After a full year of seeing revenue drop on a monthly basis, casinos around the country may finally start seeing some improvement within their industry. Evidence of this theory exists in the state of Louisiana where revenue was up ten percent in February.
In January, revenue from the state’s casinos was $189.7 million. For February, those same casinos had revenue of $208.7 million. That represented an increase of ten percent in month over month figures.
The numbers still do not match up favorably from the same period in 2009. Back in February of 2009, casinos won $220 million. Although revenue was higher last year, there was still reason for optimism that the economy may be working its way back to normal.
“What we are seeing is a gradual increase in revenue from casinos around the country,” said Gaming Analyst Steve Schwartz, “The gamblers are not going to all come back at once, but any increase shows that people are starting to once again have that expendable income to enjoy a night out at a casino.”
Competition within the casino industry has become fierce over the past couple of years. As the economy soured, lawmakers in nearly every state turned to gambling expansion to help bridge budget deficits.
The state that has made the most advancement is Pennsylvania. Lawmakers have recently legalized table games and several casinos have been built in the past several years. The table games give Pennsylvania casinos a real chance to overtake New Jersey’s casinos in revenue and become the new top gambling destination in the Northeastern US.
