A Natural Decline

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

In its second full month of operation, revenues at the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort were off by more than $1 million compared with September, Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission figures show.

For October, the casino earned about $6.4 million in adjusted gross revenue -- a 13.6 percent decrease from the $7.4 million brought in a month earlier.

Casino chief executive officer Dan Kehl said Monday the decline was "pretty natural."

"October's numbers were just about what we projected," he said. "We're comfortable with where we're at."

...Figures from state regulators also show that crowds at the Riverside Casino were smaller in October compared with September. The casino, which opened Aug. 31, had 98,280 guests in October -- a drop of nearly 20 percent from 122,655 guests in September.

And, er, what were the original attendance projections? Good luck finding that out in the Press-Citizen's story, because it ain't there.

This is from the Casino City Times on October 24th:

As reported by the Iowa Journal: "After the first month of operation, Riverside Casino and Golf Resort officials report revenues are at the level they should be and they don't foresee a downturn in the future.

"After receiving 125,000 people and making more than $7.6 million in its first month, the casino is meeting its goals for revenue. Last Wednesday, CEO Dan Kehl presented a check for $291,380 to the Washington County Riverboat Commission, the county's share of the profits. Kehl commented this amount was slightly over the amount projected for the commission to receive.

"…Kehl commented that the resort has fallen slightly short of the 133,000 head projection per month of people visiting the casino, but said that is not a problem.

"'Our projections are right on,' Kehl said. 'Our head count per person is a little off, but we are not too concerned about that. It is the revenue that pays the rent.'…"

133,000 visitors a month is about 1.6 million a year. That's close to the number that con artist David Oman has been projecting to visit the Earthpork Rainforest in Pella, of all places.

So Riverside projected 133,000 visitors a month, but now in the second month of operation they're getting 98,000. That's a 26% difference.

What happens when people stop betting losing as much? I guess the casino will have to get the Iowa City Press-Citizen to write more obsequious stories to promote their business to college students.


Update: Nicholas Johnson's FromDC2Iowa blog has more:

When there's nothing to bring tens of thousands of visitors to Iowa City -- when, indeed, during the winter break tens of thousands of Iowa City college students will have left town -- when there's snow on the ground and ice on the roads, it seems unlikely that the casino will be able to maintain October's numbers. We'll see.

Ouch!