Chicago Sun-Times: Dockside gaming spurs revenue jump in Indiana casinos

That Chicago area gamblers prefer their casinos dockside has been obvious since 1999, when the elimination of cruise requirements spurred a big increase in revenues. To no one's surprise, preliminary August numbers from the Indiana Gaming Commission show the same thing is true east of the state border.

Dockside gaming was launched in Indiana on Aug. 1, with Horseshoe in Hammond in on the action from Day One. Harrah's in East Chicago and Trump and Majestic Star in Gary, slapped on the wrist by the commission for advertising dockside before approval was final, had to wait until Aug. 5.

With that weekend's head start in the first month of dockside, Horseshoe posted the biggest gains of the four Indiana casinos closest to Chicago. For the month, preliminary figures show Horseshoe with $30.6 million in adjusted gross receipts, compared with a casino win of $25.7 million in July. Those figures aren't quite perfect comparisons--the AGR includes a few extra small accounting items in addition to the win figures--but the gain should be close to the indicated $4.9 million when final monthly statistics are released.

Harrah's jumped from $22.7 million in July to $26.2 million in August, while Gary gains were more modest, with Majestic Star up from $11.9 million to $12.3 million and Trump from $11.2 million to $12.0 million.

Turnstile counts also were up, with Horseshoe up from 244,251 to 343,117; Harrah's up from 243,468 to 366,205, and Trump up from 169,084 to 173,801. Majestic Star showed a slight decline, from 175,821 to 173,653.

The Indiana gains have been much larger than Illinois declines in the same period. August figures show Empress Joliet with the biggest decline, with $19.4 million in revenue, down from $20.1 million in July. Hollywood in Aurora declined from $25.1 million in July to $24.3 million in August, Grand Victoria in Elgin declined from $33.9 million to $33.5 million and Harrah's Joliet showed a slight gain, from $26.8 million to $26.9 million.

CASHLESS, TOO: Not only are Indiana casinos now dockside, Trump has started the movement toward cashless gaming.

In a 60-day trial, Trump has activated ticket printers on 112 video slot machines. When players push the button to cash out, the machine prints out a bar-coded ticket instead of dropping tokens. The tickets then can either be exchanged for cash at the cage, or fed into readers on other slot machines for credits.

Assuming the test is successful and approval is given by the Indiana Gaming Commission, Trump hopes to go online with about 700 Ticket Pay machines, including both video slots and reel-spinners.

Indiana's cashless experiment actually started at Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City. Early results were successful enough for further tests.

Before too many years go by, ticket printers or other methods of reducing casinos' reliance on coins and tokens are going to be the norm. The potential benefits to casinos are enormous, with reduced down time on machines because of hopper jams, less time spent on hopper fills and payoffs by hand, and a big reduction in the cost of keeping tokens or coins in inventory.

I've found that players like the printers, too, once they get used to them. My dad, who was wary of the printers, had his reservations eased after we tried them out at Terrible's casino in Las Vegas. He hadn't realized that you could just take the tickets to another machine, just as you can with coins. Carrying the tickets around is loads easier than lugging a bucket of coins. And many's the time that while waiting for a hopper fill I've wished I could have a ticket printed instead.

The printers are becoming common at casinos that cater to Las Vegas locals. A recent post on an e-mail group to which I belong complained about out-of-date equipment at one casino--because it didn't have ticket printers.

HORSESHOE WALKTHROUGH: Just before dockside gaming was launched, I visited Hammond for a look at what's new in Horseshoe. It had been several months since I'd been able to get there--and that's an eternity in the casino world.

Horseshoe is known for taking care of the high-end player, and its high-limit table and high-limit slot rooms are particularly impressive. The service includes a buffet for the premium players, and the room has its own cocktail service. Along the walls are big, flat-screen televisions. And, of course, there are the high-limit games in blackjack, mini-baccarat and pai-gow poker.

Up one level from the entry is the high-limit slot room, with new machine bases to match the black leather laminate on the sides of the machines, for more of a high-end look. It's not the only high-end look. Plating is gold-colored rather than chrome, screens are larger than on most slots. Security personnel match the look of the room-- they're in tuxedos.

It's a comfortable room with custom-built chairs, its own cashiers' cage and a bar. Just as the high-limit table room has its buffet, this room has servers offering to bring food to players on high-end slots--$5 and up reel-spinners, and $1 multiline video games.

High-end players demand high-end treatment. And with the highest betting limits in the area, and hosts and comp policies that cater to the high-end player, Horseshoe has done what's needed to give those players what they want.