitta buyout of Caesars Entertainment goes through and Barry Diller follows suit at MGM Resorts International. Both tycoons are betting on an economic recovery putting so wind at Las Vegas’ backside, but it looks like a very risky (and morally hazardous) wager from where we sit.
In stark contrast to the the unpardonable treatment of Parag Vora by the Nevada Gaming Control Board was that meted out to a Bally’s Corp. shareholder. Commissioners lavished a veritable tongue bath on Gamesys co-founder Noel Hayden, who holds 10% of BALY stock. Sticking to the approved script, Hayden vowed to be a passive investor. Both Chairman Mike Dreitzer and NGCB buffoon George Assad mewed their approval, and that was that. Licensing hearings in Nevada are becoming an unamusing farce, for which the blame ultimately lies with anti-regulatory Gov. Joe Lombardo (R). His regulators know who’s pulling their strings and that’d be Big Gaming, not the public. Appoint clowns, expect a circus.
Kudos twice over this week to an unexpected recipient, Las Vegas Sands, owners of Venetian Macao (above). Earlier, Sands stepped in with $100,000 to fund problem-gambling treatment in Texas. The ruling regime in the Lone Star State obviously believes that the way to make disordered gambling go away is to ignore it completely. Responsible-gambling programs were zeroed out six years ago. Sands’ contribution may be a drop in a very big bucket (Texas has a serious issue with illegal gambling, as regular crackdowns attest) but one needs to start somewhere. Not only that, Sands is doing 100% more than Gov. Gregg Abbott‘s morally derelict government is. Abbott and his cronies are the sort of Not-Very-Religious Right pharisees who piously decry ‘the scourge of gambling’ but abandon its victims to their own devices.
Not content to perform one good deed, Sands donated $150,000 to the LGBTQ+ Center of Las Vegas. The funds will be used to give job training to young people who are homeless or otherwise job-insecure. It’s great to see Sands investing in Las Vegas beyond owning a newspaper. And, coming at a time when the LGBT community is beset with demonization and often outright persecution, it’s both the right thing to do and a brave one. Bravo, Sands.