{"id":12689,"date":"2014-02-10T13:41:03","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T21:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12689"},"modified":"2014-02-10T13:41:03","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T21:41:03","slug":"the-midwest-first-the-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-midwest-first-the-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The Midwest: First the good news …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Casino revenue in the Buckeye State vaulted 56%, as several new racinos came on line. The not such good news is that Ohio<\/strong> casinos are merrily cannibalizing themselves, down 16% on a year\/year \"ohio_plate_08\"<\/a>basis. Hollywood Columbus<\/strong>, in particular, continues to struggle, posting a lowly $128\/slot\/day. The most robust performance was a $17 million gross at Horseshoe Cleveland<\/strong>, but that must be set against a 19.5% reduction in winnings, as customers took their business to nearby racinos. No comparison was available for relatively new Horseshoe Cincinnati<\/strong> but Penn National Gaming<\/strong> properties missed Deutsche Bank<\/strong> estimates. Hollywood Columbus lost 16% of its business and Hollywood Toledo was off 19%. Nearby racino Scioto Downs<\/strong>, by contrast, only missed by 4%. Judging by the carnage that the incursion of racinos has caused, you almost have to wonder if Gov. John Kasich<\/strong> set up his state’s casino industry to fail. It’s certainly a market where supply has far outrun demand.<\/p>\n

Both Penn properties missed J.P. Morgan<\/strong> estimates by double-digit margins, partly caused by closures brought on by inclement weather. However, there has been a steady march of new racinos: Thistledown Racino<\/strong> (April), Miami Valley Racino<\/strong> and Hard Rock Racino<\/strong> (both December). In other words, the Ohio casino industry is growing at an unsustainable pace. Those companies that doubled down on casinos and racinos are now licking self-inflicted wounds … or soon will be.<\/p>\n

Ohio, however, might soon pass Illinois<\/strong>, which remains in freefall, off -14% last month. Penn \"Rivers<\/a>National had a terrible month, averaging an 18% from its three casinos. Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Par-A-Dice<\/strong> was also dealt an 18% blow while Grand Victoria<\/strong> was leaking revenue at a 20% clip. Caesars Entertainment’s two riverboats averaged a 15% decline. Casino Queen<\/strong> (-9%) and Rivers Casino<\/strong> (-6%) achieved some sort of weird moral victory by keeping their declines within single digits. And to think that there are those in Springfield<\/strong> who think this is the moment<\/a> for five new casinos and two slot parlors. “Sponsors say gambling expansion would provide an estimated $400 million to $1 billion a year in revenue<\/em>,” reports The Associated Press<\/strong>. Those sponsors must be snorting some really good “happy dust.”<\/p>\n

Iowa<\/strong>‘s plethora of casinos were down 4% for the year. Due to the smallness of many of their revenue bases, the volatility of the results can be quite staggering, as when Isle of Capri Casino<\/strong> reports a 20% decline on revenue of $1.6 million. Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> and Caesars Entertainment beat Carlo Santarelli<\/strong>‘s estimates but Boyd Gaming’s two riverboats came up short. Caesars was the big winner, up 4% at its racino and 19.5% at Harrah’s Council Bluffs<\/strong>. Directly southward, in Missouri<\/strong>, revenues went south by 7%. So pessimistic were J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analysts that a 14% decline at Lumiere Place<\/strong> actually exceeded<\/em> revenue projections.<\/p>\n

Pinnacle St. Charles<\/strong> lost less business (-8%) and outgrossed its immediate rival, Hollywood St. Louis<\/strong>, $19 million to $17 million. River City<\/strong> was relatively stable, down 2%. The same might be said of Harrah’s North Kansas City<\/strong>, off 1% in a market that was otherwise hurting: Argosy Riverside<\/strong> (-8%), Isle of Capri Kansas City<\/strong> (-10%) and Pinnacle Kansas City<\/strong> (-9%). Only Lady Luck<\/strong>, down in Carruthersville<\/strong>, had a revenue-positive month, up 3%.<\/p>\n

\"Aztar\"<\/a>And finally there was Indiana<\/strong>. If deductions for free play are counted as revenue, the Hoosier State was down a staggering 21%, even with one extra weekend day. New Ohio competition absolutely hammered Penn’s Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg<\/strong>, down 46%. (No, that’s not a typo). Rising Sun<\/strong> was setting, down 39% and Belterra<\/strong> also sustained a harsh blow, declining 31%. Casino Aztar<\/strong>, in safely distant Evansville<\/strong>, was up 6%, while all other southern Indiana casinos recorded downturns.\u00a0Northern riverboats suffered some harsh declines but it’s hard to know who to blame, what with category-killing Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong> off 13%. Throw in dropoffs at Pinnacle East Chicago<\/strong> (-18%), Blue Chip<\/strong> (21%) and Majestic Star<\/strong> (-35%), and one is forced to conclude that customers are simply staying home, continuing a troubling trend for the industry in almost all markets not named “Las Vegas.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casino revenue in the Buckeye State vaulted 56%, as several new racinos came on line. The not such good news is that Ohio casinos are merrily cannibalizing themselves, down 16% on a year\/year basis. Hollywood Columbus, in particular, continues to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,28,165,7,58,68,86,85,11,39,91,71,69,30,33,111,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12689"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12695,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12689\/revisions\/12695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}