Louisiana gamblers were living large in August, leaving 9% more than last year in the slots and on the tables, some $212 million in total. This was especially good for Caesars Entertainment (+12%) and even more so for Boyd Gaming 
(+13%). The loudest “Boom!” came from the Lake Charles market, exploding 18.5% higher. The Golden Nugget, surging 30%, caught and passed L’Auberge du Lac (up 11%). The Nugget grossed $29 million, L’Auberge $27 million. Delta Downs leapt 27.5% to $15 million but Isle Grand Palais lost business, down 2% to $8.5 million. You think Caesars isn’t chagrined that Gary Loveman evacuated the Lake Charles market in order bankroll a failsino in Biloxi?
The storm-battered Baton Rouge market didn’t share in the statewide prosperity. L’Auberge Baton Rouge did best by coming in flat ($13 million). Far to the rear were Belle of Baton Rouge ($3 million, -27%) and Casino Rouge, 16% lower in the water, grossing $4.5 million. The situation in New Orleans was, need it be said, much better. Harrah’s New Orleans led the market with a 7.5% gain to $23 million. Boomtown New Orleans was a distant second with $10 million, up 7%, and Treasure Chest grossed $9 million, climbing 9%. Fair Grounds racino brought in $3.5 million (up 10%) for owner Churchill Downs, while Amelia Belle rose 12% to $4 million.
Horseshoe Bossier City (+23%) put some distance between itself and Margaritaville (+4%), grossing $16.5 million against the latter’s $13 million. Eldorado Shreveport finished third with 
$10 million, a 6%, Pinnacle Entertainment lost market share at Boomtown Bossier, down 9% to $4.5 million while Sam’s Town Shreveport gained 2.5% to $6 million. Perhaps because it is fixing to leave town, customers fled Diamond Jack’s, down 8% to $3 million. Harrah’s Louisiana Downs made a relatively meager contribution to Caesars’ big haul, up a percentage point to $4 million.
* Inveterate readers may have noticed an absence of S&G on Friday. That’s because the S&G Mobile was headed to Americus, Georgia, our jumping-off point for the 22nd annual Peanut Festival in Plains. We sampled many a peanut-derived product, doubtless to the detriment of our waistlines. Thanks to a well-placed S&G reader, we were able to have dinner (along with roughly a hundred other people) with former President Jimmy Carter — a cherubic 94 years old — and his formidable wife Rosalynn, the original steel magnolia. The affair was under the rubric of the American Political Items Collectors, Carter branch. Although I was too young to vote in 1976 and didn’t vote for Carter in 1980 I was a fan of his environmentalism and renewable-energy advocacy when he was governor of Georgia, and like to think he got the ball rolling on the sustainability movement of today. In any event, it was a memorable weekend and we got to see a lot of back-country Georgia, which is plenty scenic.
* While on the subject of political history, let it be noted that the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security & Investigations will be butting its 
snout into the subject of sports betting on Thursday. Fortunately the American Gaming Association‘s Sara Slane will be there to school solons on why it’s better to have sports betting out in the open — and regulated at the state level — than tinkered with the federal government. Why is that the less-government crowd suddenly discovers the virtues of silence when there’s money to be made?
