Northwest Indiana Casinos Down 1.9% In October

The Indiana Gaming Commission has released its October casino figures for Northwest Indiana, revealing a 1.9% decrease in revenue to $85.1 million compared to the $86.9 million generated in October 2012.
On the positive side, however, Northwest Indiana’s five gaming boat casinos saw their collective revenues increase by 3.1% from the previous month, which was somewhat unusual considering October tends to be a slow month. In addition, some analysts believe the improvement could indicate a stabilization of the Northwest Indiana gaming market going forward into 2014.
During October, the casino showing the greatest gains was the  Horseshoe Hammond, which reported a 2.2% increase in revenue to $40.8 million compared to $40.1 million in October 2012. Following announcement of the results, assistant general manager at Horseshoe Hammond, Erin Chamberlin, commented:
“For us it feels like it’s an encouraging sign. It’s not a huge, robust growth, but it’s moving in the right direction. September was a really rough month.”
On the flip side, reporting the steepest decline was Majestic Star II in Gary, which saw its revenue fall 10%, while revenues at Majestic Star I dropped 0.5%, with both Wayzata Investment Partners casinos reporting a combined revenue of $14.3 million for October.
Also posting declines was the Ameristar Casino in East Chicago, down 9.5% to $16.5 million in October, and the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, which fell 0.7% to $13.5 million last month.
In terms of attendance, Blue Chip was the only casino to see its visitor numbers increase from 195,819 in October, 2012, to 198,015 last month. Reporting fewer visitors through its turnstiles, however, was Ameristar down from 229,076 to 193,504; Horseshoe down from 412,351 to 397,701; and Majestic Stars’ two casinos down from 208,788 to 192,624.