Louisiana casinos post flat July results

Alan Sayre

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- Louisiana's state-licensed casinos won $175.9 million from gamblers in July, typically one of the industry's busiest months, but the take was only a fraction above last July even with a new major gambling outlet.

The 14 riverboat casinos won $134.8 million, Harrah's New Orleans won $24.3 million and slot-machine casinos at the Delta Downs and Louisiana Downs race tracks tallied a total of $16.8 million.

In July 2002, the casinos won $173.5 million. Since then, Louisiana Downs has opened its slot casino in Bossier City.

Last month, the Shreveport-Bossier City market, which also includes five dockside casinos won $73.2 million, up slightly from $72.7 million in July 2002. Louisiana Downs won $5 million last month, indicating that most of the market's increase came at the expense of the riverboats.

In the Lake Charles market, which also includes the Delta Downs slot casino at Vinton, gamblers dropped $38.9 million last month, compared with $37.6 million in July 2002. In that market, Delta Downs took away a large percentage of winnings from a pair of two-boat casino complexes after the track opened its casino in early 2002.

Delta Downs won $11.7 million last month, up from $9.9 million in July 2002.

The New Orleans market, which includes Harrah's land casino and three riverboats, won $48.2 million last month, compared with $48.1 million in July 2002. The two gambling boats in Baton Rouge won $15.5 million last month, up slightly from $15 million in July 2002.

The figures do not include the three Indian casinos in Louisiana, which are not required to publicly report their revenue figures.