ANDERSON — Hoosier Park Racing & Casino brought in about $1 million less in March than it did during the same time frame last year, according to a revenue report released by the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Hoosier Park reported a total win revenue of $18.8 million during March 2015, down from March 2014's total win of $19.7 million. The downturn was consistent with most of the casinos in Indiana. Only two of the state's 13 casinos, Belterra Casino in Switzerland County and French Lick Casino, saw gains compared with last year. Belterra brought in $9.7 million compared with $9.2 million last March. French Lick jumped from $5.9 million to $6.3 million.
The news of Belterra seeing a gain is somewhat surprising, given its proximity to a new casino in Cincinnati. The two other casinos in southeastern Indiana, Hollywood in Lawrenceburg and Rising Star in Rising Sun, continued to see drops. Rising Star fell from $4.6 million to $3.8 million and Hollywood saw an even larger drop, from $18.2 million to $16.1 million.
Indiana Grand, Hoosier Park's sister facility in Shelbyville, also saw a downturn from last year. Indiana Grand reported a total win of $22.5 million for this past month compared to $23.4 million for March 2014.
One of the biggest drops came from Horseshoe Casino Southern Indiana in Elizabeth. That casino went from $22 million to $17.1 million, a $5 million difference.
Declining revenue has become the norm for Indiana's casinos facing competition from Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. Hoosier Park started 2015 off with a jump in revenue from January 2014 to January 2015, but has now seen declines for two straight months after its numbers fell in February.