Mississippi casino revenue almost level from a year ago

The 30 casinos spread along the coast and the Mississippi River won us$ 202 million from players in August, down only 1.6 % from the previous August's winnings of us$ 205.2 million.

In perhaps a sign that the coast is shaking off the tourism-related impact of the BP PLC Gulf oil spill and the economic downturn that has cut travel, 11 casinos won us$ 101.3 million, up 5.6 % from August 2009 and up 3.8 % from July 2010. July is typically a better month for the industry, coming at the height of the summer season and with a major holiday weekend.

It was a different story for the 19 casinos on the Mississippi River that stretch from Natchez to Tunica. Those casinos won us$ 100.7 million, a 7.9 % dip from us$ 109.3 million won in August 2009. The river casinos also showed a typical summer pattern, having won us$ 120.7 million in July.

Scott King, director of policy and research for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Business Council, said some of the July-to-August increase may have been due to the way slot revenue is accounted for, pushing some of that money into the August count.

But overall, King said the casino business appears to be recovering from a recession-induced streak of 24 consecutive months of revenue declines. "There's some life down here and we're close to being able to start growing again," King said.

King said that due to a tourism advertising campaign financed by BP, much of the damage to the overall tourism industry from the oil spill likely had been avoided. "We're able to say we dodged a bullet on that, at least initially," he said.

Neighboring Louisiana also reported an August-to-August casino revenue report that showed only a slight dip. Thirteen riverboat casinos, the downtown New Orleans casino and four race track casinos took in us$ 193.4 million last month, a 2.4 % drop from us$ 199.8 million in August 2009. Like Mississippi, Louisiana has seen a reversal of monthly figures showing sharp drops.

The figures do not include the two states' Indian tribal casinos, which are not required to report their winnings to the public.