Four Winds Casino nets $24 million per month for first six months in business

LOU MUMFORD, South Bend Tribune Staff Writer

lmumford@sbtinfo.com

NEW BUFFALO -- The state and local governmental units are still waiting for their payments but it appears the Four Winds Casino is as popular now as when it opened last August.

The latest slot-machine revenue figures released by the Michigan Gaming Control Board state the casino, owned by the Dowagiac-based Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, has a 2 percent payment due to local governmental units amounting to a little more than $2.9 million. For the state, a figure equal to 8 percent of the slot-machine take is due, and that amounts to a little more than $11.7 million.

The figures were compiled over a six-month period, from Oct. 1 through March 30. Projected out, that means the casino took in $146.6 million over the period just in slot-machine revenue, or about $24.4 million a month.