St. Louis Casinos Down 10.6% To $86m In July

St. Louis in the state of Missouri, has now released its casino figures for July revealing a 10.6% decline in revenue to $86 million compared to the same month in 2012. Worryingly, all of St. Louis’ six casinos reported a fall in revenue during the month, with four of them declining by double digits.
Analysts have struggled to explain the continuing widespread decline in St. Louis’ gambling industry, with gaming revenue having fallen in every month of this year, so far. However, the independent city of St. Louis is most likely suffering from the general malaise which has affected the US economy in recent years, resulting in gamblers having less money to spend at the casinos.
Leading the sliders was the Pinnacle Entertainment owned Lumiere Place, which was down by 17.8% to $11.4 million. Meanwhile, Pinnacle announced only last month it would be selling its Lumiere Place Casino, Hotel Lumiere, Four Seasons Hotel in St. Louis and its Lake Charles hotel development project in order to acquire Ameristar Casinos Inc. for $2.8 billion, with a sales agreement expected in the third quarter.
Next, Hollywood Casino St. Louis in Maryland Heights, reported the second largest decline, down by 11.4% to $20.7 million compared with the same month last year. The property was purchased by Penn National Gaming for $610 million in November 2012, with the company currently in the middle of a massive $61 million rebranding and renovation project, as it seeks to  make the casino more attractive to gamblers.
“We are down almost what the market declined with the renovation still impacting us slightly,” explained Hollywood Casino Spokesman Marc DeLeo.
Also reporting declines in growth was Argosy Alton, down 11.3% to $5.5 million; Ameristar St. Charles down 10% to $21.5 million; River City Casino in Lemay, down 8.8% to $16.4 million; and Casino Queen in East St. Louis, down 4.8% to $10.5 million in July, compared with the same month in 2012.