Chicago Sun-Times: Casino revenues just keep climbing higher

You don't need statistics to tell you that business has been booming at Illinois' dockside casinos. Just try to get a seat at a low-minimum blackjack table or a favorite video poker machine without getting to the casino first thing in the morning.

But not all the growth in gaming has been on the Illinois side of the Chicago area. From Majestic Star in Gary and Harrah's in East Chicago comes word that they're having their own booms.

At Harrah's East Chicago, gaming revenue in March was $21.5 million, a 27 percent increase over March 1999. For the first quarter of 2000, the casino earned $62.5 million in gaming revenue, up 40 percent from the $44.7 million in the first quarter of 1999.

Harrah's acquired the former Showboat Mardi Gras casino late in 1998 and renamed it Harrah's East Chicago in March 1999. A distant No. 2 in gaming revenue in northwest Indiana before the changeover, Harrah's East Chicago now regularly challenges Empress Hammond for the top spot. Last month, Empress was the leader with $21.8 million to Harrah's $21.5 million, and for the quarter Empress led with $61.8 million to Harrah's $62.5 million.

In Gary, where combined revenues of Majestic Star and Trump typically parallel one-boat revenues in Hammond and East Chicago, Majestic Star is happy with its strides forward after beginning its "We've Got Your Slots" advertising campaign. In March, Majestic Star reported its highest gaming revenue since opening in 1996. The casino took in $11.1 million, besting its previous high of $10.8 million in April 1999.

Trump took in $11.7 million in March, down slightly from $11.8 million this February and from $12.3 million in March 1999.

In Illinois in March, Grand Victoria in Elgin was the runaway leader as usual, with $34.8 million in gaming revenue, followed by Harrah's Joliet at $24.6 million, Empress Joliet at $20.6 million and Hollywood in Aurora at $19.8 million.

HOLLYWOOD GOES ASIAN: Chicago area casinos have some outstanding restaurants, but surprisingly have lacked an Asian food option. Oh, sure, there are some Chinese dishes on the buffets at Harrah's Joliet, Harrah's East Chicago and Grand Victoria, but no one has gone Asian in a big way.

That's changed with the opening of the Euro-Asian Seven Fortunes at Hollywood Casino. It gives Hollywood welcome diversity in its high- end restaurants to go with the Fairbanks steak house.

I had the pleasure of being invited to a chef's preview night, taking samples of many dishes, and was impressed. The Chilean sea bass with roasted ginger and scallions was outstanding, as was the sirloin steak with stir-fried vegetables in teriyaki sauce. Mongolian beef was spicy_I loved it, while some others in our party had to reach for the water. The sushi-style roll used cooked salmon, but my wife the sushi lover said it was delicious.

The menu is extensive, with standards such as kung pao chicken and moo shu pork right alongside less common items such as honey-glazed walnut prawns with sweet ginger spices and Szechwan-style salmon. Many dishes are Western with an Asian touch, such as the wasabi mashed potatoes.

Entree prices range from $9 for some noodle dishes to $23 for the sea bass. With appetizer, soup and dessert, expect to pay $25 to $50 per person. For those who are hoarding Hollywood slot club points, here's a good place to spend them.

A WORK OF ART: Regular readers of this column will recognize Huntington Press as publisher of the monthly Las Vegas Advisor newsletters, and of books chock full of advice on gambling such as Max Rubin's Comp City, Jean Scott's The Frugal Gambler and Peter Griffin's The Theory of Blackjack.

New from Huntington is a gambling book with a difference, The Art of Gambling Through the Ages by Arthur Flowers and Anthony Curtis, with a foreword by LeRoy Nieman.

The high-quality, coffee table book includes reproductions of more than 140 works of art, with commentary on both the artists and the gambling depicted.

The Art of Gambling isn't for everyone. It's not going to tell you how to be a better blackjack player or where to find loose slots, and the $65 price tag will put some off. But I was fascinated as I paged from "Ajax and Achilles Playing Dice" on a Grecian urn from about 530 B.C. to Pablo Picasso's cubist "Card Players" to Steven Speer's futuristic "Cyber Vegas."

And for those who think of gambling art as dogs playing poker, well, they're here too, in Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's painting "A Friend in Need."

The Art of Gambling Through the Ages is available from Huntington Press, (800) 244-2224.

Sunday in Real Life: back to basics.

E-mail John Grochowski at BetKol@aol.com