{"id":8216,"date":"2012-01-11T17:16:20","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T01:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8216"},"modified":"2012-01-11T17:16:20","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T01:16:20","slug":"belated-christmas-presents-midwest-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/belated-christmas-presents-midwest-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Belated Christmas presents, Midwest edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.keloland.com\/_video\/_videoplayer_embed.cfm?VideoFile=052911grandfalls\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"450\" height=\"330\" name=\"videoplayer\" id=\"embediframe\" scrolling=\"No\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nTo quote <strong>Stephen Sondheim<\/strong>, everything&#8217;s coming up roses &#8230; or close enough, anyway. Last Friday, strong numbers out of <strong>Iowa<\/strong> &#8212; of a non-caucus ilk &#8212; showed the state&#8217;s casinos rebounding to the tune of 16% (on a $121 million) gross, fueled by double-digit increases in play. Even after backing out newbie <strong>Grand Falls Casino<\/strong>, that&#8217;s still good for a same-store comparison of +11.5%. <strong>Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong> had particular reason to smile, its fleet garnering an aggregate increase of 16%. The smaller the vessel, the more spectacular the gains, but let&#8217;s not rain too hard on the parade of the two <em>Diamond Jo<\/em> boats (+31%) or little outfits like <em>Wild Rose Emmetsburg<\/em> (+17%). December tends to be good for business at <strong>Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Horseshoe<\/strong>-branded racino and thus was the case last month, with a 16% surge.<\/p>\n<p>Faring much less well was <em>Harrah&#8217;s Council Bluffs<\/em>, -5% for the month, -13% for the year and -11% for the 2010, displaying negative comparisons in 23 of the last 24 months. At least <strong>Gary Loveman<\/strong> can take solace in the fact that <!--more--><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8218\" title=\"Rhythm City\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Rhythm-City.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Rhythm-City.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Rhythm-City-150x93.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Rhythm-City-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/>such declines have narrowed in the last two months, implying that local management is finally getting a handle on the situation. But if <em>Harrah&#8217;s<\/em> remained submerged, Isle&#8217;s <em>Rhythm City<\/em> riverboat finally came to periscope depth, posting its first positive month (+11.5%) in the last two years. As for the remaining big boys, <strong>Penn National Gaming<\/strong> and <strong>Ameristar Casinos<\/strong>, they closed out the year strongly, with above-average gains at <em>Argosy Sioux City<\/em> and <em>Ameristar Council Bluffs<\/em>. But it would be a stretch to say that Iowa casinos are doing significantly better than last year, so let&#8217;s hope that Gov. <strong>Terry Branstad<\/strong> doesn&#8217;t think that <strong>Santa Claus<\/strong> has gift-wrapped him an excuse to jack up casino taxes, a wish near and dear to his heart.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Directly southward<\/strong>, it might have seemed difficult to improve on December 2010&#8217;s 10% increase but <strong>Missouri<\/strong> managed to extract another 5% from gamblers last month, for a $137 million gross. Slightly higher foot traffic, an extra weekend day and &#8212; at <strong>Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>River City<\/strong> only &#8212; loose slot hold (8.8%) were cited as contributory factors. Cannibalization has eased off in <strong>St. Louis<\/strong>, with only Pinnacle&#8217;s upscale <strong>Lumiere Place<\/strong> having reason for discontent (-2%, on a low-ish gross). Elsewhere, the gains ranged from boffo (24% at River City, #3 in the market but climbing rapidly) to impressive (11% at <strong>Harrah&#8217;s Maryland Heights<\/strong>) to respectable (2% for <strong>Ameristar St. Charles<\/strong>, #1 by a whisker).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5348\" title=\"Ameristar KC-2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Ameristar-KC-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Ameristar-KC-2.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Ameristar-KC-2-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In <strong>Kansas City<\/strong>, Ameristar (-2%, <em>left<\/em>) ended the year with an inglorious eight-month skid and, in December, lost market share to Harrah&#8217;s (+5%), <em>Argosy Riverside<\/em> (+2%) and <em>Isle of Capri Kansas City<\/em> (+5%). Isle had the single most-improved property in the market, in terms of year-long financial performance. Gains of 13% for <em>Lady Luck Caruthersville<\/em> and 11% at Isle&#8217;s <strong>Boonsville<\/strong> boat weren&#8217;t quite enough to salvage a 2011 that was subpar for the former (-3%) and flat at the latter. At least a December uptick of 2% for indie <em>St. Jo Frontier<\/em> put a positive finish on an otherwise horrible year (-22%) for that vessel, which booked no revenue in July and August, and scarcely any in September. Of all Show-Me State operators, only Pinnacle did notably better (+12%) in 2011, thanks to having a full year of revenue from River City &#8212; a property that&#8217;s doing so well you have to wonder again why ex-Pinnacle CEO <strong>Dan Lee<\/strong> wanted to <em>triple<\/em> down with yet another riverboat in the St. Louis market.