INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s casino tax revenues have
fallen faster than expected over the past six months, plunging nearly 15
percent amid more out-of-state competition and lagging admissions as
consumers try to shake off the aftereffects of the recession.
Indiana
saw a $50 million drop in casino tax revenues since June when compared
with a year earlier. That’s about $5 million more than state officials
had forecast.
Casino Association of Indiana President Mike Smith
and Indiana Gaming Insight editor Ed Feigenbaum agreed Monday that the
recession’s lingering pressures on consumers play a role not just in
Indiana but nationwide.
The money the state collects from casino
taxes has dropped from a peak of nearly $876 million in 2009 to about
752 million in fiscal 2013, according to figures from the Indiana Gaming
Commission. Indiana’s three casinos near Cincinnati have seen big
declines since a downtown casino opened in the Ohio city last March.
In
recent years, Indiana’s casino industry has pleaded with state
legislators for economic protection from increasing out-of-state
competition. But some Indiana lawmakers last year said they were ready
to let the casinos try to survive on their own.
This year, the only bills submitted related to gambling involve charity games, not casinos.
An
annual report by the Indiana Gaming Commission’s executive director,
Ernest Yelton, put the biggest share of the blame for lower tax revenue
on out-of-state casinos, but acknowledged that "a confluence of a
lackluster economy, competition and legislative relief" were all
involved in the drop.
"We’ve seen revenue drop in every calendar
year since the recession in 2009," said Ed Feigenbaum, editor of Indiana
Gaming Insight, which tracks gambling in the state.
While competition has had a "tremendous effect," Feigenbaum said, "It’s more complicated
than that."
Fewer people have been going to casinos in recent years simply because they can’t afford it, he said.
"People
don’t have as much disposable income, they don’t have as much money
they can spend," Feigenbaum said. "They used to choose between going to a
high school basketball game or the casino. Now, it’s between going to
the casino or paying their mortgage."
Mike Smith, president of the Casino Association of Indiana, agreed.
"I
think ever since we had the major recession, it’s just taking a lot
longer for us to get back to where we were," he said Monday.
Nor is Indiana alone, both men said.
"Every
other market in the country has seen the same thing happen," Feigenbaum
said, including Las Vegas, the magnet of American gambling.
Casino
revenue at the nation’s second-most popular site, Atlantic City, fell
below $3 billion last year for the first time in 22 years. It marked the
seventh straight year of plunging gambling revenue.
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