Casinos win $199.5 million

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 | 9:13 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- It was open for only one week, but Louisiana's 15th and final riverboat casino helped boost the May take at Louisiana's state-licensed casinos to $199.5 million.

State police reported Monday that L'Auberge Du Lac casino in Lake Charles, which opened the last week of May, took in $7.9 million in those seven days. That was more than both of the smallest boats in that market took in over the whole month.

Statewide winnings rose about $10 million from April -- which typically is one of the best months for the casino business -- and $12.1 million from the previous May.

As a whole, the Lake Charles market, made up of five riverboats and Delta Downs Race Track, took in $49.5 million for May, $9.2 million more than in April.

Other markets were within $3 million of the previous month's total. But only five of the 14 older riverboats were making more than they had a year earlier.

In the Shreveport-Bossier City market, which has seen increased competition from Indian gambling in Oklahoma, total gambling revenues for five casino boats and a race track slot casino at Louisiana fell $6.2 million from a year ago, to $67.6 million. The Horseshoe was the only casino making more than it had a year earlier, and the margin was slim: $76,386, or four-tenths of one percent.

Some of the nearly 18,700 gamblers who flocked to L'Auberge each day -- more than double the total of any other boat in the state -- may have forsaken Harrah's Star.

The Star's gross take fell from $4.8 million in April to $3.7 million in May, a 23 percent drop.