Business surging for riverboat casinos

Monday, Feb. 12, 2001 | 11:29 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BATON ROUGE, La. -- The voters' decision to outlaw video poker in bars, restaurants and truck stops in the Baton Rouge area meant a windfall for two riverboat casinos.

Local voters in 33 parishes decided in 1996 to shut down video poker, effective mid-1999.

In the six months before the video poker shutdown in mid-1999, poker machines in those three parishes were averaging $6.5 million a month.

Largely as a result of extra business from displaced poker players, gambling revenues at the Baton Rouge boats increased last year by a combined 18 percent.

Together, gross gambling revenues at the two boats rose from an average of $11.6 million a month in 1999 to $13.7 million a month in 2000.

"Baton Rouge had the biggest increase proportionally of any (riverboat) market in the state last year. But we're still relatively less than markets like Lake Charles and Shreveport," said Dale Darrough, general manager of the Casino Rouge riverboat.

In Baton Rouge, the biggest impact from the poker shutdown occurred at Argosy Casino, which chalked up its first annual profit last year since opening in 1994.

For the six months ending in December of last year, Argosy averaged $5.9 million in gross monthly gambling revenues. That is a 44-percent increase over the $4.1 million a month average for the six months before the poker shutdown in 1999.

Argosy aggressively wooed displaced poker players by setting up a special video poker lounge on its third deck.