One less weekend day in October helped depress casino revenues in Indiana, down 3%. However, individual property results were all over the place, making generalizations perilous. For instance, Majestic Star II in Gary was down 9%, to $5 million, but its sister 
vessel was up 3%, to $7 million. Horseshoe Hammond declined 6% but still walloped the market with $34 million. Ameristar East Chicago pulled in almost $18 million, a 4.5% slippage. Although it draws primarily on a different market (Michigan), Boyd Gaming‘s Blue Chip was 5% down, making $13 million. Mid-state, French Lick Resort did well, up 4% to over $7.5 million, and so did the racinos: Hoosier Park banked $15 million (+3%) and Indiana Downs did better still — $19 million, for a 5% gain.
The most dramatic revenue fluctuation in the Hoosier State was Hollywood Lawrenceburg‘s 10.5% fall, down to $13 million. Pinnacle Entertainment‘s Belterra was off 5% to $9 million, while Tropicana Evansville had a rare bad month, down 2% to $10 million. Despite a 6% falloff at Horseshoe Southern Indiana, the Caesars Entertainment property still recorded almost $20 million in receipts. The sole gainer along the Ohio River was Full House Resorts‘ Rising Sun casino, up 3% to $4 million. Clearly, CEO Dan Lee is doing something right, although one understands his desire to split the Rising Sun license in two and create a casino in Indianapolis. Now that Gov. Mike Pence (R) is picking out furniture for his new office in Washington, D.C., it will be interesting to see if his “no net expansion of gaming” policy remains in place.
* When tracking the fate of The Crown 18, it is impossible to avoid noticing that the Melco half of Melco Crown Entertainment (more than half, really, as Melco holds a 73% 
share in the company) hasn’t been touched by the anti-corruption thrust. Crown customer lists, by contrast, have been seized. However, Melco Crown CEO Lawrence Ho says he is being “extra cautious and careful” when it comes to marketing the company’s Macao properties. While the Chinese government seems to be showing favoritism for the home team, Ho isn’t taking the present clemency for granted. In other Melco Crown news, profit doubled from 2Q16 to 3Q16, partly on the strength of improved mass-market play at Studio City Macau, the company’s most Vegas-style property to date.
* Even had Eugene McCain‘s slot-parlor proposal fared better with Massachusetts voters (69% of whom voted it down), there’s far from any guarantee it would have survived the regulatory process. Funding came primarily from Saipan-based Bridge Capital, a murky outfit whose casino in Laos had been seized by the Laotian government last year amid allegations of money laundering and outright bribery. Casino opponents and proponents came together to celebrate McCain’s defeat. Wynn Boston Harbor President Robert DeSalvio said, “Voters clearly recognized that Question 1 only benefited a small group of foreign investors who attempted to use a statewide ballot question for personal gain.” Casino adversary Celeste Ribeiro Myers symbolically joined hands with DeSalvio, telling the Boston Globe, “Anybody who wants to mess around with the state legislative process, they’d better think twice because we’re savvy here in Massachusetts … We know we deserve nothing but the best.” McCain surely was not that.
