Analysis: Harrah's Casino, Joliet

While every other Chicago-area casino in Illinois lost attendance, Harrah's Casino in Joliet has enjoyed a profitable boom in gamblers.

Thanks in part to a revitalized downtown Joliet, Harrah's managed to reverse a downward trend in revenue with rising attendance, betting and its number of tight slot machines.

Harrah's was the second highest grossing Illinois casino last year, next to Elgin's Grand Victoria. It also has managed to clobber close competition just down the river at Empress.

Such close competition - a relative oddity in this heavily regulated industry - has not stopped casino operators from adding tighter slots, pushing revenue growth to noticeably outpace its trend-busting rise in betting and gamblers.

Attendance rose 23 percent between 2000 and 2007 at Harrah's, while revenue has grown by about $100 million, or 36 percent.

The source of new cash is evident when looking at the casino's 1,100-plus slots. Betting on those machines rose 14 percent over seven years, but the house's take grew a full 44 percent, or $105 million.

While Empress down the street also uses the lower-paying slots, Harrah's appears to have even more slots with a lower payout, on average.

In 2007, 54 percent of Harrah's slot floor consisted of machines that took more than 10 cents from every dollar on average. Those machines made up 51 percent of the casino's slot revenue.The ones that paid out the lowest amount were the 16 penny slot machines that took 15 cents from every dollar last year on average.Philippe Khouri, vice president of operations for Harrah's, said players flock to the tighter, video-based games for the entertainment value."Even when the hold percentage is a little higher, they tend to enjoy the game and experience more," he said. <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=221651">Illinois casinos beat the odds with tighter slot machines <span class="date">[07/20/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=221383">Analysis: Hollywood Casino, Aurora <span class="date">[07/20/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=221381">Analysis: Grand Victoria, Elgin <span class="date">[07/20/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=221384">Analysis: Empress Casino, Joliet <span class="date">[07/20/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=221382">Analysis: Harrah's Casino, Joliet <span class="date">[07/20/08]</span></a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=9&type=video&item=185">State casnios beating the odds </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>