Missouri Casino Revenue Falls In January

The Missouri Gaming Commission has released its financial report for January revealing that all but one of the state’s 13 licensed casinos showed a decline in their revenue and visitor numbers.
Overall, revenues at St. Louis’ six casinos were down by 4% to $83 million in January, compared to the same month last year. Casino Queen in East St. Louis reported the biggest fall in revenue of 11% to $9.6 million; followed by Hollywood Casino St. Louis down 6% to $19.4 million. Also recording declining revenues in January was Pinnacle’s Lumiere Place down 5% to $12 million; Ameristar St. Charles down 3% to $20.8 million; and Argosy Alton down 3% to $5.3 million.
The River City in Lemay was the only St. Louis area casino whose revenue was not in negative territory during January, although it remained just flat instead at $15.9 million. Commenting on the lackluster figures, River City vice president of marketing Joe Branchik, said: “We feel the economy has definitely impacted the (casino) revenues across the Midwest. Hopefully, as the weather breaks, people will start to return to their normal spending habits.”
As far as casino visitor numbers are concerned, 12 of Missouri’s 13 licensed casinos showed a decline in numbers in January, the greatest drop of which was reported by Harrah’s North Kansas City at 15%. Conversely, Hollywood Casino St. Louis showed the only increase at 16%.
Needless to say, the declining casino figures have made it difficult for city leaders to determine how to fund city projects with the revenue, and as Councilman Mark Lanzotti explains: “We at the city need to get a very firm handle on what an annual revenue stream is going to look like to even help us begin to plan for expenditures and where to best put those resources to help the most citizens of Cape.”