Despite being 2.5% below last year’s casino revenues, J.P. Morgan is calling the results in Illinois the best out of the previous 16 months. In other words, the decline was the smallest since November of ’09. The restoration of Penn National Gaming‘s Empress Joliet made for serious inroads in MGM Mirage‘s Grand Victoria riverboat (above, -7%) and Harrah’s Joliet (-13%), although I prefer to think of it as “normalization.” (Empress Joliet was out of commission last year, due to a severe fire — footage of which was a big hit with S&G readers.) Even Penn’s own Hollywood Aurora (-10%) felt the effect of Empress Joliet‘s 62% rebound.
Leaving aside the aberrant case of Empress Joliet, the month’s winners were Boyd Gaming‘s Par A Dice (+11%) and onshore, privately held Casino Rock Island (22%). New Pinnacle Entertainment capacity in the St. Louis area hurt most of the Southern Illinois boats, including Harrah’s Metropolis (-9%) and Penn’s Alton Belle (-8%). At $25.5 million, Grand Victoria remains the biggest money-spinner in the state — all the more reason for MGM to hope that a reopening of l’affaire Pansy Ho doesn’t force it to sell the vessel — and for MGM’s competitors to hope that it does.
Although Pinnacle and Boyd were winners in terms of the Illinois market, they took it on the chin in Indiana. There, Harrah’s Entertainment‘s gargantuan Horseshoe Hammond (+8%) and Penn’s Hollywood Lawrenceburg (+14%) continue to eat most everybody’s lunch, contributing a combined $93 million (37%) to the state’s $250 million tally. The strength of those two casinos kept revenues in the Hoosier State flat (i.e., a less-than-1% decline). Boyd’s Blue Chip got walloped (-18%), as new tribal gaming comes on line in Michigan, and Ameristar Casinos‘ Resorts East Chicago took a -21% clobbering, partly due to poor table hold. Surprisingly, Don Barden‘s two Majestic Star boats posted gains.
Down south, Pinnacle’s Belterra was -10% for the month, as everybody except Cordish Gaming‘s Indiana Live racino (+25%) suffered by comparison. Tropicana Entertainment‘s Casino Aztar could take rough consolation in the fact that its 5% decline was the smallest in the region. With $46 million/month separating the state’s best-performing casino (Horseshoe) and its worst (French Lick), the Indiana market is quickly stratifying into a few “haves” and several “have-nots.”
