Due to the slowing economy and the smoking ban, business at the mountain casinos continues to fall. From the Sunday Denver Post story:
Colorado's mountain casinos are
mired in their worst downturn ever, walloped by a smoking ban, high gas prices
and a tightening economy that has cut into discretionary spending.
While other states with commercial
casinos, such as Nevada and New Jersey, are also struggling, Colorado's 10.7
percent revenue drop during the first four months of 2008 is the second-largest
in the nation, according to an analysis by The Denver Post.
"We might've had a few blips
before, but nothing like this," said Marc Murphy, co-general manager of
Bronco Billy's Casino in Cripple Creek.
The biggest four-month drop for
Colorado previously was in 2003 when revenue fell 5.5 percent from February to
May, a result of bad weather — the March 2003 blizzard crippled businesses
statewide — and the lingering recession.
Murphy said he believes 75 percent
of the current downturn is attributable to the statewide smoking ban that
extended to casinos Jan. 1. Illinois, which also implemented a casino smoking
ban in January, is the only state to suffer a bigger decline in revenue this
year.
Stephanie Steinberg, a force behind
legislation that extended the Colorado smoking ban to casinos, said the
recession has had a bigger impact on revenue. She pointed to the fact that Las
Vegas' gaming revenues have taken a hit even though casinos there allow
smoking.
As an aside, we have an out-of-town guest this week. Yesterday, we visited one of the Central City casinos for an hour. While we were not big gamblers at all, we had fun. The casino was one-quarter full, if that, so we had our choice of slot machines. After parlaying $6 into $18, we left.
However, there may be some help on the horizon.
An industry ballot initiative that
could lead to higher bet limits, 24-hour operations and new casino games may
gain more support because of the casinos' struggles. Colorado casinos currently
are restricted to $5 bet limits and must close at 2 a.m.
"I would hope that it would light a fire under everybody to try to look at an opportunity to further penetrate the available market for those casinos, and raising the wager limit would definitely make a big difference," Palermo said.
It seems that when the economy is down, the state government should remove the shackles of regulation from business so that the businesses can offer incentives to its customers. The smoking ban is one of these regulations that caused an estimated 75 percent loss in revenues! Removing the betting limit and allowing 24-hour operations could also attract more business to the casinos.
Hopefully, the voters of Colorado will vote to loosen restrictions on casinos in November. With $4 per gallon gas (more in the mountains), the casinos will need all the help they can get with the continuing reduction in consumer discretionary spending.
by Civil Sense
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