{"id":899757,"date":"2025-12-10T11:11:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/?p=899757"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:11:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:11:06","slug":"in-the-bleak-midwinter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/in-the-bleak-midwinter\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Bleak Midwinter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Casinos in Illinois<\/strong> nudged up a point last month, garnering $155 million. Take away underachieving Fairmount Park<\/strong> ($1.5 million) and they were flat with November 2024. Newfangled Hollywood Joliet<\/strong> continued to tear up the marketplace, vaulting 51% to $11 million. Three casinos in Chicagoland<\/strong> were reeling\u2014and we’re not referring to their slot machines. Market leader Rivers Des Plaines<\/strong> got walloped 13.5%, spiraling down to $37.5 million. Bally’s Casino<\/strong> downtown didn’t have a chance to gloat, also getting clocked 13.5% to $8.5 million. Even so, Bally’s Corp.<\/strong> and Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc<\/strong>. remain (delusionally?) convinced that $2 billion Bally’s Chicago <\/strong>will be a barnburner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

New Hollywood also put a kibosh on nearby Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong>, which plummeted 18% to $8.5 million. Even loyal customers of Hollywood Aurora<\/strong> appeared to be defecting, as that ancient riverboat sank 11% to $8 million. Hard Rock Rockford<\/strong> had an unheard-of adverse month, slipping 4% to $11 million. Wind Creek Southland<\/strong>, meanwhile, held onto second place with $15.5 million and Grand Victoria<\/strong> was close behind in Elgin<\/strong> with $12 million. The Temporary at American Place<\/strong> continued to validate management’s faith in it, up 8% to $10 million.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Downstate, Bally’s Quad Cities<\/strong> dipped 3.5% to $5 million and Par-A-Dice<\/strong> was up 3% to $5 million. Argosy Belle<\/strong> was flat at $3 million, DraftKings Casino Queen<\/strong> hopped 7% to $7.5 million and Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong> slipped 3% to $4.5 million. Golden Nugget Danville<\/strong> leapt 15% to $3 million and Walker’s Bluff Casino<\/strong> was flat at $3 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the Big Muddy,<\/strong> in Missouri<\/strong>, casinos rose 3% for the month, grossing $158.5 million. Foot traffic was flat but patrons spent 2.5% more apiece. Unlike Illinois<\/strong>, there were no dramatic shifts. Ameristar St. Charles<\/strong> was up 5% to $24 million and nearby Hollywood St. Louis<\/strong> jumped 8% to $21 million. Sister property River City<\/strong> did even better, up 4.5% to $22 million, whilst Horseshoe St. Louis<\/strong> leapt 11.5% to $13 million. Despite a 2% dip, Ameristar Kansas City<\/strong> prevailed in its market with $16 million. Argosy Riverside<\/strong> was down 2.5% to $13 million, Bally’s Kansas City<\/strong> hopped 3.5% to $10.5 million and Harrah’s North Kansas City<\/strong> was up 3.5% to $14 million. Outstate, Century Casinos<\/strong> had a rare reverse in Caruthersville<\/strong>, down 4.5% to $5 million and was off 6%, to $6 million, in Cape Girardeau<\/strong>. Revenue was up 2.5% to $7.5 million at Isle of Capri Boonville<\/strong>, up 6.5% to $2.5 million at slots-only Mark Twain Casino<\/strong> and up 2% to $4 million at St. Jo Frontier<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Casinos in the Free State<\/strong> did even slightly better than those in Illinois<\/strong> and Missouri,<\/strong> with a Maryland <\/strong>haul of $159 million, despite being flat for the month. MGM National Harbor <\/strong>(above<\/em>) hopped 5% to $69 million and Maryland Live<\/strong> slipped 4.5% to $57.5 million. Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong> was up 2.5% to $14.5 million and Ocean Downs<\/strong> was down 2% to $6.5 million. Hollywood Perryville<\/strong> fell 8% to $6.5 million while Rocky Gap Resort<\/strong> climbed 5% to $4.5 million, further evidence that Century Casinos<\/strong> has snapped the place out of a long swoon. Sports betting brought in a whopping $95.5 million (jumping 19%) on handle of $707 million, for a tight hold of 13.5%. For its last hurrah, ESPN Bet<\/strong> tallied $2 million, against $2 million for Caesars Sportsbook<\/strong> and $6.5 million for BetMGM<\/strong>. FanDuel<\/strong> predominated with $48 million and DraftKings<\/strong> booked a tidy $26.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crime in the streets<\/strong>. It’s kind of a dark problem for sunny Florida<\/strong>, where illegal slot parlors are proliferating like vermin. Law enforcement has its hands full trying to contain the gambling dens, especially as it’s a high-risk\/low-reward proposition for the lawmen. We took a deep dive into the matter<\/a> for Casino Reports<\/em>. Enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quote of the Day<\/strong>: “The choice of a casino is interesting in itself. It\u2019s a place where the odds are stacked against you, and you\u2019re basically on your own. A casino doesn\u2019t say, ‘I\u2019m on your side,’ but rather, ‘I expect that you will keep losing money.'”\u2014columnist Conor Lamb<\/strong> on the choice of venue for a stump speech yesterday<\/a> by Donald Trump<\/strong> at Mount Airy Resort<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casinos in Illinois nudged up a point last month, garnering $155 million. Take away underachieving Fairmount Park ($1.5 million) and they were flat with November 2024. Newfangled Hollywood Joliet continued to tear up the marketplace, vaulting 51% to $11 million. Three casinos in Chicagoland were reeling\u2014and we’re not referring to their slot machines. Market leader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83928,"featured_media":849869,"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\/2024\/01\/Chicago.jpg?fit=2121%2C1414&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899757"}],"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=899757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":899762,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899757\/revisions\/899762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}