Like February 2018, last month was bad for Illinois casinos, sliding another 6.5% into the maw of slot routes. One outlier should be noted: Harrah’s Metropolis was and remains closed due to flooding, causing a 
32% precipice in revenue, grossing $4 million. The only comparably bad performance hailed from Casino Queen, off 13% to $7 million. Alton Belle dipped 3% to $3.5 million while Jumer’s Casino Rock Island was off 5% to $5 million. At Par-A-Dice, long besieged by slot routes, revenues were only 3% down, to almost $6 million. The best performers in the northern tier were Hollywood Aurora, flat at $9 million, and Harrah’s Joliet, almost flat at $13.5 million, one of the handsomest grosses of the month.
Raking the most bucks in the state, of course, was Rivers Casino, its $30 million representing a 7.5% declivity. Eldorado Resorts got a taste of adversity at Grand Victoria, down 6% to $11.5 million, while Empress Joliet slipped but 2% to $8.5 million.
* Market saturation may have finally reached Maryland, where casino revenue was flat year/year. Of the total $137 million gross, $54 million went to MGM National Harbor, up 1.5%, which is tracking far ahead of JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff‘s 1Q19 projections. Due to some HTML glitch, the complete report is not accessible but MGM 
has market share of 39.5%. Unfortunately for its bottom line, revenue tilted sharply toward high-tax slots ($31 million) while tables brought in just $23 million. Maryland Live was down 2% and Horseshoe Baltimore 3.5% (fewer gamblers since the Baltimore Ravens stopped playing, I guess). Hard-luck case Hollywood Perryville was actually 2.5%. Maryland Live’s market share was 37% and Horseshoe’s was 15%.
In an imperfect comparison (using only three weeks of data), West Virginia was up 3%, driven by a 7% increase in slot win. Table games suffered, with the house losing to the tune of 15%. Penn National Gaming‘s Charles Town Races casino had a pretty bad month, only 1% higher at the slots and getting cleaned out at the tables, plunging 20%. We’d been hoping to get the Detroit numbers this week but will probably have to wait a little longer.
