Casinos in the US state of Louisiana experienced a fall in revenues in January.
The $185.2m won from gamblers in January was down considerably from the December holiday season figure of $211.4m and a slip from the January 2012 figure of close to $185.7m. None of the casinos escaped the post-holiday season drop-off and only a few saw improvement in January-to-January comparisons.
At the downtown Harrah's New Orleans Casino, revenue rose to just over $27m last month from just under $27m a year earlier. The total for the 13 riverboat casinos was down in the January-to-January comparison, with winnings of $126.9m last month and $126.4m a year earlier. Only the Baton Rouge riverboat market improved. And there, two long-standing casinos lost ground to the new L'Auberge riverboat, which opened in the autumn.
While the slot machine operation at The Fair Grounds horse track in New Orleans increased its winnings, the total for all four race track slot facilities was down to $31.3m last month from about $32.3m in January 2012.
In the Lake Charles market, revenue dropped nearly 11 per cent, from $39.9m in January 2012 to $35.5m last month. In Baton Rouge, the $21.7m total was a 44 per cent jump from January a year earlier. But the Belle of Baton Rouge's winnings of $4.5m were down by $1.4m from January 2012 and the Hollywood Baton Rouge winnings of $6.4m fell almost 30 perc ent from the year-ago figure of $9.2m. L'Auberge won $10.7m, indicating the new boat was bringing in gamblers from other markets, as well as from the Belle and Hollywood.
At race tracks, The Fair Grounds slot operation won $4m in January, up from $3.9m a year earlier. But Delta Downs at Vinton, Harrah's Louisiana Downs in north-western Louisiana and Evangeline Downs in Opelousas saw decreases ranging from 3.4 per cent to 4.2 per cent.
