Illinois casinos, aided by two extra weekend days, did superficially well in October, up two percent over 2019 for a $109 million gross. But that was nothing compared to slot routes, which soared 53 percent from two years ago for a $219.1 million haul.
The state’s 41,157 tavern- and restaurant-based machines generated an average win of $172 per day, “continuing the positive growth seen throughout the year and reflecting new license issuances,” according to JP Morgan analyst Omer Sander. (Illinois had 25 percent fewer non-casino slot machines in 2019.)
J&J Ventures aced out Accel Entertainment for overall revenue, $64.3 million to $63.1 million. J&J’s machines, though outnumbered, won $178 per unit per day compared to Accel’s $154. Getting the most bang for its buck was Gold Rush Entertainment, with $196 in win per slot per day for an overall gross of $20.8 million. Further back were Prairie State Gaming ($11.2 million), Gaming & Entertainment Management ($8.1 million), Midwest Electronics Gaming ($6.2 million) and Laettner Entertainment ($4 million). Miscellaneous small outfits accounted for the remaining $41.3 million.
Despite the extra weekend, mask-mandated casinos could not hope to match those numbers. Indeed, only two of them were revenue-positive for the month. Rivers Casino Des Plaines continued to dominate the state with $44 million, a 26.5 percent climb, and Caesars Entertainment was up 5.5 percent at Grand Victoria in Elgin ($13 million). All others gave ground, to varying degrees. Hollywood Aurora ($9 million) was down four percent, Harrah’s Joliet ceded seven percent to $12 million, and Par-A-Dice in Peoria dipped four percent to $5.5 million, while Empress Joliet was down 13 percent to $8 million.
It was worse downstate, where Harrah’s Metropolis slipped eight percent to $5.4 million and DraftKings at Casino Queen in St. Louis tumbled 28 percent to $6 million. In its first month as Bally’s Quad Cities, the former Jumer’s Rock Island slid 19 percent to four million, while Argosy Belle in Alton pulled in $2.5 million, a 28 percent decline from two years previous.
