Louisiana casinos win $220.5 million in May

Buoyed by a record month from Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.’s downtown land casino in New Orleans, Louisiana’s state-licensed casinos won $220.5 million from gamblers in May, state police reported last week.

Harrah’s won $39.6 million last month, compared with $35.7 million in May 2006 when the state was enjoying reduced competition from casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast – all of which were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

In May 2006, Louisiana casinos won $220.2 million. In April 2007, the tally was $205 million, a drop from $213.9 million in April 2006.

The state’s 13 riverboats won $150 million last month, down slightly from $152.1 million won by 12 boats in May 2006. During its first 15 days of operation last month, the Amelia Belle casino near Morgan City took in just under $2.8 million. That boat moved from New Orleans after Katrina.

Slot machine casinos at three of the state’s race tracks won $30.9 million in May, a drop from $32.3 million in May 2006.

Despite the land casino’s performance, the New Orleans market, which also includes two riverboat casinos and competes most directly with the Mississippi coast, registered a shrinkage in the May-to-May comparison. The market took in $63.4 million last month, compared with $67.1 million in May 2006.

The Boomtown Casino in Harvey won $14.3 million, compared to $18.7 million in May 2006, while the Treasure Chest won $9.8 million, a drop from the previous May figure of $12.7 million.

In the meantime, casinos along the Mississippi coast won $103.3 million, up from the post-Katrina level of $65.5 million in May 2006 when only a handful of gambling halls were back in operation. The coast now has 10 casinos and an 11th will open on July 7.

Wade Duty, executive director of the Casino Association of Louisiana, a trade and lobbying group, said he wasn’t optimistic about any major long-term growth of the industry in Louisiana. He said riverboat revenue was dropping back to levels recorded before hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

On Wednesday, the Legislature gave final passage to a record $29.7 billion budget that counts on the recent boom in gambling taxes. Duty’s group has received a cold shoulder from Gov. Kathleen Blanco on such ideas as shore gambling, which has replaced the barge casinos in Mississippi that were destroyed by Katrina, along with tax breaks for improving existing casinos.

“We’re sticking to an outdated model despite our competitors in the next state coming on shore,” Duty said. “And we’re going to continue to bank on that.”

The Louisiana casino markets dependent upon Texas gamblers – Shreveport-Bossier City and Lake Charles – maintained their year-ago pace. In Lake Charles, with three riverboats and the Delta Downs track casino, gamblers lost $55 million last month, down only slightly from $55.1 million in May 2006. The Shreveport-Bossier City market, with five boats and the Louisiana Downs track casino, took in $69.5 million last month, up from $67.4 million in May 2006.

The two riverboats in Baton Rouge won $20.1 million last month, a dip from $21.6 million in May 2006.

The Evangeline Downs track casino at Opelousas won $9.4 million in May, a jump from $8.9 million in May 2006.

The figures do not include the state’s three Indian reservation casinos, which are not required to report their winnings publicly.