{"id":871009,"date":"2024-12-23T08:58:12","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T16:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/?p=871009"},"modified":"2024-12-23T08:58:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T16:58:16","slug":"stocking-stuffers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/stocking-stuffers\/","title":{"rendered":"Stocking stuffers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finally! November brought some bonafide good news from Louisiana<\/strong>, as casino revenues finally trended upward in a manner in which we can believe. They not only rebounded 11% from last year, they were 2% higher than 2019. New product\u2014Treasure Chest<\/strong> 2.0 and Caesars New Orleans<\/strong>\u2014drove the bus, accounting for most of the upsurge from 2023 and all of the improvement from 2019 (a 3% swing). Treasure Chest exploded to $12 million (+88%) and Caesars leapt 28.5% to $26.5 million. Other New Orleans<\/strong> casinos and racinos were revenue-positive, too: Boomtown New Orleans<\/strong> ($10 million, 5%), Fair Grounds<\/strong> ($3 million, 7.5%) and Amelia Belle<\/strong> ($2.5 million, 6%). The excitement in the Crescent City probably gave Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> a welcome distraction from woebegone Horseshoe Lake Charles<\/strong>, which plunged 12% to $6.5 million. Golden Nugget<\/strong> jumped 11% to $28 million, ahead of still-impressive L’Auberge du Lac<\/strong> ($26 million, 9.5%) and Delta Downs<\/strong> ($14 million, 17%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ekeing out a mere 600 dimes, Belle of Baton Rouge<\/strong> seemingly had nowhere further to fall but still managed a 20.5% collapse. Newish Queen Casino<\/strong> was up 18.5% to $7.5 million while L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong> hopped 7% to $14.5 million. Margaritaville<\/strong> dominated the Shreveport\/Bossier City<\/strong> market with $17.5 million (+3%), its next closest rival being Bally’s Shreveport<\/strong> ($9.5 million, +2.5%). A decimal point behind was Horseshoe Bossier City<\/strong> ($9.5 million, -17%). Its precipitous fall from grace meant that Bally’s Corp<\/strong>. superseded the erstwhile big dog of the market\u2014quite a coup. Boomtown Bossier<\/strong> was flat at $3.5 million, ditto Sam’s Town<\/strong> at $3 million and ditto Louisiana Downs<\/strong>, also at $3 million. Evangeline Downs<\/strong> sprang 8% to $6.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Gambling revenues in the Bay State<\/strong> hopped 7% from last year in November (up 29% from 2019). Massachusetts <\/strong>casinos grossed $101 million, led by Encore Boston Harbor<\/strong>, which climbed 3% to a super-dominant $63 million. MGM Springfield<\/strong> recovered 10% to $23 million, fueled by much stronger table play than last year. The troubled property is performing considerably better than J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong> projected. That leaves slots-only Plainridge Park<\/strong>, where the one-armed bandits brought in $14.5 million, a 26% vault from last year. Say, do you think Penn Entertainment<\/strong> executives sabotaged those Rhode Island<\/strong> bridges whose dysfunction is funneling players in Plainridge’s direction?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All was well<\/strong> in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania<\/strong>, where casino winnings grew 3.5% from last year and 7% from 2019. Not even a weak month at the tables (-2.5%) could dampen the results. Parx Casino<\/strong>, predictably, was out in front with $47 million, a 3.5% uptick. Wind Creek Bethlehem<\/strong> also impressed with $44.5 million (+1.5%). In the greater Philadelphia<\/strong>, fugly Harrah’s Philadelphia<\/strong> failed to impress with a flat $10 million, again surpassed by smaller Valley Forge Resort<\/strong> ($11.5 million, +4%). Downtown, Philadelphia Live’s<\/strong> $23 million (+7.5%) put Rivers Philadelphia<\/strong>‘s $17.5 million (+1.5%) quite in the shade. In Pittsburgh<\/strong>, aging Rivers Casino<\/strong> won large ($27.5 million) but dipped 1.5%, while Hollywood Meadows<\/strong> soared 25% to $17 million and Pittsburgh Live<\/strong> jumped 8% to $9 million. Look sharp, Rush Street Gaming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Rurally, Mohegan Pocono<\/strong> was flat at $16 million, finishing a couple of decimal points behind upstart Mount Airy<\/strong> ($16 million, +3%). Presque Isle Downs<\/strong> was flat at $7.5 million, Hollywood Penn National<\/strong> ceded 2% to $13 million and tiny but plucky Lady Luck Nemacolin<\/strong> leapt 18.5% to $2 million. Hollywood