April was a cruel month for casinos

Slot-machine revenues plummeted last month at Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, tumbling by 13.4 and 10.8 percent, respectively.

The declines mirrored those reported at some other gambling destinations in the Northeast and elsewhere in the country.

"Nationally, gaming had a bad month," said Jeffrey Hartmann, president and chief executive officer of Mohegan Sun. "We're not happy with the results. We anticipated and hoped for a better April."

It was the fourth straight month of year-over-year decreases at the Connecticut casinos and the first month since August in which both facilities experienced a double-digit decline.

Mohegan Sun's "handle" - the total amount wagered on slots - was nearly $658 million last month, down 12.3 percent over April 2011. The casino "won," or kept, $54.9 million of the total. At Foxwoods, which includes MGM Grand at Foxwoods, April's handle totaled $600 million, 14.2 percent less than in the same month in 2011. Foxwoods kept $49.5 million.

Scott Butera, Foxwoods' president and CEO, called April a "soft" month and noted that the downturn in business was not confined to the gaming sector.

"A lot of retail and consumer-based companies had a bad month," he said. "People were spending a lot coming out of the chute (at the beginning of 2012), so the first three months of the year were stronger. ... In this economy, we're not going to see any great growth in revenues, so it's all about how well we manage our resources."

Atlantic City's 12 casinos, including Revel, the $2.4 billion resort that opened April 2, reported last week that overall gaming revenues were down 10 percent in April. Slots revenue was down 9.2 percent.

At Empire City, the slots parlor at Yonkers Raceway just outside New York City, slots revenue dropped 16 percent last month, data posted by the New York Lottery show. Twin River, the racetrack casino in Lincoln, R.I., reported that its April slots revenue declined by $50,000, or one-tenth of a percent.

"In every destination, from Connecticut to New York to Michigan to Missouri, revenue growth flattened out or declined (last month)," Hartmann said. "It seemed to be something going on in the economy."

For the casinos, last month's calendar was less favorable than April 2011, which had one more Friday and one more Saturday.

The numbers the casinos reported to the state Department of Consumer Protection's Gaming Division show Mohegan Sun forwarded $14.3 million of its April slots win to the state; Foxwoods contributed $13.5 million.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com