LONDON: Northwest Indiana’s five casinos broke their three-month streak of collective year-over-year revenue gains in March, reporting a slight 0.6 percent dip from the same month last year.
The casinos raked in a total of $89.57 million in March, compared to the $90.89 million they took in the same month last year, according to the monthly revenues report issued Friday by the Indiana Gaming Commission. Ameristar Casino in East Chicago continued its winning streak for the 15th of the last 18 months, with $21.6 million in revenues compared to $20.19 million in March 2015.
Also showing monthly year-over-year hikes in revenue were the two Majestic Star Casinos in Gary. Majestic Star I took in $8.63 million, a slight increase over the $8.56 million it took in the previous March, while Majestic Star II reported $6.31 million, compared to $6.13 million from a year ago.
Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City remained mostly flat, with $14.43 million in revenue compared to $14.47 million last March. Horseshoe Hammond Casino had the biggest drop, raking in $38.6 million last month compared to $41.51 million the previous March, a 6.4 percent decline.
Dan Nita, senior vice president and general manager of Horseshoe Hammond, said there was some share-shifting among casinos, where some casinos saw growth at the expense of others. “As we’re a competitive business, we’ll be looking at what programs worked and which ones didn’t,” he said.
Nita said two factors contributed to the soft month: March had an additional Sunday last year and Easter fell in March this year instead of April. “Some people had other things they wanted to do on Easter weekend,” he said. He said the Northwest Indiana casinos did better than their Illinois competition, which saw a 1.3 percent year-over-year decline in revenue.
Year-over-year attendance was down at all the casinos except Blue Chip, which had a slight increase, from 203,131 to 203,220. Ameristar’s attendance dropped from 226,775 to 203,457, Horseshoe’s dipped from 360,642 to 326,758 while the two Majestic Star Casinos saw their total attendance drop from 165,926 to 162,088.
