Colorado casino revenue continued its downward trend in October. Colorado casinos generated $86.5 million in adjusted gross proceeds in October, down 7.6% from September’s $93.6 million. It’s the third-consecutive month casino revenue has fallen since $101.5 million in July.
Still, October revenue was higher year over year, around 9% higher, than October 2022’s $79.2 million.
Adjusted gross proceeds for the current fiscal year (July-October) have grown to $373.4 million.
Slot machines in Colorado took in nearly $1B in October
Colorado allows casino gambling only in three towns: Black Hawk, Cripple Creek and Central City. Between the three mountain towns, there are 33 casinos. Colorado online casinos are still illegal.
Around $74 million in adjusted gross proceeds (AGP) was collected from $965.6 million of wagers on 10,386 slot machines in October. Those numbers were down from the previous month and last October. A year ago, $1.03 billion was dropped into slot machines with $79.2 million AGP. Slot machine handle was down 7.3% from September and slot AGP was 8.5% worse.
As usual, multi-denominational slot machines were most popular, with $455.6 million of bets placed. That was 47.2% of all slot wagers made in the state. The 3,644 multi-denominational slot machines accumulated $32.9 million in AGP thanks to a hold percentage of 7.23%.
Coming in second for most popular slot machine options in October was penny slots, which saw over $296.8 million in wagers. That led to $28 million in AGP across the 4,904 penny slots in Colorado. Penny slots also came away with the highest hold percentage across all slot machine options with 9.44%.
The bronze medal for most popular type of slot machines in October were $1 slots, which saw $143.1 million of wagers. There are 1,026 $1 slot options in the state, which accumulated $8.8 million of AGP and a hold percentage of 6.16%.
Black Hawk houses more than 50% of state’s slot machines
Black Hawk casinos led the trio of Colorado gambling towns in all slot machine categories outside of hold percentage. The town houses 5,928 slot machines, which is 57% of the state total. From those machines, $55.1 million of AGP was accumulated, nearly 75% of the total state AGP. The $713.3 million wagered on slot machines in Black Hawk also led the state. Central City led the state with a hold percentage of 7.82%.
Cripple Creek casinos feature 2,775 slot machines, which took in $172.2 million of bets leading to $12.6 million AGP. Central City casinos have 1,683 slot machines, which took in $80.1 million of wagers and created $6.3 million AGP.
Table games at Colorado casinos brought in nearly $12.6 million in October
Table games at Colorado casinos are just a drop in the pool of casino gaming success. There are only 268 table games across all 33 casinos, which is just 2.5% of all casino games in the state.
Even with the minuscule percentage of games being table games, they generated $12.6 million AGP, 14.5% of the state total from casino gaming. That number is 8% lower than September and 10% lower than October 2022.
Blackjack was the most popular table game and the most available to play. There are 106 blackjack tables across the state, which is nearly 40% of all table games. Those blackjack tables generated $4.1 million AGP in October from $17.8 million of bets placed and a massive hold percentage of 22.83%.
The only other table game that came close to the success of blackjack was baccarat, which saw $15.1 million of wagers at the 28 tables across the state. That led to $2.9 million AGP and a hold percentage of 19.65%.
More than $13.3 million of tax revenue generated in October from Colorado casinos
With October casino gambling now completed, the state reaped $13.3 million of tax dollars, which was right in line with last month.
In September, $13.4 million was contributed to the state from casino gambling. While staying in line with last month is encouraging, the tax contributions in October of this year are 8.9% lower YoY, when $14.6 million was paid to the state in taxes.
Black Hawk casinos continued to lead the pack with $11.7 million in taxes paid, 88% of the statewide total. Cripple Creek casinos came in second with $1.1 million. The remaining $493,299 came from Central City casinos.
