NWI casinos continue to see declining revenues
By Karen Caffarini Post-Tribune correspondent February 8, 2012 4:14PM
Updated: March 11, 2012 8:36AM
Northwest Indiana casinos in January resumed their trend of year-over-year declining revenues after seeing a slight increase in December.
Of the five casinos, only Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City improved its revenues over January 2010, and it was a very slight hike.
“It’s disappointing after breaking an eight-month string of declines not to be able to increase their business month to month,” Ed Feigenbaum, editor of Indiana Gaming Insight, said Wednesday after the monthly revenue numbers were released by the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Dan Nita, senior vice president and general manager of Horseshoe Hammond Casino, blamed the weather, saying that while January 2010 was much colder and had more snow, last month’s snowfalls fell on a Thursday and a Friday, having a negative impact on the busier weekends.
“Last year the snow fell mid-week. We have twice as much business on Saturday as we do on Tuesday,” Nita said.
Nita said he is encouraged by Horseshoe having a higher market share in Northwest Indiana and in the Chicago market areas last month. He said at 43 percent for Northwest Indiana and 23 percent for the Chicago market, it was the casino’s highest market share since The Rivers opened in Des Plaines, Ill., last July.
“The Rivers is making more than $30 million. If not for The Rivers, we would have trumped for sure,” Nita said.
Feigenbaum said while Northwest Indiana casinos continue to struggle, three of the six casinos in southern Indiana and the racinos had increased revenues last month over the previous January.
Ameristar Casino in East Chicago saw its revenues drop from $19.8 million to $18.9 million, while Horseshoe slid from $41.7 million to $40.8 million and the two Majestic Star Casinos combined dropped from $17.6 million to $15.5 million. Blue Chip inched up from $12.4 million to $12.6 million.
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