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Growth in Illinois<\/strong> is, once you account for <strong>Neil Bluhm<\/strong>&#8216;s new powerhouse in <strong>Des Plaines<\/strong>, illusory. On a same-store basis, the Land of Lincoln was -5% last year and -4% in 2010. It&#8217;s a &#8220;growth market&#8221; only in the fevered imagination of state Rep. <strong>Lou Lang<\/strong> (D), the <strong>Dr. Pangloss<\/strong> of <strong>Illinois<\/strong>. Minus Bluhm&#8217;s contribution, December revenue goes from +32% to pancake-flat. Gamblers are visiting less (-4%) and still spending less (-2%), even with clement weather acting as an incentive to get out of the house.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2851\" title=\"Grand Victoria IL\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Grand-Victoria-IL-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Grand-Victoria-IL-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Grand-Victoria-IL-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Grand-Victoria-IL.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Rivers Casino<\/strong>, with its $33 million, dwarfed all competitors. Excepting <strong>Boyd Gaming<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Par-A-Dice<\/em> riverboat (7% up), Caesars had the best month, registering gains at both <em>Harrah&#8217;s Joliet<\/em> (7%), rebounding from 13 adverse months, and <em>Harrah&#8217;s Metropolis<\/em> (2%). Also finishing the year positively were <strong>Jumer&#8217;s Casino Rock Island<\/strong> (18%) and <em>Casino Queen<\/em> (11%), down in <strong>East St. Louis<\/strong>. December was mostly coal and switches for Penn, which saw grosses down at <em>Empress Joliet<\/em> (-7%) and <em>Hollywood Aurora<\/em> (-6%), and flat at <em>Alton Belle<\/em>, where one hopes that the worst is finally past.\u00a0 Having an even harder time of it was <strong>MGM Resorts International<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Grand Victoria Elgin<\/em> (-12%, <em>above<\/em>), pummeled yet again by Bluhm. Six months was all Rivers needed to become Illinois&#8217; third-highest-grossing casino. <em>Grand Victoria<\/em> managed to be both the top grosser ($266 million) <em>and<\/em> the biggest loser* (-10.5%) of the year, while Jumer&#8217;s (+8%) had the biggest growth story outside of Des Plaines.<\/p>\n<p>(* &#8212; <em>Technically<\/em>, Harrah&#8217;s Metropolis <em>had the biggest decline, -15.5%, but it lost most of May to flood waters, which should count as a mitigating circumstance in Caesars&#8217; favor. Incidentally, revenue fluctuations below 1% are counted as &#8220;flat&#8221; for<\/em> S&amp;G <em>purposes<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6046\" title=\"Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"287\" height=\"172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172.jpg 287w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172-150x89.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/>What&#8217;s an extra weekend day worth?<\/strong> That&#8217;s the $5 Million Question for <strong>Indiana<\/strong>, which eked out a 2% increase in gambling revenue last month, for $218 million. Unlike Illinois punters, Indiana ones visited casinos more (9%) but that didn&#8217;t keep them from spending less (-6% per visitor). It wasn&#8217;t a great month for the ponies, what with racinos <strong>Indiana Live<\/strong> (-9%) and <strong>Hoosier Park<\/strong> (-6%) both off their feed. Despite a flat December, <em>Horseshoe Hammond<\/em> still topped the leader board with $41.5 million. Nearby rival <strong>Ameristar East Chicago<\/strong> had one of its best months of the year (up 8%), suggesting it may finally be turning the page on the infamous <strong>Cline Avenue Bridge<\/strong> closure. All Hoosier State riverboats did well, save for <em>Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/em> (-13%, <em>above<\/em>) and the second of the <em>Majestic Star<\/em> vessels (-10%), an ex-<strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> boat. Double-digit gains were prevalent statewide, led by <strong>French Lick Casino<\/strong> (+18%), with Pinnacle (+11%), Boyd (+10%), Penn (+11.5%) and <strong>Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> (+12%) all bearing tidings of gladness to their shareholders.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1841\" title=\"Hollywood Lawrenceburg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Hollywood-Lawrenceburg-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Hollywood-Lawrenceburg-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Hollywood-Lawrenceburg-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Hollywood-Lawrenceburg.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Indiana ended 2011 off the previous year&#8217;s already unimpressive pace by 3%. <em>Horseshoe Hammond<\/em> had an 11-month slalom, as players seem to have drifted away &#8230; but it&#8217;s still the only casino in the state to gross over a half-billion dollars. Penn&#8217;s <em>Hollywood Lawrenceburg<\/em> comes remotely near that high-water mark and, at $436.5 million, &#8220;remote&#8221; is the operative word. No casino owner enjoyed a breakout year and only Caesars (-9%) had what you&#8217;d call a poor one. However, the impending incursion of <strong>Ohio<\/strong> casinos and a groundswell of support for racinos in\u00a0<strong><\/strong><strong>Kentucky<\/strong> are two auguries that must have Hoosier casino operators entering the new year with some trepidation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To quote Stephen Sondheim, everything&#8217;s coming up roses &#8230; or close enough, anyway. Last Friday, strong numbers out of Iowa &#8212; of a non-caucus ilk &#8212; showed the state&#8217;s casinos rebounding to the tune of 16% (on a $121 million) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/belated-christmas-presents-midwest-edition\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,60,70,145,83,42,14,117,7,58,68,86,85,116,11,39,91,71,69,30,111,31,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216"}],"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=8216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8219,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions\/8219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}