Mississippi Casinos Generate $168M in August

Mississippi’s casinos generated revenue of $168 million in August, lower by 2% versus the $171 million collected in the same month last year, according to the latest figures released by the Mississippi Department of Revenue. The statistics do not include winnings from the state’s Choctaw Indian casinos, however, which are not required to report their earnings to the state.
In terms of individual markets, the 12 Coast casinos reported a less than 1% year-over-year gain at $98 million, nonetheless representing five out of six monthly increase for the Magnolia State. Meanwhile, the 16 river casinos saw their winnings drop by more than 4% to $70 million from the 73 million reported for August of 2016.
As a result of the latest results, statewide Coast casino revenues are currently at $808 million for the first 8 months of 2017, lagging behind last year’s number of $810 million by more than 2%, but an improvement on the $781 million taken in 2015. For the past 12 months, overall state revenue is also down by 1% year-on-year.
In response to the falling figures, casino operators in Mississippi have responded by cutting the number of their employees since last August by 283 to 9,394, while there are also currently 13,970 slot machines displayed on the casino floors, or 574 less 12 months ago. Traffic to the various casinos has remained steady, though, with $1.2 million people having visited one of Mississippi’s gambling establishments in August.
In 1992, Mississippi became one of the first US states, aside from Nevada, to legalize casino gambling, and on Aug. 1st of that year the Isle of Capri riverboat opened for business after having sailed down the Mississippi River from Iowa to Biloxi. Remembering the day, Allen Godfrey, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Association, said:
“I was there when the first boat opened. It’s just been an amazing run.”
After being in the doldrums over the past few years, Mississippi casinos generated revenue of $2.12 billion in 2016, up by 1% from the previous year. Nevertheless, business is still significantly down since the industry peaked at $2.89 billion in 2007.