Illinois’ monthly gaming revenue, produced by the state’s 10 riverboat casinos, was off less than 1 percent during May, state gaming regulators said Wednesday.
The percentage figure was the lowest monthly decline this year for casinos in the state, which have been challenged by the growing presence of video lottery terminals. For the first five months of the year, Illinois gaming revenue is $573.5 million, down 3.9 percent, according to figures from the Illinois Gaming Control Board.
In May, casinos reported gaming revenue of $120.3 million, a 0.1 percent decline from a year ago, when gaming revenue declined 1.9 percent.
The May 2018 revenue figure was the highest second highest single-month total this year. The lowest monthly decline in 2018 had been 1.7 percent in March. The largest decline was 7.1 percent in February.
Video lottery terminal figures for May are not yet available. However, in April, 6,548 locations throughout the state that offer VLT gaming, collected more than $128.5 million in revenue. There were 28,942 VLTs operating in Illinois in April.
Rivers Casino in Des Plaines had the largest monthly gaming revenue in the state during April, $41.8 million for an increase of 11.3 percent. The only other percentage increase was at the Argosy Alton, which was up 14.5 percent.
Argosy is one of three casinos operated by Penn National Gaming in Illinois and combined, the properties generated gaming revenue of $24 million during the month. Boyd Gaming Corp.’s Par-A-Dice casino saw gaming revenue decline 5.6 percent in May.
Both casino operators own video lottery terminal businesses. Penn National has been in the Illinois distributed gaming business since 2015 when it acquired Prairie State Gaming. Boyd completed the purchase of Lattner Entertainment Group Illinois, LLC, last week. The route operator manages nearly 1,000 gaming units in more than 200 locations across the state.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
