“It could have been better.” That will be the refrain from Louisiana, up 1% last month despite some final-week disruption by an unwelcome visitor named 
Hurricane Isaac. Allowing for a few blips here and there throughout the state, including a rare bad month for El Dorado Shreveport, the Isaac-related upheaval was pretty localized. As you’d expect, New Orleans (-9%) and Baton Rouge (-1%) had the worst of it. Pinnacle Entertainment‘s Boomtown New Orleans was off 19%, while all other casinos in the Big Easy merely experience single-digit declines. Penn National Gaming‘s Hollywood Baton Rouge was down 5% while Belle of Baton Rouge improved by the same amount. Go figure. Lake Charles, naturally, continues to chug along, up 11%.
Despite Pinnacle’s adversity in New Orleans, it’s on the verge of leapfrogging Caesars Entertainment as the Pelican State’s revenue leader as soon as the September tallies from L’Auberge Baton Rouge are compiled. Already, with two casinos to Caesars’ three, Pinnacle is doing a superior volume of business, proportionally: $46.4 million last month vs. $48.5 million for Caesars. In the last four months, L’Auberge du Lac is significantly outpacing Harrah’s New Orleans, a recent phenomenon.
Those who say the casino industry isn’t out the woods by a long shot received supporting evidence today from Delaware. Feeling pinched between Pennsylvania and Maryland, racino operators in Delaware are asking for a second round of tax breaks. In return for promising to invest in their operations, the state’s racinos got $7.75 million apiece in fee reductions earlier this year. Evidently that’s not enough. Citing low table-game tax rates in the aforementioned states, racing interests want the levy lopped from 35% to something in the 15%-20% range. When casino lobbyists are actually able to pry tax reductions from a state, you know the industry’s hurting.
Time’s up! Casino expansion into Arkansas looks to be off the table, at least for two more years. Texas businessman Michael Wasserman‘s petition drive to 
seed the state with seven casinos came up woefully short on valid signatures. His plea for a do-over was unanimously ashcanned by the Arkansas Supreme Court. However, since the Wasserman question has already been printed on November ballots, we could get the eccentric Election Day result that voters approve a gambling expansion that has already been literally ruled ‘out of court.’
