St. Louis Casinos Dip As US Casino Market Continues To Suffer

The Missouri Gaming Commission has released its casino results for St. Louis, revealing a 3.4% decline in revenue to $89.2 million in August compared with the same month last year.
Out of St. Louis-area’s six gambling halls, just the Pinnacle’s River City recorded a 2% rise in revenue to $18.2 million compared to August 2012. On the other side of the coin, leading the list of sliders was the Argosy Alton which saw its revenue decline by 10% to $5.6 million; followed by the Pinnacle Entertainment owned Lumiere Place, down by 7% to $12.8 million.
Also posting declines was the Casino Queen, down 5% to $10.6 million; the Ameristar St. Charles, down 4% to $22.3 million; and the Hollywood Casino St. Louis, down 3% to $19.8 million compared with August 2012.
The latest monthly results coming out of the St. Louis-area further confirms the dreary state of the independent city’s gambling market, which has seen an overall fall in revenue for every month this year except for January. Helping to explain the downward trend is the ongoing lacklustre performance of the US economy in recent years, which has affected the income gamblers have available to spend at casinos.
As well as St. Louis, other gambling jurisdiction have been equally affected by the downturn and also recording a decline in August was Atlantic City casinos, down 4.8% to $298.1m. The New Jersey city is currently down by 8.9% to $1.97 billion in 2013, putting it on track to record its first sub-$3 billion annual tally for over two decades.
Other US markets also posting declines in August included Michigan down 3.5% to $112.9m, and Ohio down 1.6% to $70.9m. Commenting on the worrying trend, Steve Gallaway, principal of Gaming Market Advisors, said:
“..almost every market shows year-over-year declines. It’s a broken record, but it’s the economy. People just don’t have the disposable income.”