Northwest Indiana’s five casinos broke their yearlong losing streak in December, taking in more revenues collectively than the previous December.
“This is the first time in 13 months where we showed year-over-year growth in one month,” Dan Nita, senior vice president and general manager of Horseshoe Hammond, said Thursday.
Nita attributed the 6.4 percent growth in December to the weather.
“Last December we had a substantial snowfall every weekend and New Year’s Eve. This year we had favorable weather through much of December,” Nita said.
He said the casinos also benefitted from having Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on a Thursday instead of a weekend.
He said there was growth in almost every indicator at the casinos, including visitor count and table drop.
The five casinos took in $80.2 million in revenues last month, compared to $75.75 million in December 2013, according to the monthly revenue report issued Thursday by the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Ameristar Casino in East Chicago raked in $18.72 million last month compared to $16.20 million the previous December, Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City took in $13.08 million compared to $11.67 million and Horseshoe Hammond had $35.81 million in revenues compared to $35.26 million.
Majestic Star I and II casinos took in a total of $12.59 million compared to $12.62 million last December. Majestic Star I actually had a slight increase in revenues, going from $7.12 million in December 2013 to $7.17 million last month, but Majestic Star II dipped from $5.50 million last year to $5.42 million last month.
Nita said the five casinos had a 7.2 percent drop in revenues for the year compared to 2013.
Looking forward to January’s numbers, he said there should be year-over-year growth from last January, which was hit with extreme cold weather and significant snowfalls.
“But the weather’s way too eratic to make any assumptions,” Nita said.