On June 17th, 2008, buoyed by big spending tourists and the debut of the federal tax rebate checks. The state of Louisiana's licensed casino facilities experienced a 10.4% growth in profit from gaming on the month of May. The thirteen riverboat casino facilities in the state, the Harrah's New Orleans land-based casino and four racing track casinos posted record winnings of $235.2 million, which improved from $213.1 million on the month of April. The improvement came after the 7.2% drop in profits from gaming from the month of March to April.
Gaming analysts blamed the weak economy and the rising cost of gasoline prices. The economist for the Louisiana State University Loren Scott commented that casino facilities profited from the 5 weekends of operation on May 2008 compared with just 4 weekends of operations from the previous year and players spend some of their tax rebates at the gaming facilities.
The executive director of the Casino Association of Louisiana, Wade Duty commented that the figures does not show the minimal profit growth of seven percent from May 2005- before hurricane Katrina and hurricane Rita. The most substantial performance was made in gaming markets that attracted players from Texas: 1st, the Shreveport-Bossier City, which entertains gamblers from Dallas-Forth Worth, recorded $76.3 million in overall winnings, which improve from $69.1 million in April and $69.5 million in May 2007.
2nd, the casino facilities in Lake Charles, a favorite of players from the Houston area, won around $60 million in May, which improved from $53.4 million in April and $55 million in May 2007. 3rd, the gaming market in New Orleans won a total of $64.2 million, which improved from $59.4 million on April and $63.4 million in May 2007.
4th, the market in Baton Rouge earned $19.8 million in May, which improved from its previous figure of $18.3 million and $20.1 million in May 2007.
Davis Coulter
06/29/2008 03:18 PM