Gaming decline his bottom
It's clear and it's official: gaming revenues were slammed hard by the economy and smoking ban in the last quarter, Oct. 1-Dec. 1. Official state reports show tax collections – and income for operators – dropped 17.8 percent in the period. Revenue from the first quarter, July 1-Sept. 30, also slipped 5.35 percent pre-ban.
The declines follow a decade of fairly consistent growth in the 6 percent range.
But, if it can be considered good news, route operators are saying the declines have apparently hit bottom, though the bottom is uneven.
Steve Arntzen, Chief Operating Officer for Century Gaming, the state's largest gaming machine vendor, told the Montana Tavern Times Feb. 11 that he had seena couple of weeks in late January and early February where slight upticks occurred, interspersed with weeks of further dipping play.
He said the bottom-of-the-trough fluctuations could perhaps be linked to varying weather.
"January was down (compared to the same quarter one year ago), but by the same amount December was down (also compared to last year)," Arntzen said. January is traditionally a slower month than December for gaming machine play.
Tim Carson, president of Amusement Services, which operates over 800 devices, said his routes were showing similar results.
"We get a week that is up a little (compared to recent down trends), then get hit with a couple of weeks where it is down again," Carson said.
Both men agreed there is some relief to finding what appears to the bottom of the curve, and optimistically said they felt this means all can begin working toward recovering at least some of the loss.
"There's nowhere to go from here but up," Carson said. Arntzen said, "This is the best news in awhile. Improving weather from here should help."
Some cities and counties reported shocking declines of up to 43.57 percent. Some of the wildest fluctuations were in the smallest counties where the addition of a couple of machines can produce a substantial spurt or, on the contrary, pulling a couple of machines can create a contraction of similar magnitude.
For example, in Petroleum County, revenues shrank by 40.72 percent, whereas in Garfield, play was up 31.26 percent.
But Garfield and Powder River, perhaps the two most lightly populated counties in the state, were exceptions, along with McCone (up 17.56), to buck the dominate downward trend.
Even once prosperous gaming venues in the oil fields in the east of the state showed substantial declines. Richland County was down 26.72 percent, Daniels was down 23.38, Roosevelt down 25.55 and Sheridan down 30.94.
Of the most populous counties, Cascade was down 16.77, Gallatin was off 21.11 percent, Lewis and Clark was down 16.63, Missoula 19.16, Silver Bow off 9.68 and Yellowstone down 17.92 percent.
Generally, urban centers have taken a harder hit than more rural areas. Great Falls was hit with a 22.72 percent decline, Billings was down, 23.66 percent, Bozeman 27.95, Helena 20.67, Kalispell 28.1, Miles City 28.34 and Missoula 22.99.
The impact of the recession and/or smoking ban on beverage, food and other sales departments isn't easy to quantify.
Statewide it appears beer and spirits sales are holding steady or up marginally, but whether some sales have shifted from on-premise to off premise is undetermined. Nationwide, restaurant food sales are down and that could be the case in Montana, too.