T
he administrator of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission said revenues for the fiscal year that ended in June are down about 20% after the shutdowns forced by the coronavirus pandemic.
Iowa governor ordered the 19 casinos closed March 17 and weren’t allowed to open until May 31. “Those months that were closed really did have a significant impact. Up until the pandemic, the industry had been doing really well. I think some of that could be attributed to the impact from sports wagering,” Brian Ohorilko said, as reported by Radio Iowa.
The report released Thursday showed gross casino revenues for the fiscal year were $1,163 billion, a drop of almost $300 million from the last fiscal year. Casinos were allowed to start offering sports betting at the end of September last year — and most had their operations up and going as the new year started.
Iowans wagered about $368 million in fiscal 2020 on the outcome of professional and collegiate sports competition (more than $223.6 million done online) even though much of the activity was shut down starting in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The new betting option that began last Aug. 15 generated more than $25.7 million in net receipts for Iowa’s 19 state-licensed casinos during the fiscal year that ended June 30.
June sports betting activity ramped up somewhat with $12.7 million in wagering — all but $1.1 million done using online apps. Also, more than 1 million Iowans ventured out to newly reopened casinos that generated nearly $113.8 million in revenue — down about 5.5 percent from June 2019, Ohorilko said.
“We have seen admissions down — but spending was up in a number of casinos — especially in eastern Iowa. Those casinos had some of the best months they’ve had in a long time,” according to Ohorilko. “But I think a lot of that could be attributed to Illinois still being shut down and people that are interested in gambling coming to Iowa to do that.”
Ohorilko said he is sure that the state-licensed casinos are not in any trouble of closing. “At this point, there really is no concern about them being viable. All 19 casinos were able to if they had debt, able to get help servicing that debt,” he said. Many of the casinos have re-opened with less staff due to restrictions on the capacity that are still in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“They are using technology to help cash gaming tickets, to exchange chips, so it’s really just the implementation of technology to help automate some of the processes that normally would involve human contact and hand-to-hand touch. So we are seeing some of that right now,” Ohorilko said.
The state reported it saw a drop of $64.5 million in gambling tax revenue brought on by the shutdown.
