One less weekend day than last year proved costly for casinos in Illinois, where gaming revenue fell 2.5% in July. (It had been flat in 
2016.) True, the creeping effect of slot routes may have played a role but speculation can carry one only so far. Defying the odds were Rivers Casino, up 2% ($38.5 million) and MGM Resorts International‘s Grand Victoria, up 3% to $15.5 million. Hollywood Joliet ($11 million) was flat but everyone else was revenue-negative. Most seriously affected was Harrah’s Metropolis (-9.5%), making $7 million, while Harrah’s Joliet was down 6.5% to $15 million. Gaming & Leisure Properties‘ Casino Queen slipped 8% to $8.5 million.
As for GLPI/Penn National Gaming properties elsewhere in the state, Argosy Belle eked out $4 million, down 8.5%, while Hollywood Aurora missed by 4.5%, grossing $10 million. Boyd Gaming‘s Par-A-Dice casino in Peoria bled somewhat, down 5.5% to $7 million, while independent Jumer’s Casino Rock Island slid 8% to $6.5 million.
* There’s no “one less weekend day” glossing over a sorry performance by Maryland‘s casinos, which would have been down 15% were it not for MGM National Harbor, good for a 33.5% upward push, churning along at a $1.65 million/day pace. The latter 
weighed in with a $51 million gross, slightly below Wall Street estimates. Of some worry, perhaps, to MGM execs would be the tilting of the balance of play toward highly taxed slots ($27.5 million) and away from low-tax table games ($23.5 million). Except for Rocky Gap Casino, which was flat with 2016, every other Free State casino was revenue-negative. Maryland Live‘s $47 million compared impressively to National Harbor’s gross, but it still represented a 22.5% falloff from the good old days of not so long ago.
Horseshoe Baltimore pulled in $23 million, making for an 8%. Hollywood Casino Perryville reverted to its underperforming ways, down 2.5% to a $6.5 million gross. Ocean Downs (slots-only) grossed the same amount, taking a 1.5% step down. Although West Virginia‘s revenue-gathering is not congruent with Maryland’s (it goes from the 29th to the 29th), it showed gaming revenue down 6%, with tables particularly affected, off 16%. GLPI/Penn’s Charles Town racino continues to represent an exaggerated version of this trend, with slots down 7% and tables games falling 22% on an unspecified gross, for -10% overall.
* Las Vegas‘ most intriguing tourist attraction is hidden away in the back of a Louis Vuitton store in Crystals and may only be viewed by appointment. Akhob by James Turrell takes its name from an ancient Egyptian word meaning “pure water.” The installation is described as “circular openings leading into two huge chambers filled with slowly changing, rotating light … The effect created is one of giving your eyes a gentle, soothing bath in the most brilliant colors imaginable. Vibrant hues shift imperceptibly from one to another, bleeding in and out of each other on a cycle that lasts 24 minutes.” Bookings require as much as a month’s advance notice, so make this the first item on your to-do list when planning a Vegas trip. Speaking of trips, with marijuana use now legal in Nevada, we imagine that some Akhob viewers will enhance their experience of the installation with a cannabis infusion. Whatever expands your consciousness, man.
