Ill. casinos’ slump continues in March
The tough times for Illinois casinos showed no signs of ending in March, with revenue and admissions down sharply from the same period last year, according to new figures from the Illinois Gaming Commission.
It was the third straight month of nearly across-the-board losses since the statewide smoking ban took effect Jan. 1, and in many cases those losses deepened relative to the same period last year.
Just fewer than 1.35 million people visited Illinois’ nine casinos in March, down 9 percent from the same month in 2007. They spent $147.7 million, down from $184.3 million last year.
The slump continued at the two St. Louis-area casinos, the Casino Queen and the Argosy Casino-Alton.
The Queen, which opened major new renovations last summer but has been facing the smoking ban and new competition from Lumiere Place casino downtown, saw revenue off 8.9 percent from last year. Visits, however, were up 11.9 percent, which casino operators have taken as a sign that people are still coming but spending less time playing since they must leave the casino floor to smoke.
Up the river in Alton, revenue at the Argosy riverboat plummeted 28.8 percent, with visits down 18.2 percent.
The full Illinois report is available here. Similar figures for Missouri casinos are due out later this week.
Blaming smoking seems to be a bit premature. Smoking is the reason people like me don’t go to places like casinos and bars and clubs more often. The REAL reason people aren’t going to casinos is because they are having to spend their money on the addictive drug nicotine in cigarettes and in this economic recession do not have any extra cash to spend on gambling.
There needs to be a smoking ban in Missouri as well and especially in St. Louis city.
Even if it could be proven that the smoking ban is the ONLY reason gambling is down in Illinois, the ban would still be the right thing to keep in place. The public and casino employees have the right to breathe clean air and not be subjected to second-hand smoke, which is a proven killer. Profits are important, yes, but the public health is more important.
Why should the government be allowed to dictate what goes on in a private business? If smoking is a legal activity on the street, why do a few do-gooders think they have the right to tell a private business what to do? I am sure that if the casino owners/operators thought that a no smoking ban wouuld increase business, they would have started out that way. This is just more nanny-state do gooders messing with peoples individual rights.
Hey Rodney,
It’s not immature to think most of the gamblers are smokers. Before you whine about people wasting money on smoking, are you implying it’s OK to waste 1000s of bucks in a casino?
Gambling is more of a serious addiction than smoking, as far as wasting money unnecessarily is concerned.
I don’t go to casinos because I don’t believe in wasting lots of money in a casino. My money is better spent in stores, food, and cigarettes.
If most of the gamblers are not smokers, how come the casinos are struggling? After all, there are more nonsmokers than smokers, right?
Before you tell me it’s your choice to waste money in a casino, it’s also MY choice to buy cigs. But at least I’m not a gambling addict who loses 1k per day in a casino.
If the public health is more important, how come we live in a country with obese people? If this country is any indication of all Americans being healthy citizens, I don’t see it even if I exclude smokers. There are obese people out here, drug addicts, and alcoholics. Improving public health isn’t limited to banning smoking. The public health would really improve if we didn’t have fast food addicts.
A casino owner voluntarily banning smoking is understandable. But having the government dictate how ALL casinos are run isn’t. That’s like implying that every nonsmoker is waiting to gamble, and now they can do it since all casinos are smoke-free.. If that was true, the casinos wouldn’t be struggling. It’s a wonder why nobody had the common sense to open up a smoke-free casino in Illinois before 2008. Because then people would have the choice to not go to the smoking casinos at all.
If you don’t think profits are important for ANY business, then you obviously don’t know anything about running a successful business. Without profits, your business will be forced to close down for good. You need to make money in order to STAY in business as an owner. And not to mention you need to make money in order to pay your employees!
I’m sure a smoke-free casino WOULD be more successful in getting more nonsmoking gamblers on a more frequent basis if there was only one smoke-free casino in Illinois prior to 2007. Who said a casino owner wasn’t allowed to have a smoke-free casino when it first opened up years ago?
You know what people, smog is a horrible thing. We should ban factories to save our children from (insert ridiculous accusation here). Also, McDonalds is making our children fat, we should ban McDonalds. I don’t like the smell of cheese when I walk into a restaurant, we should ban cheese for all the people who think its a disgusting habit. Do you realize how ridiculous you antismokers sound? You should be banned from speaking because the nonsense coming out of your mouths is a lot worse than the smoke coming out of mine.
Gamblers spending less…spending down 8.9%…Casinos only making 15 million a month and not 20 million a month…Smokers quitting tobacco…workers not breathing toxic fumes. Hey! I think these are all good things. This law is GREAT! Improved public health instead of greedy men making more money should always be the way to go.