Did Casino Smoking Ban Hurt Shreveport Casinos?

Louisiana casinos have been bouncing back after dealing with low numbers during the pandemic.

The latest revenue totals from the state's  riverboat casinos show the boats brought in nearly $120 million dollars in August. But did the smoking ban for the 2 casinos in Shreveport have an impact on the local numbers.

Data released by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board shows:

El Dorado revenues in July were $11 million. That dropped off to $7 million for August. But in August of last year, El Dorado revenues were just under $6 million.

Sam's Town Casino had August revenues of $3.3 million, down from $5.5 million in July and $4 million in August a year ago.

The smoking ban at the two Shreveport casinos began in August.

Did the Bossier City casinos pick up the dollars?

Here are the August revenues:

Boomtown $3.9 million

Horseshoe $12.6 million

Margaritaville $13.4 million

Boomtown numbers are down by about a half a million from July. Horseshoe numbers are down $2 million from July and Margaritaville revenues are down $4 million from July.

So what is the takeaway from this? It does not look like the smoking ban had a major impact on the gambling trends in the Shreveport Bossier market. All of the local boats have seen a downturn. This is pretty typical for August as more families face back-to-school expenses which limits the amount of money for gambling.

September numbers should be out in the next few days and that could give us better data about the smoking ban's impact on the Shreveport boats.