Cubs Win - East Chicago, Indiana Casinos Lose

Many baseball fans were pulling for the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series. But after looking at their October revenues, local casinos may not be such big fans of the Cubs ending their 107-year championship drought.

The five casinos in Northwest Indiana earned $77.6 million in October – down 5 percent from the $80.72 million made in October 2015.

And these casinos have a good idea what effected their revenue so badly.

“The entire area had baseball fever, both die-hard Cubs fans and those excited in the heat of the moment,” said Dan Nita, senior vice president of the Horseshoe Hammond Casino.

Hammond added that Chicago had 15 playoff games in October, most of which occurred on weekends, which is the busiest time for casinos.

Nita told the Chicago Tribune that business was normal on these days until 6 p.m., when gamblers would leave to visit sports bars or other venues to watch playoff games.

“When a Chicago sports team does well, we’re usually negatively impacted,” said Matt Schuffert, senior vice president of Ameristar Casino in East Chicago.

Schuffert said that Ameristar’s Stadium Sports Bar and Grill did really well during Cubs’ playoff games. But they felt the brunt of less gambling in other parts of the casino.

Ameristar Casino raked in $17.8 million this October, which was down 2 percent from the $18.14 million that they earned during the same month last year.

The only Northwest Indiana casino that fared well in October was Gary’s Majestic Star I, which earned $7.26 million as opposed to $7.04 million last October.

Going back to Schuffert, he said that Ameristar’s 2 percent drop wasn’t so bad when considering that the entire Indiana and Illinois casino markets are down nearly 6.5 percent year-over-year.

Nita pointed out that the Illinois casino market really suffered, with an 8.5 percent drop when compared to October 2015.

Schuffert was happy to say that Ameristar’s table revenue was up almost 10 percent on the month.

“We definitely had some strong growth. I’m feeling pretty good about it,” he said.

Schuffert added that slots revenue wasn’t as good for the region.

Hammond’s Horseshoe Casino saw their year-over-year monthly revenues drop 6 percent, with $34.47 million in October compared to $36.32 million in the same month last year.

Majestic Star II in Gary made $5 million in slots revenues compared to $5.46 million in October 2015.

As for the Cubs, they completed a dramatic comeback to beat the Cleveland Indians 4 games to 3 in the World Series. This is the first World Series win since 1908.