August winnings down for Louisiana casinos

That compares to us$ 193.4 million for August 2010 and us$ 224.3 million in July 2011. Individually, all of the casinos saw their winnings from gamblers drop in August compared to their winnings in July - a typically busy month for casinos. Most took in less compared to August a year ago.

Harrah's casino in downtown New Orleans saw a more than 10 % drop in winnings from July to August. The New Orleans casino won us$ 24.6 million last month, compared to us$ 27.4 million in July. The August figure was down by more than 7 % from August 2010, when it took in us$ 26.6 million.

The 13 riverboats took in us$ 129.8 million, down more than 18 percent% from us$ 158.9 million in July; and down almost 4 % from us$ 134.7 million in August a year ago. For the race track slots, total take was us$ 31.1 million in August, down nearly 18 % from July's us$ 37.9 million; nearly 3 % down from us$ 32 million in August 2010.

Only the Baton Rouge and Lake Charles riverboat markets saw an increase in total winnings from August 2010 to August 2011. In the three-boat Lake Charles market, that was due to L'auberge du lac, which had a 2.4 % increase over the previous August's winnings, compared to losses by the other two boats. In Baton Rouge, Hollywood Casino saw an increase in August-to-August winnings of more than 7 %, while winnings for the competing Belle of Baton Rouge were down.

Of four slot machine race tracks around the state, only the Fair Grounds at New Orleans did better in August 2011 than August 2010, with a 4 percent larger take. Delta Downs near Lake Charles, Evangeline Downs in St. Landry Parish, and Harrah's Louisiana Downs in Bossier City all saw lower winnings in August 2011.

It was the second year in a row that August winnings were down from the previous year. The roughly 4 percent drop came after the state market appeared to be picking up steam in July, when the tally was 2.2 % higher than July 2010.