{"id":14024,"date":"2014-07-08T09:48:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T17:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14024"},"modified":"2014-07-08T09:49:08","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T17:49:08","slug":"lean-and-hungry-in-the-midwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/lean-and-hungry-in-the-midwest\/","title":{"rendered":"Lean and hungry in the Midwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jumers_Hotel_&_Casino\"<\/a>It’s difficult to find new things to say about Illinois<\/strong>, where the saga has become sadly familiar. Another month, another 11% decline. Even players’ darlings Rivers Casino<\/strong> (-4%) and Jumer’s Rock Island Casino<\/strong> (right<\/em>, -14%) struggled. However, by some miracle, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> was able to manifest an 8% increase at long-suffering Argosy Alton<\/strong>. Except for Penn’s Empress Alton<\/em> (-9.5%), all other casinos suffered double-digit declines, as the gnawing effect of slot routes shows its effect.<\/p>\n

Even with its slight decline, Rivers Casino ($34 million) posted well over twice as much as MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s Grand Victoria<\/em> ($14 \"Grand_victoria_casino_elgin_logo\"<\/a>million, -15.5%). Hollywood Aurora<\/em> (-15.5%) and Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong> (-17%) were down in the dumps. In East St. Louis<\/strong>, Casino Queen<\/em> celebrated its acquisition by GLPI<\/strong> (parent of Penn) with a 15% decline. Boyd Gaming<\/strong> has a very bad month at Par-A-Dice<\/em> (-16%) and Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong> continues to struggle, down 10%. Whenever you think Illinois’ casinos have finally struck bottom, they bust out another depressing month like this.<\/p>\n

Wall Street analysts are divided over whether revenues in Indiana<\/strong> are \"belterra\"<\/a>better or worse than expected. Horseshoe Cincinnati<\/strong> continues its sack and pillage of Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg<\/strong> (-25%), Rising Sun<\/strong> (-28.5%) and French Lick<\/strong> (-22%). However, the inauspicious opening of Belterra Park<\/strong>, in Ohio<\/strong>, seems to have driven patrons back to the elder sibling in Indiana, where revenues were up 2%. It’s a casino miracle!<\/p>\n

Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/strong> remained solid, up 2%, while Casino Aztar<\/em>, in Evansville<\/strong>, may be feeling the effect of those Illinois slot routes. This formerly impervious casino suffered a 2% dip and is incrementally down for 1Q14. Hoosier Park<\/strong> lost business last month (-3%) but Indiana Downs<\/strong> was undaunted, up 9%.<\/p>\n

\"Horseshoe_Casino\"<\/a>In the upper tier, the two Majestic Star<\/strong> boats had a bipolar\u00a0performance. Riverboat #1 was 8% off its former pace but #2 was in the dumps, down 25.5% and grossing only $5 million to its sibling’s $8 million. Grossing $35 million for top honors in the state, Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong>\u00a0(above<\/em>) was nevertheless 10% off last year’s pace. Ameristar East Chicago<\/strong> and Boyd’s Blue Chip<\/em> each took a modest, 3% downturn.<\/p>\n

For whatever inroads Ohio has made, Indiana remains the preferable market, grossing $180 million to Illinois’ lean and hungry $117 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s difficult to find new things to say about Illinois, where the saga has become sadly familiar. Another month, another 11% decline. Even players’ darlings Rivers Casino (-4%) and Jumer’s Rock Island Casino (right, -14%) struggled. However, by some miracle, … 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":[60,28,7,11,91,71,69,30,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14024"}],"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=14024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14029,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14024\/revisions\/14029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}