Foot traffic was down 15% in Indiana casinos last month and even though players spent 10%, it wasn’t quite enough to stave off a 7% 
decline. (The numbers are worse if you don’t count free play as revenue, which Indiana casinos are permitted to do. They’re better if you remember that Labor Day weekend fell in August last year.) Pinnacle Entertainment was the big winner for the month, up 1% at Belterra and 4% at Ameristar East Chicago. Down south, Penn National Gaming‘s Hollywood Lawrenceburg continues to be decimated by Ohio competition, down 20%. By contrast, even though it had the lowest gross in the state ($4.5 million), Full House Resorts‘ Rising Sun was only off 7%.
Forever besieged by tribal casinos in Michigan, business at Boyd Gaming‘s Blue Chip was down 2%, while normally reliable Caesars Entertainment casinos were well off the pace. Horseshoe Hammond dove 12%, while Horseshoe Southern Indiana took an 11% plunge. Even the racinos wilted in the heat, with Hoosier Park declining 6% while Indiana Downs was flat. In this context, that counts as a moral victory or something like that.
* Some good news out of Macao? Looks that way. Casino revenues so far this month are $77 million, ahead of the $71 million at the same point in August. Chinese players, meanwhile, continue to seek out Singapore as alternative, although this hasn’t translated into higher win rates for Genting Group‘s Resorts World Sentosa. Genting also has a problem getting its VIPs to honor their debts, with “days receivable” frequently exceeding three months.
* Did GVC Holdings overpay for Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment? Rival 888 Holdings seems to think so, saying “it cannot see sufficient value in bwin.party to warrant a revision to its offer,” in its concession statement. Now we’ll see if GVC gets its $1.7 billion worth.
