If you were wondering how the casinos are managing to survive the current economic slump affecting the United States, just take a look at the figures. In 2007, $34.13 billion was lost by gamblers at non-tribal casinos across the USA, an increase of 5% over the 2006 figures. This amount is more than consumers spent at their local cinemas and buying video games combined. These figures were collected by the American Gaming Association and were made public by the annual industry survey that was released on May 14th.
The numbers exclude tribal casinos which are considered government controlled operations. Money that was spent on dining, shopping, entertainment, and other casino resort activities were also excluded as they top off much of the revenue collected by casinos along the Las Vegas strip. The American Gaming Association is currently working on a report to show the estimated revenue on these other profit-making ventures employed at casinos in order to get a more comprehensive outlook of the total revenues earned.
There are currently seven non-tribal casino markets in the United States that are generating more than $1 billion. The Biloxi Mississippi market is the one making the biggest gains. The casinos are making more money than before since the casinos that replaced property destroyed by Hurricane Katrina are more luxurious and offer more amenities to the customers. Of course, other markets have not been so lucky and have seen both revenue and employment fall. While the economic slump is part of the reason, competition from other gaming establishment and the smoking ban that is sweeping through the casinos are also part of the overarching problem.
Despite the economic slump that began last year, more than $53 million is allotted to new casino resort projects that will be implemented over the next few years. The association’s president Frank Fahrenkopf believes that this is a good sign and shows that the industry is actually helping to keep people gainfully employed and money going into the state government’s coffers. He also commented that he did not believe the surveys indicating that people were being turned off casinos because they were becoming more commonplace in cities and their outlying suburbs.
Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research polled American citizens on the subject of gambling and discovered that 49% of the population still agree that casino gambling is “perfectly acceptable for anyone”. While this number is down 3% from 2006, the amount of people who answered that casino gambling was “acceptable for other but not themselves” was actually up by 5%. Fahrenkopf stated that the numbers from the poll were well within the margin of polling error, but critics will still use the figures to fight any additional casinos from popping up in their states.
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Tags: casino markets, casino resort, new casino, smoking ban, tribal casino
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