St. Louis Casinos Down 13.2% To $83.5m In June

The Missouri Gaming Commission and Illinois Gaming Board has now released its June results for the St. Louis metro area, revealing a dramatic 13.2% decline in revenue to $83.5 million, compared to the same month last year.
In June, not one of the six local casinos reported an increase in year-over-year revenue, with storms and severe flooding contributing to much of the decline. Argosy Alton posted the biggest percentage fall of 27.3% to $4.4 million, after a disastrous June in which its parking lot flooded forcing the casino to shut down for five days.
The next biggest decline was recorded by the Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino St. Louis in Maryland Heights, whose revenue fell by 24.2% to $17.7 million; followed by Pinnacle Entertainment’s Lumiere Place down 13.4% to $12.5 million; Casino Queen in East St. Louis down 8.4% to $10.4 million; and Ameristar St. Charles down 5.2% to $22 million.
Also posting a decline in revenue was the St. Louis area’s newest casino, Pinnacle’s River City Casino in Lemay, which fell 7.3% to $16.6 million. The casino cost $380 million to construct back in early 2010, and has since provided a boost to the struggling Lemay area, which receives roughly $4 million per annum towards its Community Investment projects.
As Denny Coleman from the St. Louis County Economic Development Council stated last year: “It helped us redevelop a contaminated and almost worthless site that was in the flood plain. We’re not trying to change the nature of the community; we are just trying to enhance the quality of life of the community as it exists. If we can do that by making adjustments to the infrastructure, create some new businesses, and provide some low-interest loans for people to fix up their houses, that’s a good thing.”