Illinois casinos generate $138.8 M revenue in June, a monthly decline of 4%

Illinois casinos recorded a drop in gaming revenue of 3.9% month-on-month in June, according to the latest report from the Illinois Gaming Board. The state's 15 casinos generated $138.3 million in revenue, down from $143.8 million in the previous month. However, Illinois saw an increase in revenue by nearly 13% year-on-year. 

Illinois casinos could not keep up with its May revenue numbers, and ten out of the state’s 15 properties saw revenue drops. DraftKings at Casino Queen and Bally’s Chicago saw the biggest declines at 17.9% and 11.4%, respectively.

Rivers Casino generated the most revenue at $43.9 million, a decrease of 1.77% from May, followed by Grand Victoria Casino at $11.5 million, which saw a decrease of over 5% month on month. Meanwhile, Bally’s Chicago recorded $10.4 million, a decline from May (11.42%), when it generated a record  $11,734,292.

Harrah's Joliet Casino & Hotel came in fourth at $10.3 million, a decline of 1.56% month-on-month. The Temporary by American Place and Hollywood Casino Aurora generated $8.8 million and $8 million respectively, down 3.5% and 6.5% respectively. DraftKings at Casino Queen generated $7 million, a nearly 18% decline from May when it recorded $8.6 million.

Casinos generating the least revenue were Golden Nugget Danville, Argosy Casino Alton, and Walkers Bluff Casino Resort, which recorded wins of $3.2 million, $2.9 million, and $2.6 million. However, all three casinos showed positive growth in June, increasing by 12.37%, 0.39%, and 1.53% respectively.             

Illinois casinos generate 13% higher revenue Y-O-Y

Though casino revenue was down month-on-month, yearly revenue was up more than $16 million. Casinos generated 13.1% more in wins this past month than they did a year ago.

The main drivers of the revenue rise were Bally’s Casino and Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort, which were not open in June 2023. That being said, revenue this past month was also still around $3 million higher than in June 2023 when removing Bally’s and Walker’s Bluff from its revenue total.

Online casinos are currently illegal in Illinois. However, the state is a prime candidate for iGaming because of its booming online sports betting market. PlayUSA projects that Illinois online casinos could generate more than $150 million, based on revenue totals from the seven states with active online casino markets. Illinois could become the nation’s top online casino market if it legalized iGaming.

 A state’s iGaming revenue total tends to follow its population which means the more people, the higher the per-capita revenue. According to the publication, states with online sports betting are in a better position to legalize online casinos if for no other reason than lawmakers in those states are more comfortable with online gaming.