Analysis: Hollywood Casino, Aurora
Hollywood Casino has suffered one of the most significant drops in foot traffic of the four Chicago-area gambling boats: 32 percent.
And yet the owners took in 25 percent more cash last year than in 2000 when the Aurora casino had 800,000 more visits.
The extra cash came from slot machines - tighter ones.
Last year, 44 percent of Hollywood's slot floor was comprised of machines that held back an average of more than 10 percent of bets. These 517 machines kicked in 45 percent of the casino's slot winnings.
The worst bets were the 234 nickel games that withheld 12 percent, paying out 88 cents of every dollar gambled on average.
With this shift, slot machine revenue skyrocketed at the casino from $169 million in 2000 to last year's $239 million, a 42 percent increase. Money from slots withholding more than 10 cents on the dollar came out to $107 million last year as compared to $30 million in 2001.
John Finamore, regional vice president of operations for Pennsylvania-based Penn National Gaming Inc., which owns Hollywood, noted the increase in tighter slots is a nationwide shift.
"This is normal and we have seen these trends in all of our markets," he said.
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