Northwest Indiana’s casinos continued their relatively strong year in April with gaming revenues growing 3.2 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
The casinos took in $86.3 million in total wins in April compared to $83.6 million last April. It was their third winning month of 2016 — only March has had a year-over-year loss — and they are now up about 1.2 percent for the calendar year.
“It’s actually a really good story,” said Chris Albrecht, Horseshoe Casino assistant general manager. “As we look at the trends, I’d say all in all it’s pretty positive, and April helps feed into that narrative.”
The calendar was kind this April — it had one more Friday and Saturday than April 2015. “We did have a favorable calendar,” said Matt Schuffert, Ameristar vice president and general manager. Manager Matt Schuffert said.
But even with that, “from our perspective, it was another month of strong growth,” Schuffert said. Ameristar had the largest year-over-year gain in the regional market, with growth of about 6 percent to $21.2 million.
Schuffert said April marked the 16th month of gaming revenue growth in the last 20 for the East Chicago casino.
Blue Chip, in Michigan City, wasn’t far behind Ameristar, with a 4.6 percent increase to $14 million. Gary’s Majestic Star casinos showed a combined 2.9 percent gain to $14.5 million.
Horseshoe, the state’s largest casino, showed about 1.3 percent growth to $36.2 million.
“You’ll see it across the different types of games,” Albrecht said of the growing revenue. While table games have tended to lead growth, slots were up this month, too, he said.
Schuffert noted baccarat and black jack revenues were “extremely positive” at Ameristar, which has expanded its table game offerings in recent years.
In Northwest Indiana, April was down from March’s $89.6 million, which was the highest total since March 2015. March is typically a strong month for the casinos — it’s one of the months revenue tends to “pop,” Albrecht said.
Besides being a 31-day month, “the weather starts to turn; it’s a good time for people to get out,” Schuffert said.
Majestic Star I and II casinos in Gary took in a total of $14.5 million in April, which was a 2.9 percent increase from April 2015.
Total casino admissions were down 2.1 percent in April, with a total of nearly 865,000 this year compared to almost 884,000 in 2015. That continues a trend of declining overall admissions, even while gambling revenue has tended to rise.
The Region’s casinos paid about $30.5 million in gaming and admissions taxes in April, nearly half the total of $63.6 million paid by the state’s 11 casinos and two casino and racetrack combinations.