From the Shelbyville News:
While casino tax revenues statewide have fallen faster than expected over the past six months, the parent company of Indiana Grand Racing and Casino said it has suffered minimal declines.
"Both Hoosier Park Racing and Casino and Indiana Grand Racing and Casino are holding their own," said Grant Scharton, communications director for both venues.
The money the state collects from casino taxes has dropped from a peak of nearly $876 million in 2009 to about $752 million in fiscal 2013, according to figures from the Indiana Gaming Commission.
An annual report by the Indiana Gaming Commission's executive director, Ernest Yelton, put the biggest share of the blame for lower tax revenue on out-of-state casinos, but acknowledged that "a confluence of a lackluster economy, competition and legislative relief" were all involved in the drop.
"We've seen revenue drop in every calendar year since the recession in 2009," Ed Feigenbaum, editor of Indiana Gaming Insight, which tracks gambling in the state, told the Associated Press.
While competition has had a "tremendous effect," Feigenbaum said, "It's more complicated than that."
Fewer people have been going to casinos in recent years simply because they can't afford it, he said.
"People don't have as much disposable income, they don't have as much money they can spend," Feigenbaum said. "They used to choose between going to a high school basketball game or the casino. Now, it's between going to the casino or paying their mortgage."
...
Shelbyville Clerk-Treasurer Frank Zerr said the city's use of racino monies is dependent on how much it received the year before; in other words, the racino funds in the 2014 budget are based on what the city received in 2013.
He said the city's share of racino monies dropped from $3.1 million in 2012 to $3.06 million in 2013. But the city had over $5 million in reserve at the end of December because the city doesn't spend everything it gets.
"I think (the city council) did a good job of planning for the future," Zerr said. "It's a good idea, I think, that they planned well ahead so we're not running out of money."
...
http://www.shelbynews.com/articles/2014/02/01/news/doc52ec00cf8d7fa488360741.txt
