<div id="subtitle">Miss. casino revenues drop $8.1M in Nov. from previous month; winnings lowest since Sept. 2005</div><div><p>A rebound in Mississippi gaming revenues lasted only a month.</p><p>Mississippi's state-licensed casinos reported November revenues of $185.4 million, the lowest revenue figure since September 2005 when a dozen coastal casinos were shut down after Hurricane Katrina.</p><p>The November figures, released Monday by the Mississippi State Tax Commission, represented an $8.1 million drop from October and $1 million down from September, the previous low at $186.4 million.</p><p>Since January, the casinos have taken in $2.27 billion, compared to $2.51 billion from January to November 2008.</p><p>In November, casinos along the Mississippi Gulf Coast showed a slight improvement from October, winning $87.2 million, up from $86.3 million. Casinos along the Mississippi River — including Tunica, Vicksburg and Natchez — won $99.2 million last month, down from $107.2 million in October.</p><p>In November 2008, revenue totaled $205.3 million — $96.2 million from the coastal casinos and $109 million from those along the river.</p><p>Comparing last month's revenue to November 2008, the drop was under 10 percent, regulators said.</p><p>"The trend continues that the number of people visiting casinos hasn't dropped; the money they're spending has,' said Allen Godfrey, deputy director of the state Gaming Commission. "They don't have the gambling budget they had two years ago.</p><p>"They're staying two nights instead of three or four. They're playing penny and nickel slot machines rather that the dollar and higher denomination machines. It's where we are in the economy."</p><p>Years back, Godfrey said regulators could look and tell which months were going to be better months and which others were going to historically be down.</p><p>"It's a new ball game now," he said.</p><p>Similar drops have been reported throughout the past year in other casino states such as Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey and Illinois.</p><p>In Louisiana, the 13 riverboat casinos, Harrah's Entertainment Inc.'s downtown New Orleans casino and the four race track casinos took in $179 million in November, down from $214.9 million in November 2008.</p><p>John Payne, Harrah's central division president, said during a meeting last month of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board that 2010 likely would "follow the trends of 2009" before a recovery in 2011 and 2012.</p><p>Nonetheless, Godfrey said investors continue to show interest in Mississippi.</p><p>"We have people wanting to come to Mississippi with new properties," he said.</p><p>Casino revenue, or "win," is the net amount of money won from gamblers. It is not profit.</p><p>The gross earnings figure represents casino revenue only — separate from hotel, restaurant or bar revenues generated by the resorts.</p><p>The figures do not include Indian reservation casinos, which are not required to report their winnings to the public.</p><p>Gaming tax collections are tracked on Mississippi's fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30. Casino tax collections in November totaled $23.9 million compared to $21.1 million in October.</p><p>Mississippi collected $118.9 million in the first five months of this fiscal year.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65827912&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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