Indiana is on the verge of a major expansion of gambling, including both retail and online/mobile sports betting,with retail sportsbooks expected to open this fall. On Thursday, the Indiana Gaming Commission released data from June that shows that the state’s casino industry could use a big shot in the arm.
According to the IGC, the state’s 13 casinos won a combined $181,422,641 from gamblers in June, down nearly three percent from the $186,792,188 won in June 2018.
The Hoosier State’s casino gaming market is worth more than $2.2 billion annually, but it’s stuck in neutral.
Here’s a look at each casino by gaming revenue last month:
- Horseshoe Hammond: $32,424,944
- Indiana Grand: $24,138,867
- Ameristar: $18,045,344
- Horseshoe Southern Indiana: $17,572,251
- Hoosier Park: $17,558,503
- Hollywood: $13,598,572
- Blue Chip: $12,958,360
- Tropicana: $11,983,778
- Belterra: $8,921,020
- French Lick: $8,217,604
- Majestic Star: $6,991,734
- Majestic Star II: $5,060,286
- Rising Star: $3,951,377
Revenue growth forthcoming
Indiana has the potential to see an additional $400 mm in taxable gaming revenues from sports wagering, according to a 2017 study from Oxford Economics. Sports betting is happening right now in the Hoosier State via local bookies and offshore, online sportsbooks. The $400 mm in sports wagering revenue, based off a projected handle of more than $6 billion annually, is expected to be new gaming win. In other words, sports betting isn’t projected to provide any meaningful cannibalization of other casino games.
The gambling package also includes a casino for Vigo County, which is expected to generate as much as $105 mm in annual adjusted gross gaming revenue, according to a state fiscal analysis.
However, some of that revenue will be at the expense of existing casinos.
“It is estimated that about half of the AGR at the Vigo County casino would be displaced from competing gaming locations,” said the fiscal note. “It is estimated that a substantial portion of the displaced AGR will impact the central Indiana racinos, French Lick casino and Tropicana casino at Evansville.”
Also under the new gaming law, a pair of racinos in the state were authorized to offer live dealer table games in 2020. Those games are expected to generate additional gaming revenue, but some of it will displace revenues from the virtual table games the racinos already offer, as well as table gaming revenue at existing full-fledged casinos, according to the Indiana analysis.
Additionally, a riverboat casino in Gary was permitted to relocate inland to a more desirable location. The state fiscal note doesn’t project a gaming market impact from that relocation.
Thanks to the changes to the gaming landscape, Indiana appears poised to soon pass Louisiana on the commercial gaming revenue leaderboard. Louisiana, which has so far failed to legalize sports betting (it will likely do retail-only), took in about $2.56 billion in gaming win last year, according to the American Gaming Association’s 2019 State of the States report.
Indiana’s market trails Louisiana by about $320 mm, but the Hoosier State should close the gap thanks to sports betting and the brick-and-mortar casino changes.