{"id":16550,"date":"2015-08-10T10:58:49","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T18:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16550"},"modified":"2015-08-10T10:58:49","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T18:58:49","slug":"midwest-shakes-off-malaise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/midwest-shakes-off-malaise\/","title":{"rendered":"Midwest shakes off malaise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, there was an extra weekend day this year but let’s look at the glass half-full, as regional gaming markets shook off their malaise. Illinois<\/strong> \"Grand<\/a>was up 2% despite mild weakness in the St. Louis<\/strong> market. Empress Joliet<\/strong> (+10%) was the biggest gainer of the month, followed by Rivers Casino<\/strong> (+9%), while MGM Resorts International<\/strong> enjoyed a 5% bounce at Grand Victoria<\/strong> (above<\/em>).\u00a0Also still producing is Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong>, up 8%. The bulk of the Penn National Gaming<\/strong> portfolio underperformed, with Hollywood Aurora<\/strong> down 6% and Argosy Alton<\/strong> off 3%. Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong> lost business, down 7% while Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Par-A-Dice<\/strong> was off 3%.<\/p>\n

Missouri<\/strong> did even better, up 3%. Despite a 2% increase in revenue at River City<\/strong>, it was surprisingly weak month for Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>, down 1% at Ameristar St. Charles<\/strong> and also losing a percentage point at Ameristar Kansas City<\/strong>. Penn, by contrast, had a breakout month, up 15% at Argosy Riverside<\/strong> and 10% at Hollywood Casino St. Louis<\/strong>. Isle of Capri Kansas City<\/strong> also felt the good vibes, up 9%, part of a 5% climb in Isle’s Missouri portfolio. Foot traffic at Show-Me State casinos may have been down 2% but spending was up 5.5%. Harrah’s Metropolis seems to have taken some of the bloom off Isle of Capri Cape Girardeau<\/strong>, by the way, down 1% for the month.<\/p>\n

Since Ohio<\/strong> is still a maturing market, overall revenue comparisons are like apples to oranges. But it raked in a Missouri-like $143 million, with Hard Rock Rocksino<\/strong> leading the charge ($19 million gross), up 19% — a feat the more impressive for being accomplished without table games. Belterra Park<\/strong> grossed a state low of $6 million but management is \"danielgilbert\"<\/a>digging itself out of the cellar with a 45% revenue increase. MTR Gaming<\/strong>‘s Scioto Downs<\/strong> was up 9% while Dan Gilbert<\/strong>‘s ThistleDown Park<\/strong> went into a -14.5% spiral. (If you can’t make money during the apex of racing season, when can<\/em> you make it?) The four full-service casinos remained relatively stable, with Hollywood Toledo<\/strong> up 4% ($17 million), as was Hollywood Columbus<\/strong> ($18 million). Horseshoe Cleveland<\/strong> grossed $18 million, flat from last year, and Horseshoe Cincinnati<\/strong>‘s $17 million was good for a 2% gross.<\/p>\n

Really feeling the love were Indiana<\/strong> casinos, which saw spend-per-visitor climb 15%, despite 9% fewer admissions<\/a>. Aside from Majestic Star I<\/strong> (-13%), nobody had a really adverse month and some of the \"Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172\"<\/a>vulnerable properties, like Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/strong> (+4%) saw growth, although Cincinnati<\/strong>-area casinos and racinos continue to chip away at the southern tier. Breakout performers included Ameristar East Chicago<\/strong> (+16%), French Lick Resort<\/strong> (14%) and Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong> (+9%). Mind you, if free-play tax deductions are added back to gaming revenue, many of these comparisons swing from positive to negative (gaming analysts differ on this) but I thought I’d accentuate the positive this month.<\/p>\n

* If you feel like wading to the very bottom of page 20 of an IRS<\/strong> report, you’ll see that socking it to you for $600 slot jackpots<\/a> remains a priority item with Uncle Sam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, there was an extra weekend day this year but let’s look at the glass half-full, as regional gaming markets shook off their malaise. Illinois was up 2% despite mild weakness in the St. Louis market. Empress Joliet (+10%) was … 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":[40,60,154,14,165,7,67,58,68,85,191,11,39,91,71,69,30,111,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16550"}],"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=16550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16551,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16550\/revisions\/16551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}