By Miles Flynn | Southern Indiana Business Report
FRENCH LICK — French Lick Casino saw a taxable adjusted gross revenue of $5,506,061 for November, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission Summary of Wagering and Supplemental Tax for the month. The figure is down $913,371, or 14%, from October, but it’s still up $1,749,343, or 47%, from where it was in November 2020. A comparison back to pre-COVID November 2019, however, indicates the property lost a little ground. The November comparison shows a gulf of $1,570,586, or 22%, from two years ago. The casino had been seeing a slow narrowing of that gap previously. For October, AGR was down $451,241, or 7%, from where it was in October 2019. Looking back, results had been off by 13% for September and 24% for August.
Meanwhile, French Lick’s AGR total for the first five months of the current fiscal year now stands at $30,784,839. That figure is up $7,427,902, or 32%, from this time one year ago. However, it is down $5,496,590, or 15%, from where it was at this time in 2019. Looking back, the gulf has widened some in the running total, too. For October, it had been off from 2019 by $3,926,004, or 13%. The gap had been 15% for September and 17% for August.
Taking a look at statewide numbers, the 13 casinos across Indiana reported a combined AGR total for November of $179,178,750. That figure is down $17,169,734, or 9%, from October, but it’s up $45,920,829, or 34%, from November 2020. Unlike French Lick, the state casino industry as a whole is actually outperforming its November 2019 numbers. The November 2021 total is up for the period by $16,394,632, or 10%. And the statewide running AGR total for the first five months of the current fiscal year is also up. The figure, $967,347,338, is up $215,967,518, or 29%, from where it was in November 2020, and it’s up $136,652,066, or 16%, from the running total seen in November 2019.
Turning to taxes, French Lick Casino paid $330,396 in wagering tax and $103,363 in sports wagering tax for November, making total gaming taxes for the month $433,759 and bringing the running total for the fiscal year up to $1,075,470. Statewide, November gaming taxes amounted to $46,329,969 in wagering tax, $4,527,177 in sports wagering tax, and $3,967,165 in the supplemental wagering tax paid by casinos that had been paying the old admission tax prior to its abolition, bringing the combined gaming tax total for the month to $54,824,311 and the running total for the fiscal year to $224,089,741.