Slots Revenue Declines From a Year Ago at The Meadows

Slots revenue at The Meadows Racetrack & Casino in nearby North Strabane declined 5.4 percent from a year ago, according to new numbers released by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Slots revenue in March 2012 was $22,813,406, and in March 2013 it was $21,583,272. 

The Meadows' general manager Sean Sullivan told the Observer-Reporter that the lower revenue amount was because of the "free-play" offers—"a marketing strategy to entice customers when factors like the weather" keep them away—and that the results should "self-correct."

The Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh's North Shore saw a 2.8 percent jump in slots revenue, the only percentage gainer of Pennsylvania casinos last month.

Sullivan told the newspaper that the Rivers has a younger demographic that continues to visit the casino in bad weather.

The Meadows' March revenue was, however, a dramatic jump from February's revenue gain.

And the PGCB reported that the March 2013 slots revenue for all Pennsylvania casinos was $229,335,372—the second-highest since the opening of the casinos in 2006.

That's 1.6 percent lower than March of 2012 when casinos produced the highest amount of slot machine revenue at $233,147,479.