Detroit Casino Revenue Is On Pace For A Record-Setting Year

The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) recently released June revenue numbers for Detroit’s three casinos and the news is mixed, but optimistic.

The combined casino revenue for the month of June was $119.6 million.

That figure represents a two percent increase when compared to June 2017. That’s the good news.

The bad news is the figure also represents a 4.4 percent decrease when compared to May 2017.

June 2018 Detroit casino revenue summary

Every month, the MGCB collects data from Detroit’s three casinos:

• MGM Grand Detroit
• MotorCity Casino Hotel
• Greektown Casino Hotel

In terms of revenue, the casinos maintained their place in line. Not surprisingly, MGM leads the trio with MotorCity hanging out in the middle and Greektown ending up in third place.

MGM posted $51.8 million in revenue for the month. While down 4.6 percent from May, it’s a 6.6 percent increase compared to June 2017. MGM posted the biggest year-over-year increase in the group.

MotorCity generated 39.6 million, good for a 4.4 percent increase compared to last year and 4.6 percent decrease compared to the previous month.

Greektown took in $27.7 million in June, which represents a 4.4 percent bump from last year and a 3.9 percent decline from last month. Greektown posted the smallest decline in revenue when compared to May.

Looking at the trend lines, MGM and Motor City are both showing positive trends, while Greektown is showing a slight declining trend.

MGM revenue represents 44 percent of the market share. MotorCity claims 33 percent, while Greektown has 23 percent.

The yearly trends

After a slow start to the year, the three Detroit casinos have maintained a solid pace of growth when compared to 2017.

January and February 2018 saw total Detroit casino revenue come in under that of those same months in 2017. The record-setting revenue in March ($138,618,493) put the casinos back on track to post another record-setting year.

March was the highest revenue-generating month last year, and it is currently the highest this year. Expect it to remain so.

State and city wagering taxes

The three casinos paid a total of $136.3 million in taxes for the month of June.

The state receives 8.1 percent of the casinos’ net win, and the city gets 10.9 percent. Based on those percentages, $14.2 million went to the city of Detroit, and 9.6 million went to the state of Michigan.

According to the MGCB, the state’s portion of the wagering taxes goes to a beneficial cause: the School Aid Fund. The fund is used to aid school districts, higher education, and school employee’s retirement systems. The wagering taxes, however, are specifically for the support of statewide K-12 classroom education.

The city’s portion of the wagering taxes supports programs and services that enhance the quality of life for Detroit citizens. Specifically:

• Hiring, training, and deployment of street patrol officers
• Neighborhood and downtown economic development programs
• Public safety programs
• Fire department programs
• Taxpayer relief
• Road repair and improvements

The bottom line

On the whole, it is not too alarming that the revenue from all three casinos fell in June compared to May. There is a similar pattern in the revenue numbers from 2017.

The year with the highest revenue on record is 2011 with $1,424,445,461. At the end of last year, the casinos posted a total of $1,400,536,681, the second biggest revenue since 2011. Only 2012 was higher with $1,416,734,426.

The casinos are on track to post a new yearly revenue high, provided they continue to post moderate increases over last year’s revenue numbers.

Using last year as a predictor, look for an increase in revenue for July.