Casino revenue recovers from pandemic, flood years
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A return to business as usual with no disruptions has felt like hitting the jackpot not only for the St. Jo Frontier Casino, but also local government agencies that benefit from its revenue.
According to the Missouri Gaming Commission, the St. Jo Frontier Casino is up by 20% in adjusted gross revenue for the Fiscal Year of 2022, which began in July.
Mike Tamburelli, vice president and general manager of the St. Jo Frontier Casino, said he believes the easing of mask mandates in March and federal stimulus checks have contributed to bringing patrons back to the casino.
“We’ve really recovered,” Tamburelli said.
In recent years, the casino has been closed for periods. In 2019, that was for flooding, and in 2020 it was for the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, Tamburelli said, the casino never had to shut down operations, but like many other businesses, it has experienced staffing issues.
The casino isn’t the only entity benefitting from the rebound. Both the city of St. Joseph and Buchanan County are reaping the rewards of better business.
“This has really been the first year that revenues from gaming activity have rebounded to what they were prior to 2019,” St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter said.
From the early 2010s to 2018, Carter said, there was a steady decline in gaming revenues and that trend continued in 2019 and 2020, although in a more drastic way due to the closures.
“We have seen a rebound in those revenues this year as the casino hasn’t experienced a disruption in its operations,” Carter said.
During the flooding in 2019, Carter said the city had to cut back on budgeting from its gaming revenues. This impacted the city in several ways as that fund benefits property maintenance activities and historic preservation.
Carter said the gaming fund is important to the city. Historically, it has been used to “achieve those activities that we might not otherwise be able to achieve,” he said.
“With the rebound in gaming revenues, we have been able to restore some of the funding that had been previously cut,” Carter said. “And then, we’re also hoping to be able to build that gaming revenue fund balance back up ... so we don’t have to cut activities should we see another (casino) closure.”
He noted that the gaming revenues are dependent on the casino maintaining its operations.
“And as we’ve seen in the last couple of years, that’s not a guarantee,” he said.
Buchanan County Commissioner Ron Hook said that every time the turnstile on the gaming floor turns, city and county governments each receive $1.
Buchanan County budgeted for about $800,000 in casino revenue in 2020, but it only received about $638,000. Hook said the county normally uses gaming funds for the Social Welfare Board, the health department, the Missouri extension office, professional services and community support.
“The (casino) monies have always been agreed upon to be for the whole community,” Hook said. “To provide community services, community events, community projects that are good for everybody in the community.”
For the departments which are funded by gaming revenue, he said they were able to maintain what was budgeted during 2020, but reserve funds had to be tapped. In 2021, the county budgeted for $600,000 in casino revenue.
“We didn’t know what the ‘21 was gonna do, so we budgeted $600,000,” Hook said.
However, based on October receipts, Hook said the county has received $751,000 in gaming revenue so far.
“And still have two more receipts to come in,” he said.
