A strong December helped Northwest Indiana's casinos close 2015 with gaming revenue nearly matching 2014's total.
A 3.3 percent increase in the casinos' gambling win in December 2015 led to an $82.9 million month. All four of the area's casinos showed a gain for the month, the only time that happened in 2015.
Horseshoe Casino Senior Vice President and General Manager Dan Nita said December ended a year that "seems like it's almost an every-other-month kind of situation" in terms of revenue increases and decreases.
But December "dug us back out of the previous deficit, and we just barely missed achieving the annualized 2014 revenue," Nita said.
It brought the year's gambling win to $972.6 million; down only one-quarter of 1 percent from 2014's $974.8 million.
Nita said the challenge from Illinois' growing offerings of video-terminal slot machines at bars and other businesses drew business from Indiana casinos throughout the year.
"In light of the added supply of slot machines, most operators I'd expect to feel pretty content with the way the year finished out," Nita said.
For 2015, Ameristar in East Chicago and Blue Chip in Michigan City showed growth. Ameristar's 2015 gambling revenue was 3.3 percent higher than in 2014, coming in at $228.2 million.
Blue Chip was up 2.3 percent to $159.5 million.
Horseshoe, the area's largest casino, was down 1.7 percent to $428.2 million. And the Majestic Star casinos in Gary were down 3.5 percent, to $156.7 million.
Casino admissions were down in 2015, to 5.2 million from 5.6 million.
And the state's tax take was down along with admissions and gambling. Total admissions and wagering taxes were $118.2 million in 2015, down from $122.7 million in 2014.
Employment at the casinos is down from last year, too. Area casinos employed 5,359 when the Indiana Gaming Commission's annual report was published in July. The 2014 report showed 5,580 employees.