Mississippi Casino Revenue Drops Four Percent in September
Mississippi land based casinos seem to have had a hard time this year, casino revenue dropping 4.4 percent in September compared to the same month last year to $170.2 million. Unfortunately for the 18 river casinos in Mississippi, gross gaming revenue was down 10 percent to $82 million, dropping from $91.2 million in 2012. On the other hand, the 12 coastal gambling establishments in the American state raked in $88.2 million and saw an increase of 1.7 percent in gaming revenue. Native American casinos in the state have not released their figures, as the Choctaw Indian gaming establishments do not report their gaming revenue to the state.
Altogether, casino winnings in the state were down 4.5 percent over the last year, the number of customers who come to Mississippi casinos decreasing drastically since 2007, when gaming revenue was 22 percent higher than in 2012. Furthermore, the number of casino visitors was down from 10.1 million during a three-month period of time in 2007 to 6.4 million during the same months. The Mississippi Gaming Commission explained that river casinos have seen fierce competition from Arkansas race tracks which became more popular during the last few years and are currently seeing significant revenue increase. As the land based gambling industry in several regions is starting to become not as lucrative as it was before the economic recession started, gambling operators are anxiously waiting for a US federal law that will allow American entrepreneurs to buy casino software solutions and start online casinos.