Illinois reports rare decline in casino revenue

Traffic is down at all but one of the state’s casinos.

Casino revenue in Illinois has been released by the state gaming board for the month of November, and, with a take of nearly $104.7m, the state saw a decline of about 4.7% from the month before.  

Both the 11 casinos in the state as well as revenue gleaned from electronic gaming machines saw their revenue decline.  

The overall decline was a surprise to many as the month had seen the pool of operators expand: Hard Rock International opened a temporary Rockford City casino early in November, which brought to the table 600 new slot machines.  

And, while electronic gaming machines reached an all-time high in the state, net-income from them declined 6.3% from the month before.  

The top-performing casino continues to be Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, which not only is the second-largest in the state in terms of square feet, but – at 216,453 last month – welcomes more players than any other by a margin of over double.  

In the casino’s 30 operating days, it brought in $26.7m from table games and $77.3m in electronic gaming machines. Its total adjusted gross receipts amounted to $40m. While this is a decline from the month before, the casino will still be able to pay $13.8m in taxes to the state and $2.2m to the local government.  

In the state there was only casino whose take actually rose over the month: DraftKings at Casino Queen in East St. Louis, which saw a 0.3% rise from the month before, to $6.3m. Most of this was due to an increase of action at the tables, not from electronic terminals.

Cameron Saunders

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