January winnings drop for Louisiana casinos

The tally for the 13 gambling riverboats, Harrah's land casino in New Orleans and the four race track casinos totaled us$ 185.6 million in January. Gamblers lost us$ 191.3 million the previous January and us$ 189.7 million in January 2010.

The boats won us$ 126.4 million, Harrah's won us$ 26.9 million and the track casinos took in $32.3 million. January marked the last month until at least September that 13 riverboats will be in operation. State law allows at most 15 riverboat licenses. Three are spoken for with new developments: Pinnacle Entertainment in Baton Rouge, Creative Casinos in Lake Charles and the Margaritaville Casino, being put together by Bossier Casino Ventures in Bossier City.

The Isle of Capri shut the smaller of its two riverboats, the Crown Casino, in Lake Charles earlier this month. In its final month of operation, the Crown pulled in only us$ 740,331. Pinnacle's L'Auberge Du Lac in Lake Charles, on the other end of the spectrum, had the best January of all the casinos, winning us$ 28.5 million. Bossier Casino Ventures paid us$ 15 million to get the Crown and its license, but is building a new boat for its hotel-casino project.
Pinnacle told the Louisiana Gaming Control Board on Thursday that it plans to open its us$ 368 million Baton Rouge casino-hotel by Labor Day, giving the city three riverboats for the first time. The other two new casinos are expected to open in 2013.

Among the state's casino markets:

-    In Shreveport-Bossier City, which has five riverboats and the Louisiana Downs track casino, gamblers left behind us$ 54 million in January, down from us$ 56.9 million in January 2011. In addition to plans for the sixth riverboat, the market faces competition from Indian nation casinos in Oklahoma and two track casinos in Arkansas.
-    In Lake Charles, the three riverboats and the Delta Downs track casino won us$ 55.1 million last month, up a bit from us$ 54.8 million in January 2011.
-    In the New Orleans area, which has two riverboats, the downtown land casino and the Fair Grounds track casino, players lost us$ 49.8 million last month, down from us$ 51.2 million in January 2011.
-    The two riverboats in Baton Rouge won us$ 15.1 million last month, down from us$ 15.9 million in January 2011.
-    The Evangeline Downs track casino at Opelousas took in us$ 7.6 million in January, down from us$ 7.9 million in January 2011.
-    The lone riverboat in the Morgan City area won a shade less than us$ 4 million last month, a drop from us$ 4.5 million in January 2011.
In December 2011, Louisiana casinos won us$ 201.9 million.