Revenue falls at Louisiana casinos

At the downtown Harrah's New Orleans Casino, revenue rose to just over us$ 27 million last month from just under us$ 27 million a year earlier. The total for 13 riverboat casinos was down in the January-to-January comparison, with winnings of us$ 126.9 million last month and us$ 126.4 million a year earlier. Only the Baton Rouge riverboat market improved. And there, two longstanding casinos lost ground to the new L'Auberge riverboat, which opened in the fall.

And, while the slot machine operation at The Fair Grounds horse track in New Orleans increased its winnings, the total for all four race track slot facilities was down to us$ 31.3 million last month from about us$ 32.3 million in January 2012.

In the Lake Charles market, revenue dropped nearly 11 percent, from us$ 39.9 million in January 2012 to us$ 35.5 million last month. In Baton Rouge, the us$ 21.7 million total was a 44 percent jump from January a year earlier. But the Belle of Baton Rouge's winnings of us$ 4.5 million were down by us$ 1.4 million from January 2012 and the Hollywood Baton Rouge winnings of us$ 6.4 million fell almost 30 percent from the year-ago figure of us$ 9.2 million. L'Auberge won us$ 10.7 million, indicating the new boat was bringing in gamblers from other markets, as well as from the Belle and Hollywood.

At race tracks, The Fair Grounds slot operation won us$ 4 million in January, up from us$ 3.9 million a year earlier. But Delta Downs at Vinton, Harrah's Louisiana Downs in northwestern Louisiana and Evangeline Downs in Opelousas saw decreases ranging from 3.4 percent to 4.2 percent.