Tuesday, July 18, 2000 | 3:30 a.m.
NEW ORLEANS - Gamblers lost nearly $1.6 billion in Louisiana's 13 riverboat casinos and the New Orleans casino in a year, while video poker players dropped $477.1 million.
The casinos and establishments with video poker machines, including bars, restaurants, truck stops, race tracks and off-track betting parlors, took in $2.07 billion during the state fiscal year that ended June 30, state police reported Tuesday.
The riverboats won $1.43 billion from July 1999 through June 2000, up from the $1.36 billion take of the previous fiscal year. Harrah's New Orleans Casino, which opened in late October, added $163 million more.
Combined, the riverboats casinos and the New Orleans casino won $138.7 million in June, down slightly from May's take of $140.8 million, as the land casino continued to criticize its tax burden.
Harrah's won $21.7 million last month, up from $20 million in May, and was ranked second in money won among casinos in Louisiana that publicly report their revenue figures. The three Indian reservation casinos are not required by law to do so.
The Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City edged out Harrah's as winning the most money from the tables and slot machines.
Despite the increased take, officials of JCC Holding Co., the publicly traded ownership company of the New Orleans casino, again pointed out that the gambling hall's minimum state tax of $100 million annually is still burdensome. The casino paid a gambling tax of 32 percent in June. Riverboats pay 18.5 percent.
"Our casino is still subject to one of the nation's highest effective gaming tax rates," said Fred Burford, JCC Holding chairman.
The company agreed to the tax when it took over the project in 1998 from the original owner, Harrah's Jazz Co., which went into receivership.
JCC Holding officials have since strongly indicated they will ask the Legislature for tax relief at some point, along perhaps with a lifting of bans on the casino having its own hotel and unlimited restaurants. The tax and the hotel-restaurant provisions were approved as part of the 1992 casino law when annual revenue projections for the casino ran as high as $1 billion.
The four boats in Shreveport-Bossier City, which draw heavily from Texas, won $56.3 million in June, while the pair of two-boat complexes in Lake Charles won $25.2 million. Lake Charles has heavy competition from a reservation casino at nearby Kinder.
The three riverboats in the New Orleans area won $21.8 million. Those casinos typically won $25 million to $27 million monthly before Harrah's opened. The two boats in Baton Rouge won $13.9 million, continuing a trend of sharply increased winnings since East Baton Rouge Parish threw out video poker a year ago.
Over the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the state took in $263.7 million in riverboat taxes, $67.7 million from the New Orleans casino and $135.3 million in video poker taxes.
Additional gambling projects are in the works.
A 14th riverboat casino project is under construction in Shreveport, while the Louisiana Gaming Control Board is considering applicants for Louisiana's 15th and final riverboat casino. In addition, slot machine casinos are planned at three race tracks - Louisiana Downs at Bossier City, Delta Downs at Vinton and a new Evangeline Downs that will be built in St. Landry Parish.
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