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Ameristar Pulls Up Northwest Indiana Region April Performance

Posted on May 12th, 2011

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Amid the barely satisfactory overall performance of Northwest Indiana casino boats last month, East Chicago’s Ameristar Casino reflected better revenues compared to the April 2010 statistics. The relatively commendable revenue was able to pull the region’s performance upward, further contributing to the continued uptrend in the combined gross revenue of the area’s five gaming facilities. The Ameristar casino revenue increase of 15.8 percent, or $21.9 million, is a far cry from the overall percentage of the region’s market, which was marked as an improvement of a mere 1.2 percent. It is the only of the five casino facilities which enjoyed a relatively upward trend. According to the Indiana Gaming Association, the decline in the number of casino goers, pegged at a 3.5 decrease from April 2010’s numbers, was a major factor in the region difficulty to rake in more money for Northwest Indiana.

However, for Ameristar, this comes as a most welcome development since the casino has been experiencing difficulties after Cline Avenue bridge was temporarily closed in November 2009, and eventually condemned a month later due to its weakening structure. Closing the bridge made it difficult for visitors who come from other states to locate Ameristar.

Related to this, the government also announced in April 2010 that a permanent detour shall be constructed. The said detour, estimated to cost $70 million, was deemed the more practical and cheaper approach. In order to improve proceeds and prevent the casino from losing more money in the long run, Ameristar immediately adopted countermeasures, and has offered at least $10 million to partially finance the rebuilding costs of Cline Avenue Bridge, which according to officials would cost $150 million.

Ameristar’s proposal was well received by community leaders. Construction Advancement Foundation Executive Director Dewey Pearman said that the casino’s offer was a “unique opportunity”. Many deem that the deal was beneficial the residents who will be able to take advantage of the employment opportunities that will be created by the bridge construction. Apart from the offer, Ameristar sprang into action by installing signage and billboards that showed motorists and travelers directions on how to get to the casino. Eversince the bridge was closed; Chicago casino-goers had to take a longer and more intricate itinerary, one that involved several stoplights, and a drawbridge just to be able to get to the casino.

Ameristar also increased their communications efforts, emphasizing that in spite of the Cline Avenue bridge shutdown, the casino is still accessible. According to the casino’s vice president and assistant general manager Mark Schuffert, their new slot program also made a difference, and helped bring in more revenues in April. The program involved organizing the gaming floor in such a way that would make it less difficult for patrons to locate games. Such efforts proved effective as Ameristar reflected a 24.5 percent increase in March, a trend that continued the month after. Majestic Star Casinos-Gary’s Larry Buck, who is its vice president and general manager, said that although overall slot machine proceeds decreased, poker play went through an increase.

The Indiana Gaming Commission said that April 2010 and April 2011 reflected an increase of 1.73 percent in the number of people who went to play at the Ameristar. This brought in gambling proceeds amounting to $21.9 million compared to the previous year’s $18.9 million. Although government officials and analysts consider the March and April figures as good news for the region, they remain reluctant in stating whether the trend reflects that efforts to strengthen the economy are actually working. In the same manner, the reason for the downward trend in the other four gaming facilities cannot be easily attributed to unemployment.

The other four casinos in the area are Blue Chip, Horseshoe Hammond, Majestic Star I and Majestic Star II. Blue Chip’s visitors decreased to 211,577 last month from the 219,475 they had back in April 2010. This explains the slightly lower income of $15.5 million it managed to bring in. Similarly, the number of Horseshoe Hammond patrons dropped from 546,451 to 520,137. This caused a $1.5 million difference from last year’s $48.7 million. Both Majestic Star I and Majestic Star II had 126,315 visitors last month, which is truly lower than the 133,588 they entertained in April 2010. Both of them also experienced a $100,000 difference drop from the previous year’s earnings.