Northwest Indiana’s three casinos reported revenues of $68.2 million in January, an increase of about 7.1% from the approximately $63.7 million reported for the same month last year, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission’s monthly gaming report.
Hard Rock Northern Indiana saw an increase in earnings with about $36.9 million reported for January 2025 compared to $31.7 million reported in January 2024, according to the report.
Matt Schuffert, president of Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, said January weather can make the start of the year a tricky one for the entertainment industry. But, despite a few pockets of cold weather, the casino was able to increase its revenue by about 16% year over year, he said.
“It was good to see that happen in a month that can be challenging from a weather perspective,” Schuffert said. “Nasty weather keeps people at home and they don’t like to drive when conditions are difficult. Despite some difficult weather days, we had some good results.”
Hard Rock and Ameristar Casino in East Chicago reported increases in revenue year over year in January. Horseshoe Hammond reported a decrease in revenue within the same time frame.
Hard Rock reported revenues of $31.7 million in January 2024 and $36.9 million in January 2025 and Ameristar Casino reported revenues of $13.1 million in January 2024 and $13.4 million in January 2025, according to the report.
Horseshoe Hammond reported revenues of $18.9 million in January 2024 and $17.9 million in January 2025, according to the report.
Hard Rock reported an increase in revenue from December to January, while Ameristar and Horseshoe Hammond reported decreases within the same period.
Hard Rock reported $35.9 million in December 2024 and $36.9 million in January 2025. Ameristar reported $13.5 million in December 2024 and $13.4 million in January 2025, while Horseshoe Hammond reported $20.2 million in December 2024 and $17.9 million in January 2025.
At the end of January and into February, the Hard Rock held its Lunar New Year celebration that likely helped boost January revenues and will hopefully do that same next month, Schuffert said.
February has had some cold, snowy weather days so it’ll be interesting to see how that impacts next month’s report, Schuffert said.
Additionally, February 2024 was a leap year, so that means this month will have one day less of revenue, Schuffert said. As a casino that brings in about $1.2 million to $1.3 million a day, losing a day has the potential to impact revenue year over year.
“With weather and losing that day year over year, I would expect the market to be down, but we’ll see what happens,” Schuffert said. “Looking forward to getting through the rest of winter here and bring on spring.”
akukulka@post-trib.com