Indiana casinos' revenue falls

The big declines are a troubling sign for Indiana’s gambling halls, which are facing a new threat this month - a us$ 400 million casino in Cincinnati.

Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati opened last Monday and is expected to siphon millions of dollars away from southeast Indiana’s three riverboat casinos, which are less than an hour’s drive from the new competition. Those casinos already are struggling amid competition from Ohio, where new casinos in Toledo, Columbus and Cleveland opened last year.
In February, Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana’s second biggest, led the state in revenue decline. Receipts fell 24 percent, or about $9.5 million, compared with the same month last year. The casino had already laid off 160 workers in the fall amid declining revenue.

Nearby Rising Star Casino saw the state’s largest decline in admissions, down 25 percent. Horseshoe Southern Indiana in Harrison County, near Louisville, didn’t do nearly as badly but still saw revenues decline more than 9 percent.

Steve Jimenez, general manager at Rising Star, attributed the dip to bad weather in the first week of the month and the extra day in last year’s calendar. Still, he said, new casinos in Ohio have had an effect. “When a new casino opens, everyone goes,” he said. “Then they go back to the casinos they like.”

The declining revenue is a problem for state and local governments, too. Indiana’s casinos generate more revenue than those in all but three other states — and government gets a big slice. “Our 13 casinos here pay more to the state and local units of government than all the casinos in Nevada pay the state of Nevada,” said Mike Smith, president of the Casino Association of Indiana.

As a result, casino tax revenue has grown to become the state’s third-largest revenue source after sales and income taxes. In February, casino wagering and admission taxes fell 13 percent compared with the same month last year.

To combat those losses, state lawmakers are considering a bill intended to make Hoosier casinos more competitive. The measure would reduce gambling taxes, allow table games such as blackjack and poker at the state’s two horse track casinos and let riverboat casinos move inland.

Those changes, however, would come at the expense of the communities where the casinos are located. Local governments would lose us$ 27 million a year under the bill, which already has passed the Senate. The measure is expected to face more scrutiny in the House, where a higher percentage of lawmakers have ties to casino communities.