{"id":1839,"date":"2010-01-08T15:47:56","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T23:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=1839"},"modified":"2010-01-08T15:48:48","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T23:48:48","slug":"it-could-be-worse-couldnt-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/it-could-be-worse-couldnt-it\/","title":{"rendered":"It could be worse … couldn’t it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s what passes for optimism these days when confronted by ledgers like those posted by casinos in Illinois<\/strong> and Indiana<\/strong> for December. While the former’s 5% decline hardly looks like cause for celebration, it at least suggests the Land of Lincoln can’t fall much farther than it did during the catastrophe that was 2008 (-21% for the year and -28% in December).<\/p>\n

However, it does not<\/em> imply that this is an opportune moment for legalizing bar-top gambling, replacing existing riverboats with costly new onshore facilities, building out the 10th license (in Des Plaines<\/strong>) or — least of all — adding several new casino licenses, as the Lege is contemplating. Illinois’ $106 million in casino revenue was the lowest total posted in the last two years … hardly the most propitious climate for expansion.<\/p>\n

\"Paradice\"Brightest spot amidst the gloom was Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Par-A-Dice<\/em> riverboat, the sole casino to post an increase (2%). By contrast, the novelty factor finally wore off Casino Rock Island<\/strong>‘s new facility (-4%), which had been posting year\/year growth as great as November’s +170%. Despite having to literally rebuild business at Empress Joliet<\/em>, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> was the biggest aggregate earner for the month ($31 million), while Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> edged it out for the greatest aggregate decline (-7%).<\/p>\n

The single most lucrative casino remains the MGM Mirage<\/strong>\/Hyatt<\/strong> joint venture, Grand Victoria<\/em>. Despite smoking bans and severe taxation, MGM continues to hang onto the Chicago<\/strong> market … and no wonder, when the choice is between half of $293 million last year vs. 100% of nothing, were MGM to evacuate Illinois. Grand Victoria<\/em> and Harrah’s Joliet<\/em> also continue disproportionately large shares of revenue (+9% and +8%, respectively) relative to their number of gambling positions.<\/p>\n

The state-sanctioned decimation<\/strong> of casino revenue in Illinois has, oddly, never redounded greatly to the benefit of northern Indiana. Its tier of casinos has, at best, recorded modest gains this year and — more recently — seen the numbers go south (-11.5% in November, -4% last month). Boyd had the good-news story here, too, as Blue Chip<\/em> continues to stave off new competition from Michigan<\/strong>, up 9.5% in December. It books nearly as much revenue, single-handed as Don Barden<\/strong>‘s two Majestic Star<\/em> vessels manage combined.<\/p>\n

The market leader, however, continues to be Harrah’s monstrously large Horseshoe Hammond<\/em>, dwarfing all competitors with $39 million for the month and $527 million on the year. Its strength was diluted by Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/em>‘s subpar performance, giving Harrah’s a statewide 6% decline for the month.<\/p>\n

\"HollywoodOnly Penn’s Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg<\/strong> comes within shouting distance of the Hammond<\/em> numbers (with $35 million and $426 million, respectively). That was sufficient to give Penn 11% growth for December and bragging rights over everyone else.<\/p>\n

The state’s two newish racinos, Indiana Live<\/strong> (+30% last month) and Hoosier Park<\/strong>, continue to bleed the southern riverboats. Privately owned Grand Victoria<\/em> (-18% last year) is steadily slipping and threatens French Lick Casino<\/strong>‘s stranglehold on last place ($84 million last year but +1.5% in December). Sadly, Casino Aztar<\/em>‘s comeback story seems to have peaked … but at least it was the lone southern riverboat to eke out a gain (1%) in 2009. We’ll mark that a victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s what passes for optimism these days when confronted by ledgers like those posted by casinos in Illinois and Indiana for December. While the former’s 5% decline hardly looks like cause for celebration, it at least suggests the Land of … 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":[60,28,83,14,7,58,68,11,91,69,33,111,25,31,20,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839"}],"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=1839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1843,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839\/revisions\/1843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}