{"id":28909,"date":"2020-12-10T09:17:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T17:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=28909"},"modified":"2020-12-16T07:52:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T15:52:09","slug":"state-of-misery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/state-of-misery\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Misery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Missouri<\/strong> was indeed the State of Misery last month, as casino win plummeted 18.5% to $118 million. Penn National Gaming<\/strong> casinos bore the brunt, plunging 27%. Overall, slot revenues of $102 million were down 17.5% while table win of $16 million toppled 23.5%. Two fewer weekend days didn’t help but are far from a complete excuse. In Kansas City<\/strong>, it was a virtual tie between Harrah’s North Kansas City<\/strong> and Ameristar Kansas City<\/strong>, each with an unimpressive $12.5 million, down 14% in Harrah’s case and a 24% tumble in that of Ameristar. Argosy Riverside<\/strong> slid 19% but grossed $11 million while ex-Isle of Capri Kansas City<\/strong>\/soon-to-be-Bally’s<\/strong> mopped up the remaining $6 million, for a 6% gain, the only revenue-positive performance to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The St. Louis<\/strong> market was where Penn really got slammed. Hollywood St. Louis<\/strong> plunged 33% to $13.5 million, while River City<\/strong> was almost as bad, off 27% to $14.5 million. Lumiere Place<\/strong>, which Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> lucked into, having forfeited the St. Louis area during the Gary Loveman<\/strong> reign of error, was down 13.5% to $10.5 million. That left the field to Ameristar St. Charles<\/strong>, off 8% but grossing $19 million. The rural casinos had varying degrees of woe but their revenue levels are so penny-ante that we shan’t chronicle them here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In fairness to Missouri, things weren’t much better in Indiana<\/strong>, where casinos grossed $144 million in a 17% declivity. “Results for the month reflect a deceleration\/downshift versus prior months due to higher COVID-19 new cases, similar to other regional markets,” writes JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong>. The landing was softened by $4.5 million in new revenue from table games at Harrah’s Hoosier Downs<\/strong> and Indiana Grand<\/strong>. Perhaps the most alarming result was that of Blue Chip<\/strong>, free falling 35.5% to $8 million. By contrast, all was comparatively well at Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong>, off just 5% to $30.5 million, while Ameristar East Chicago<\/strong> slipped 9% to $16.5 million. The two Majestic Star<\/strong> boats grossed $6 million (-15%) and $3 million (-22.5%) between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Farther to the south, French Lick Resort<\/strong> took a 47% shellacking, down to $4 million. Belterra Resort<\/strong> fell 27.5% to $6 million and Tropicana Evansville<\/strong> posted a horrid $8 million (-36%), bad news for incoming owner Twin River Holdings<\/strong>. The best gross was Indiana Grand’s $18 million (-13.5%) while Hoosier Downs fell 18% to $13 million. Caesars Southern Indiana<\/strong> did fairly impressively in this context, grossing $16 million and 7% off the pace. Rising Star<\/strong> guarded its tiny revenues ($3 million) well, ceding only 9%. Penn also took its lumps at Hollywood Lawrenceburg<\/strong>, where a 19.5% decline translated into $12 million of win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sports betting was the Hoosier State’s saving grace, hitting a new record with $251.5 million in handle. That flowed through to $25 million in sports book win. \u201cIndiana has largely managed to shrug off increased competition from its neighbors, which is a good sign for the future of the state\u2019s industry,\u201d stated PlayUSA<\/strong> analyst Dustin Gouker<\/strong>. Added colleague Jessica Welman<\/strong>, \u201cI think some of the worries that Indiana would slip as its neighbors legalized sports betting are calming. The market in the Hoosier State is proving to be quite dynamic.\u201d Expect the numbers to improve further in December as the Indianapolis Colts<\/strong> continue their playoff drive, and Indiana University<\/strong> and Notre Dame<\/strong> jockey for bowl games. Then there’s the return of the NBA<\/strong>, which seems to scarcely have departed …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jottings<\/em><\/strong>: Vital Vegas<\/em> author Scott Roeben<\/strong> turns up as a close friend of Tony Hsieh<\/strong> in this Daily Beast<\/em> probe of the troubled mogul’s waning days<\/a>. In the meantime, the cause of Hsieh’s death gets more mysterious with time, not less … Congratulations to American Gaming Association<\/strong> President Bill Miller<\/strong> and Senior Vice President of Governmental Relations Chris Cylke<\/strong>. They’ve been named among the top lobbyists in Washington, D.C.<\/strong>, by The Hill<\/em>, which cited those who “who stand out for delivering results for their clients in the halls of Congress and in the administration.\u201d Heck, they deserve it just for getting small casinos and suppliers from being redlined in the Paycheck Protection Program<\/strong>. Well played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missouri was indeed the State of Misery last month, as casino win plummeted 18.5% to $118 million. Penn National Gaming casinos bore the brunt, plunging 27%. Overall, slot revenues of $102 million were down 17.5% while table win of $16 … 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":[249,60,244,14,198,283,68,39,69,33,74,243,292,269,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28909"}],"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=28909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28910,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28909\/revisions\/28910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}