Louisiana Casino Revenue Hits $232m In March

The southern state of Louisiana has released its casino figures for March, revealing a $4.3 million increase in revenue to $232.2 million compared to the same month in 2012. Furthermore, the state’s gambling results were an improvement of $25 million on the previous month.
During March, Louisiana’s 13 licensed riverboat casinos saw their revenues improve by 15.5% to $161.3 million over last month, and by 4.7% compared to March 2012. Breaking the figures down further, the Baton Rouge market saw the Belle of Baton Rouge generate $5.6 million in revenue, down 23.4% on March 2012; Hollywood’s took $8 million, down around 33%, while L’Auberge, which only opened last September won $15.1 million.
The city of Shreveport, with its five riverboat casinos, remained the state’s biggest market with $67.5 million in revenue, $20.5 million of which came from the Horseshoe Casino.
The city of Lake Charles took $64 million in winnings, $32.5 million in winnings coming from L’Auberge Lake Charles; while Morgan City’s Amelia Belle riverboat won $5.2 million, up 11.5% from last month and 4.7% compared to last year’s tally.
In fact, the only casino to generate less revenue in March than in February was Louisiana’s lone land-based casino, Harrah’s New Orleans with $31.6 million in winnings. Even so, the decline was by a mere 0.4% or $136,700, although compared to March, 2012, the decline reached 11.7%. Harrah’s New Orleans also accounted for over half that market’s winnings, with Boomtown winning $11.8 million and the Treasure Chest $9.6 million.
In addition, the state has four slot machine casinos located at various horse tracks across Louisiana, and these businesses saw their revenues reach $39.2 million in March, an improvement of 11.4% on February’s take and 3.2% from a year earlier.
Louisiana’s gambling industry has now generated $14.5 billion in revenue since being legalized in 1991.