Almost all of Indiana’s casinos — including Tropicana Evansville — saw gains in visitation and gambling revenue last month, according to a new state report.
Tropicana saw 96,565 visitors in January, up 11 percent from the same month a year earlier. The casino’s revenue from slot machines and table games rose 1 percent, to $9.66 million.
The numbers come from the Indiana Gaming Commission’s January casino revenue report, which was released Monday.
In recent months, Tropicana had established a trend of outperforming the state average — but that was not the case in January.
Only one casino in the state, the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, saw declines in gambling revenue and visitation. All the other facilities saw gains in both areas.
Taken as a whole, Indiana’s casinos saw gambling revenues climb 14 percent, to $176.39 million. Visitation climbed 12 percent, to 1,430,396.
Gregorec blamed weather patterns, regional competition and pure luck for the shift.
Though last winter was harsh in general, Gregorec said facilities in other parts of the state were affected much more by bad weather a year ago. Evansville was not affected as much, he said, so it faced a stiffer year-over-year comparison than did some of the other casinos.
Tropicana was also affected by increased competition from the Harrah’s casino in Metropolis, Illinois, Gregorec said.
Harrah’s Metropolis moved from a riverboat facility to a land-based casino in November.
According to an Illinois Gaming Board report, the Metropolis casino saw its attendance rise 52 percent last month, to 64,292. Gambling revenue rose 28 percent, to $7.23 million.
Plain luck was another reason Tropicana posted modest gambling revenue increases last month, Gregorec said. The casino’s slot machines simply paid out more.
“We had a stronger payback to our guests this January as compared to the prior January,” he said.
“The machines were hot, and we paid out.”