Illinois casino revenue down again

Last year marked an unlucky number seven for the casino industry in the US state of Illinois as it prepares to deal out new gambling licences.

Total revenue from the state’s 10 existing casinos dropped for a seventh straight year in 2019, according to a report issued last week by the state Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

It’s the bipartisan commission’s latest rundown of the state’s casino downturn, raising questions about the viability of a key facet of Governor JB Pritzker’s massive gaming expansion signed into law last year – up to six new casinos that are poised to join Illinois’ crowded gambling market.

Casinos last year raked in about $1.35bn, a 1.5 per cent decline from the previous year and a 17.3 per cent drop compared to 2012, the last year statewide casino revenue ticked upward.

That was also the year video gambling launched at thousands of bars and restaurants in Illinois, as well as the first full year of operation for Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. It remains the only casino in the state that has seen annual revenue growth since then, while all others have weathered “double-digit declines,” the report states.

State and local governments took $455.2m off the top of the casinos’ take last year in tax revenue, again a 1.5 per cent drop compared to 2018 and nearly 21 per cent less than what was collected in 2012.