{"id":13729,"date":"2014-06-06T09:18:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T17:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13729"},"modified":"2014-06-06T09:18:14","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T17:18:14","slug":"may-challenging-for-iowa-disastrous-for-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/may-challenging-for-iowa-disastrous-for-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"May challenging for Iowa, disastrous for Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

At present, the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission<\/strong> is mulling whether to put a casino in relatively isolated (see video<\/a>) Jefferson<\/strong>. While \"HET<\/a>they’re weighing that Wild Rose Entertainment<\/strong> project, here’s something else to ponder: The latest set of revenue numbers out of the Hawkeye State<\/strong>. It dropped 2%, with Penn Sioux City<\/strong> really phoning it in, down 15%. Horseshoe Casino<\/strong> slipped 7% but recently improved Harrah’s Council Bluffs<\/strong> rose 19%. Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> had a modestly better month (up 1%) at Ameristar Council Bluffs<\/strong>. Although it slid a percentage point, Prairie Meadows<\/strong> racetrack was the top grosser of May (which had one more weekend day this year), checking in at $16 million.<\/p>\n

Positive and negative results at various Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>-branded properties canceled each other out for a flat month. Independent Riverside Casino Resort<\/strong>, which just staved off a casino bid by Cedar Rapids<\/strong>, was down 5% nonetheless, reinforcing the IRGC’s point about cannibalization in the Iowa market.<\/p>\n

\"Des<\/a>Meanwhile, over in Illinois<\/strong>, dogged by a poor economy, the ascendancy of slot routes and sundry other factors, casinos were down 6%. Rivers Casino<\/strong> defied the market, up 7% and grossing a state-leading $38 million. A distant second at $17 million, Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong> was 8.5% off while MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s Grand Victoria<\/strong> both grossed $15 million and fell 15%.<\/p>\n

Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s two riverboats surpassed J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst \"HarrahsJoliet\"<\/a>Joseph Greff’<\/strong>s forecasts. Empress Joliet<\/strong> was only off 4% while Hollywood Aurora<\/strong> dropped 12%, grossing $11 million each. In the St. Louis<\/strong> area, Penn’s Argosy Casino<\/strong> (currently in the process of downsized) grossed a slim 5%, declining 11%. New GLPI<\/strong>\/Penn acquisition Casino Queen<\/strong> suffered a calamitous month, falling 18% to $9 million. (Smart move there, GLPI.)<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the state, Jumer’s Casino Rock Island<\/strong> was up a percentage point, grossing $7 million. Boyd Gaming<\/strong> had a bad month aboard Par-A-Dice<\/strong>, falling 10.5% to $8 million and Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong> dropped 11%, to 7%.<\/p>\n

Memo to state Rep. Robert Rita<\/strong> (D): If you succeed in legalizing more casinos, you won’t be spreading the wealth but widening the misery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At present, the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission is mulling whether to put a casino in relatively isolated (see video) Jefferson. While they’re weighing that Wild Rose Entertainment project, here’s something else to ponder: The latest set of revenue numbers … 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":[40,60,28,14,7,58,86,85,11,91,69,30,25,92],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13729"}],"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=13729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13731,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13729\/revisions\/13731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}