Wagers at the Rivers Casino seemed to have hit a plateau in the fourth week of operations. Revenue data for the week of August 31st shows the casino accepting wagers of $52.9 million, up slightly (less than one percent) from the previous week of $52.5 million. This slight increase was also reflected in the week’s gross terminal revenues ($4.34 million vs. $4.26 million).
The casino started out below projections and had seen weekly wagers and revenues decline in the following two weeks prior to this small up-tick. After four weeks of play, the average weekly gross terminal revenue for the Rivers Casino is $4.63 million. Projected over a full year, the casino is on pace to earn gross terminal revenues of $240.8 million. This represents only 56 percent of the Casino’s initial expectation of $427.8 million. While excuses abound, this has not been a great first month for the slots parlor.
Casino managers have plenty to worry about and should not get too excited about a less-than-modest increase in revenues. While stopping a three week slide in revenues is positive, it may not be a harbinger of things to come-after all, even the Pirates win an occasional game.
