Detroit Casinos Revenue Decline Breaks 9-Month Streak Before Strike Starts

The three Detroit casinos could not continue their nine-month streak of beating $100m in their total monthly gaming revenue. Hollywood Casino, MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity all combined to generate $99 million from table games and slots. In addition, their sportsbooks generated $1.6 million in revenue bringing the total gaming receipts to about $101.6 million.

With the numbers the casinos have put up so far in 2023, they are still outperforming 2022. However, their September revenue is a 0.8% decline from September 2022. The casinos also dropped by 4.4% from their total August 2023 gaming revenue.

After narrowly missing the $100m mark by about $8,600 in September, the projections for October are also not looking good because of the ongoing workers’ strike.

Even though the casinos were not able to generate up to $100m from table games and slots, they still had a good year and are outperforming 2022 by 0.6% presently.

MGM did a lot better than the other two casinos and it was responsible for 44% of the total gaming revenue as it generated $44.7 million. MotorCity came after with 31% by generating $31 million in gaming revenue and Hollywood Casino at Greektown generated $24.3 million which was 25% of the total revenue.

Interestingly, even though Hollywood Casino generated the least, the casino was the only one of the three that had a better monthly revenue than it did last year. Hollywood Casino generated 15.1% more than it did in September last year. MGM generated 7.6% less than it did last year and MotorCity also went down by 1.1% when compared with its revenue in September 2022.

As of this month last year, Hollywood Casino had generated $191 million in revenue through the year, but in 2023, it has generated $219 million from casino games. 

Even though Hollywood Casino at Greektown is the only one that had a better month than last year, the total revenue generated from the casinos is still better than last year. By September 2022, they had generated $948 million through the year, but this year, they have generated $953 million.

In September, MGM generated $44.7 million in revenue which was only a bit less than the sum of what Hollywood Casino at Greektown and MotorCity Casino generated in the same month. But even though the casino generated more than the other two, it is still experiencing a decline when compared with last year’s returns.

From January to September, the casino generated $445.7 million in revenue in total as all three casinos reached over $100 million together month after month. But for MGM, this $445 million in revenue still falls short of what it had generated in nine months last year by $10.2 million. The most recent drop in September increased the difference between the revenue generated in both years to 2.2%.

The remaining three months of the year are not looking promising for the casino because, for up to two weeks in October the casino was only operating at limited capacity due to the ongoing workers’ strike.

The three Detroit casinos have been having a great year with their streak of generating nine figures in gaming revenue every month. However, as the third week of the workers’ strike is coming to an end, the October report is expected to reveal a nosedive in revenue in the casinos. Although Michigan online casinos are largely unaffected by the strike, the industrial action may possibly increase iGaming adoption among retail lovers.

To start Detroit’s first casino workers’ strike, the workers at MGM Grand Detroit, Hollywood Casino, and MotorCity joined a large union strike of 3,700 workers on October 17 demanding for better working conditions and improved wages. As the strike continues, some workers have taken breaks from the picket lines to spread their campaign to state lawmakers and other stakeholders to garner more support for their cause.

While no one can predict when exactly the strike is going to end, we can be sure that the strike is going to affect the casinos’ October revenue report. As the strike continues, MGM, MotorCity, and Hollywood Casino remain open, but they are operating at a limited capacity.