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The Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) has released its gaming revenue numbers for May 2023 and a few trends are starting to emerge. They aren’t necessarily desirable trends, however, but one of the casinos has shown an ability to defy those developments.
Caesars Southern Indiana is the only one of the 13 casino licensees in the state to post statistically significant year-over-year growth over the past two months. Sports betting in the state has outperformed its same-month performance in 2022 again as well.
Caesars ride table games to second straight month of growth
According to the IGC’s latest report, a late spring lull has hit Indiana casinos harder this year than it did in 2022. The 13 properties reported $191.8 million in adjusted gross revenue for May 2023. That represents a decline of about 7.6% from May 2022’s $207.5 million.
Across the state, 11 of the 13 licensees failed to match their 2022 numbers for May. The outliers were the French Lick Resort, which experienced a 13.3% increase and Caesars Southern Indiana. Caesars stands out even more for a larger reason, though.
Caesars was also one of just two Indiana casinos to best their 2022 figures from the same month in April. In April, the other to do so was the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana. Therefore, Caesars is the only Indiana casino to post growth in both months.
While the overall numbers have made Caesars a standout, the improvement might not have come from the expected source. For example, Caesars actually saw its win from slot play drop about 2.3% year-over-year in May. However, action on its gaming tables proved heroic.
Compared to May 2022, Caesars’ win from table games was up an impressive 29.1% in May. That built on a 9.9% improvement in the same category in April. While two months of significant growth in this category isn’t sufficient to suggest Caesars has cracked some secret code to part table game players and their money, the improvements have nonetheless kept Caesars from being part of the crowd that failed to keep pace with their past numbers.
Growth of nearly 30% is a metric that even Indiana sportsbooks would admire with envy.
Indiana online sportsbooks win $31.5 million in May
Indiana sports betting runs through the state’s casinos and racetracks, making that activity another revenue source for them. In May, Indianans wagered $283.4 in person and online. That represented an annual decrease of around 9.1% compared to May 2022.
However, the numbers that really count for sportsbooks in Indiana were actually better this year. For example, online sportsbooks won $31.5 million of the $268.2 million in bets they accepted in May. The 13 active online operators thus won about 11.1% of the money wagered.
In May 2022, Indiana’s legal sports betting apps won around 10.1% of the $284.9 million bettors put down, coming to about $28.8 million in gross revenue. From all physical and online books, the IGC says sports betting produced $33.8 million in taxable revenue in May 2023.
Combined with the state’s share of revenue from poker, slots and table games, Indiana accumulated more than $65.3 million in gaming taxes for the month. That’s just about 0.8% off last year’s pace through the first five months. If Caesars keeps raking it in from table games play, the casinos might close that gap in June.
