Detroit Casino Revenue Up 0.3% To $112m In July

The Michigan Gaming Control Board has released its casino figures for July, revealing a 0.3% increase in gaming revenue to $112.3 million compared to the same month last year.
During the month, $9.1 million in gaming taxes was subsequently added to the state coffers, which is proving to be a useful source of income for the beleaguered northern state’s finances. In fact, Detroit declared bankruptcy on July 19th, and in its declaration revealed that taxes collected from its casinos is “equivalent of 30 percent of the city’s total available cash on hand as of June 30.
In July, MGM Grand Detroit continued to lead the way posting a 5.5% increase in revenue to $51.5 million, while MotorCity Casino could only manage a 1% decline to $34.6 million and Greektown Casino a revenue fall of 7.2% to $26.2 million.
Overall, though, collective revenues this year from Detroit’s three casinos are currently down by 6.4% percent and failing a spectacular turnaround over the next few months, the casinos are on track to record a decline in revenue for the whole of 2013. This is all further worrying news for Detroit’s gaming industry, which in 2012 reported a 0.5% decline in revenue to $1.4 billion, before which the state had only posted a revenue decline once since 2001.
At the heart of Detroit’s spectacular decline would seem to be increasing competition from newly built casinos in nearby Ohio which have provided a closer gambling option for many Ohio residents who had previously been gambling in Detroit. Ohio’s four casinos, namely Hollywood Casino Columbus, Hollywood Casino Toledo, Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati, and Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, had revenue totaling roughly $72 million in July, an improvement of 5% compared to the previous month.