York<\/strong> dipped a point to $8 million, Hollywood Morgantown<\/strong> (above<\/em>) climbed 9% to $6 million and Parx Shippensburg<\/strong> leapt 20% to $3 million. iGaming brought in another $200.5 million, a 27% jump. $75.5 million went to the catchall Hollywood Casino<\/strong> site, FanDuel<\/strong> made $54 million and another $34.5 million went to BetRivers<\/strong>. Sports betting was becalmed at handle of $936 million, although win catapulted 498% (!) to $77 million. However, $26 million of that was returned to bettors in the form of promotions. FanDuel made DraftKings<\/strong> its bitch, $46 million to $27.5 million. BetMGM<\/strong> garnered $7 million, followed by BetRivers ($5.5 million), ESPN Bet<\/strong> ($4 million), Parx ($2 million) and Caesars Sportsbook<\/strong> ($1.5 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nearest thing one could find<\/strong> to find bad news was that, in Indiana<\/strong>, casino revenues were up 2.5% from last year but 6% off the 2019 pace. Hard Rock Northern Indiana had a rare flat month, grossing a whopping $37.5 million. Horseshoe Hammond faded 6.5% to $21.5 million, Ameristar East Chicago hopped 2.5% to $13.5 million and Blue Chip jumped 9.5% to $10.5 million. Harrah’s Hoosier Park galloped 24% ahead to $19 million, whilst Horseshoe Indianapolis pursued a more sedate (+1.5%) to $24.5 million and second place in the Hoosier State. New Terre Haute Casino clocked $10.5 million and French Lick Casino was flat at $6.5 million. Fearing it might be gone soon, players flocked to Rising Star, where revenue jumped 14% to all of $4 million. Belterra Resort captured 5% more for $7.5 million, as Bally’s Evansville was flat ($14 million) and Hollywood Lawrenceburg was also flat at $12.5 million. Caesars Southern Indiana experienced a rare adverse month, down 2% to $19.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sports betting brought in $68.5 million (+120%) from handle of $614 million (+20%), thanks to nice, tight hold of 11%. DraftKings<\/strong> bested FanDuel<\/strong>, $26 million to $24 million. BetMGM<\/strong> recorded $5.5 million, Caesars Sportsbook<\/strong> $3.5 million, Bet365<\/strong> $3 million and ESPN Bet<\/strong> $1 million. So when are we going to see this imminent ESPN Bet turnaround that Jay Snowden<\/strong> (above<\/em>) keeps promising us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A holdover from October<\/strong> is sports betting lucre from Illinois<\/strong>. It was down 28%, thanks to remarkably low hold (5.5%), sinking to $81.5 million. Handle wasn’t to blame, being 25% higher year\/year. Both DraftKings<\/strong> and FanDuel <\/strong>lost market share, with the former grossing $34 million, way ahead of FanDuel’s $24 million. Fanatics<\/strong> impressed with $8.5 million, trailed by BetRivers<\/strong> ($5 million), ESPN Bet <\/strong>($4 million), Caesars Sportsbook<\/strong> ($3 million) and BetMGM<\/strong> ($2 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month was boffo<\/strong> for iGaming in Michigan<\/strong>, where it engendered revenue of $226 million (+29%). BetMGM<\/strong> regained primacy with $59.5 million, doggedly pursued by FanDuel<\/strong> ($57 million) and DraftKing<\/strong>s ($51 million). Caesars Palace Online<\/strong>\u2014or whatever digital moniker the Roman Empire is employing this week\u2014was responsible for $17 million and BetRivers<\/strong> grossed $14 million. Sports betting surged 72% to $58 million (on handle of $650 million), with $21 million returned as promotional outlays. FanDuel squeezed past DraftKings, $22 million to $18.5 million. Distant third place went to BetMGM ($9.5 million), trailed by Fanatics<\/strong> ($4 million) and ESPN Bet<\/strong> ($2.5 million). Neither BetRivers<\/strong> nor Caesars Sportsbook<\/strong> could crack the million-dollar threshold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally! November brought some bonafide good news from Louisiana, as casino revenues finally trended upward in a manner in which we can believe. They not only rebounded 11% from last year, they were 2% higher than 2019. New product\u2014Treasure Chest 2.0 and Caesars New Orleans\u2014drove the bus, accounting for most of the upsurge from 2023 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83928,"featured_media":846109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1728],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Superdome_1626817861477-HR.jpg?fit=1042%2C774&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83928"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871015,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871009\/revisions\/871015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}