One less weekend day made all the difference for Indiana in July, as statewide gambling revenues were 1% down. The statewide gross was $191 million, with refugee players from Chicago 
helping to lead the way. (Remember, you can still smoke in Indiana casinos but not in Illinois.) Revenues for tribal Four Winds Casino are unknown but they continue to gnaw at Blue Chip, off 3% last month and so “tracking down 5.8% y/y.” JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff writes, “Looking ahead, we model 3Q18 [gross gaming revenue] at the property to decrease by 10.0% y/y.” That’s not what Boyd Gaming wants to read this morning.
Among Blue Chip’s neighbors in the northern tier, Horseshoe Hammond led the state with $33 million, despite a 3.6% decline. Ameristar East Chicago was up 5% to $19 million while players seemingly fled Majestic Star I, tumbling 11.5% to $7 million. Majestic Star II was flat, grossing $5 million. As for Caesars Entertainment‘s two newest conquests, Hoosier Park grossed $16 million, a 1% uptick, while Indiana Downs was flat at $21 million.
Tropicana Evansville had a good laugh at the expense of the competition, rising 9% to $13 million. French Lick Resort nudged up a percentage point, to $8.5 million. Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg yielded 3% but still grossed $15.5 million, second in the southern tier only to Horseshoe Southern Indiana, grossing $21 million in spite of a 4% slippage. Rising Sun slid 8% to $4 million while Belterra skidded 2% to $10 million.
* Whatever could said (and there’s a lot) against Steve Wynn, under his regime Wynncore was very gay-friendly. And while I think the wearing of speedos is too much information, there’s worse 
that has happened — and frequently — in the Las Vegas pool club scene. Which brings us to gay man Chris Donohoe, who got kicked out of Encore Beach Club, allegedly because he had the temerity to wear a speedo. “I was made to leave the pool for wearing a Mr. Turk bathing suit that they said was not ‘in integrity’ with the brand of the pool party. In other words, I was kicked out for being a gay man wearing a bathing suit that was just a little too gay for the Beach Club Encore Las Vegas to tolerate,” Donohoe wrote. Remember that the next time somebody goes topless at Encore.
Considering that Encore’s party pit, er, pool was designed to encourage excess we seem to be up against a Sin City double standard. The Encore dress code says, in part, “Dress to impress, no baggy clothing, jeans, or basketball shorts. Pool attire is required to enter the venue.” Chief Marketing Officer Michael Weaver tried to bridge the cognitive dissonance by saying, “Wynn welcomes and appreciates all our LGBTQ+ guests. Decisions to enforce policies are solely based on guest behavior, or in this case, attire.” In other words, the rules apply except when they don’t.
* “As with every other art form, the tastes and the popularity change. The fireworks can only last so long.” So says Emeril Lagasse‘s agent, Shep Gordon. In this case he’s talking about the fading trend of the celebrity chef. While it seems to a runaway phenomenon in other parts of the globe, we’re only seeing the leading edge of the trend in Las Vegas. But don’t worry (or worry, depending on your tastes); Las Vegas always catches up sooner or later.
