B.J. Fairchild-Newman, Shelbyville News Staff Writer
Despite inclement weather, flooding, high gas prices and a sluggish economy, the gross revenue figures for Shelbyville's Indiana Live! Casino were above its own financial projections.
According to casino general manager Mark Hemmerle, Indiana Live! management is quite pleased with the performance of the temporary facility that opened to the public on June 9. The casino reported an adjusted gross revenue of $10,269,149 for the month of June when thousands of people from around central Indiana crowded into the stylish black and silver Sprung structure to try their luck on approximately 1,900 slot machines.
Hoosier Park in Anderson opened its casino one week ahead of Indiana Live! in a permanent instead of a temporary facility with 2,000 slot and electronic gaming tables and reported gross receipts of $15,738,911, which is $5,469,762 more than the Shelbyville casino.
Those big numbers translate into a healthy tax payment for state coffers with Hoosier Park sending $3,980,052 and Indiana Live! paying $2,567,287 for the month of June, which translates to approximately 25 percent from each casino of the adjusted gross revenue resulting from gambling.
Shelbyville, Morristown and Shelby County will split 3 percent of the adjusted gross revenue with the amount for each entity determined by population. Indiana Live! will enrich local governments by more than $77,000 this month.
Hemmerle said that the taxes due to the state are actually wired to it each day from the casino account. Rodney Meyerholtz, Shelbyville clerk-treasurer, noted that Indiana Live! makes all tax payments to the state, and the state sends money to the Shelby County auditor, who then distributes the money to the three governmental entities.
Hemmerle said that he attributes the difference in generated revenue between the two casinos to Hoosier Park opening one week ahead of Indiana Live! He said that the timing of the Anderson casino opening also allowed it to capitalize on the extra traffic at the adjoining horse track generated by simulcasts of New York's Belmont Stakes on June 7 - two days before Indiana Live! opened. He added that the bad weather and flooding that took such a toll on the southern part of the state did not figure as strongly into Hoosier Park's customer base.
Hemmerele said that the taxes that the casino pays to the state and local government are figured differently than taxes on revenue generated by the state's riverboats and the casino at French Lick; Indiana Live! and Hoosier Park are not required to pay an admissions tax to the state for each person who enters their casinos.
Ernest Yelton, executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission, said that the casinos in Anderson and Shelbyville are not required to report attendance numbers to the Indiana Gaming Commission. Since they don't use turnstiles to measure the number of people who enter, it is difficult to track the exact numbers who visit them.
Hemmerle said that the casino knows how many visitors use players' rewards cards, but a number of people, perhaps as high as 20 to 40 percent, don't use them when they play the machines.
Although casinos throughout Indiana reported decreasing revenue in June, the Indiana Gaming Commission reported that they still brought in $78.6 million in taxes for the month.
The state now has 13 casinos in operation, but Indiana Live!'s Hemmerle said that the Shelbyville facility will have an advantage because it is not a "destination casino."
"Plenty of people can drive here for about the same amount that they would spend on gas for a trip to the mall," he said, "so we don't think that gas prices are going to impact us as much as some of the other casinos in the state."
Hemmerle is also confident that the opening of the permanent Indiana Live! casino in the first quarter of 2009 will provide a big boost as visitors come to see what it has to offer. He added that the casino's bottom line will also be buoyed by increased spending when its multiple bars and restaurants open in the larger facility.