Tropicana Evansville posted gains in attendance and gambling revenue last month, outperforming most other Indiana casinos.
The Evansville casino reported 104,369 visitors in July, an increase of 2 percent over July 2013. It reported $10.7 million in revenue from table games and slot machines, a 6 percent year-over-year increase.
“They (Tropicana) continued to be much more consistent than the other casinos,” said Ed Feigenbaum, editor of Indiana Gaming Insight.
Taken as a whole, Indiana’s 13 facilities saw 1.6 million visitors in July, a drop of 12 percent from a year earlier. They took in a combined $187.5 million in gambling revenue, down 10 percent from July 2013.
All of these numbers come from the Indiana Gaming Commission’s July casino revenue report, which was released Friday.
Tropicana was one of only two casinos statewide to post attendance gains last month, along with the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City. And it was one of three, along with Blue Chip and Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, to post gains in gambling revenue.
Indiana casinos have consistently seen declines over the past year or so. Between October 2007 and June 2013, Feigenbaum said, Indiana’s casinos as a group consistently pulled in at least $200 million in gambling revenue each month. But since September 2013, statewide gambling revenue has topped $200 million in only one month.
“Now, we’re seeing that as the new norm,” Feigenbaum said.
That drop is in large part because of competition from Illinois and Ohio, Feigenbaum said.
In 2012, Ohio opened its first casinos. That same year Illinois implemented video gambling, allowing gambling terminals to be placed in non-casino locations such as bars and restaurants.
Tropicana Evansville’s general manager, Jason Gregorec, said the Evansville casino is more geographically insulated from these phenomenon than are casinos in other parts of Indiana.
Still, he said, his property is seeing some competition from the video gambling terminals in Illinois.
“They’re growing every month,” he said.
According to the Illinois Gaming Board, as of June there were 17,467 video gambling terminals throughout the state.
Gregorec said he was happy with Tropicana’s July performance.
He said a variety of promotions last month, plus a concert featuring Lee Greenwood, helped draw visitors to the casino.