According to the Missouri Gaming Commission and the Illinois Gaming Board, the St. Louis gambling market has 11,857 gaming positions—nearly as many as in Reno, Nevada with 12,957 positions in casinos, bars, convenience stores, grocery stores, liquor stores and the Reno airport, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. The St. Louis market includes four casinos on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River and two on the Illinois side, along with video gaming terminals in bars, restaurants and gaming parlors throughout the Metro East.
Unlike Illinois, smoking is allowed in Missouri casinos. Adjusted gross revenue at the four St. Louis-area casinos in Missouri rose from $829 million in 2014 to $894 million in 2018, according to MGC records.
However, St. Louis could catch up to Reno because of the gaming expansion bill signed into law by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, expected to generate $45 billion for infrastructure projects and repairs.
Specifically, Fairmount Park racetrack could have 900 gaming positions, including slot machines and/or table games, and it could offer the region’s first legal sportsbook. The Casino Queen in East St. Louis and Argosy Casino in Alton each could add 800 positions. Also, area bars and restaurants could offer six video gaming terminals, up from five; large truck stops could have 10 video gaming machines.
Critics such as Illinois Casino Gaming Association Executive Director Tom Swoik claim the St. Louis market already is saturated. He said additional gaming positions won’t generate additional revenue, but instead will redistribute it. “There’s going to be significantly more competition. We’re not creating more gamblers.”
He noted many customers are loyal to certain casinos or brands. But keeping them requires offering giveaways like free meals or promotions. “Once you become oversaturated, you could offer less promotions, you offer less giveaways. While customers are loyal, it doesn’t take a whole lot to lose them,” Swoik said.
He also noted although the new gaming law would let Illinois casinos to expand from a maximum of 1,200 positions to 2,000, they may not do it since they don’t use all of their allowable positions now. Swoik said since the launch of video gaming, “We can’t keep the positions we have now filled” primarily because video gaming machines in bars has led to cannibalization from casinos. In fact, in the past seven years revenue at the Casino Queen fell $131.2 million 2012 to $96.4 million in 2018. Revenue at the Argosy Casino dropped from $70.9 million to $46.8 million during the same period.
Swoik said, “The Casino Queen has always been a spot that seemed to maintain a very large successful patron base, even as some of the new casinos, such as the Lumiere, opened across the river. They lost a little business, but always seemed to kind of hang in there. When video gaming started, that really started hurting them.”
The bottom line, Swoik said, is, “I think what you’ll see is over a period of time is the less lucrative ones shutting down. Whether they would be on the Missouri side or the Illinois side, I don’t know.”
Brian Zander, president at Fairmount Park, which is set to become a racino, believes there’s room for growth in the St. Louis market. “I think there’s a lot of reasons to believe that a casino at Fairmount will do well. Is the market mature? I would agree with that. Is it over-saturated? I wouldn’t go that far.” Zander lobbied for years to bring casino-style gambling to the track to increase prize money and attract more horse owners.
He noted 65-75 percent of the vehicles that visit Fairmount Park have Missouri license plates. He expects the venue to become a destination, offering horseracing, casino gambling and sports betting all in one location. “We’re not here to take business away from existing Illinois casinos. We target the St. Louis market because that brings Missouri dollars into Illinois. We’ll see if that ends up being true. It’s about time our state has a shot,” he said.
