Louisiana Casinos Hit $2.4bn Revenue In 2012

The state of Louisiana has released its casino gambling results for the whole of 2012, revealing a slight increase in revenue to $2.4 billion compared to the $2.37 billion taken in 2011.
Breaking the figures down further, throughout 2012 Louisiana’s land-based casino Harrah’s New Orleans generated $338.9 million in revenue, the riverboats $1.6 billion and the state’s four race track casinos $405 million.
The southern state also managed to close out the year on a good note with land-based casino Harrah’s New Orleans  winning $34.7 million in December, up from the $32.1 million taken in the same month last year. In addition, Louisiana’s thirteen riverboat casinos generated $143.5 million in December compared to the $138.6 million taken for December 2011; while Louisiana’s four horse racing tracks generated $33.2 million in slots revenue up from $31.2 million in December 2011.
However, the improvements were not uniform throughout Louisiana with the Baton Rouge riverboat market recording a 52% rise in revenue to $22.9 million compared to December last year. This was mostly due to the addition of a third casino, the L’Auberge Baton Rouge, which raked in $11 million during December. At the same time, Hollywood Casino saw its revenue drop by 27.8% to $7.1 million, and The Belle of Baton Rouge fell by 6.2% to $4.9 million.
Overall, though, it is believed that the L’Auberge has helped grow the  entire Baton Rouge market, although it is as yet unclear whether the extra customers are coming from the American Indian casinos or the Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos.
In other areas, the New Orleans riverboat market remained fairly flat year-on-year; Lake Charles was down nearly 2%, while The Shreveport-Bossier market was also down by 3.7%.