Colorado Casinos Experience Huge Traffic After Implementation of Amendment 50
Colorado's gaming facilities reported a huge growth in traffic on the 1st day of higher-stakes gaming on July 2nd, 2009. Shortly after the maximum wager limits were raised and new casino games like craps and roulette added at just past 12:00 midnight, the Lodge and Gilpin casinos in Black Hawk, Colorado had nearly 3 times more players that they did on the same day last year.
John East, a vice president with Jacobs Entertainment, which owns and manages the Lodge and Gilpin casinos said that it is fair to say that the changes were successful. East said that players were able to enjoy craps and roulette until well into morning. Casino facilities can now stay open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week instead of having to close their business at 2:00 a.m.
The maximum single wager has been raised from $5 to $100. State voters approved the gaming changes last fall. General Manager John Bohannon said that preliminary figures showed that gaming business at the Isle Casino Hotel Black Hawk was up by sixty percent. Bohannon said that they saw their casino table games volumes increased almost 4 times, compared with their average volume before the implementation of the gaming changes.
The Division of Gaming stated that casinos in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek added twenty-seven craps tables and sixteen roulette games. Golden Gaming, the operator of the Mardi Gras, Gulch and Gates casino facilities in Black Hawk, also had a huge turnout.
Christopher Abraham, a spokesperson for Golden Gaming said that their casino tables and poker business improved significantly. Operators are expecting even bigger crowds even during weekends because of the new regulations. Most of the additional gambling-tax revenue produced from the Amendment 50 changes has been allocated for the community colleges in Colorado.
2009-08-05
David M. Bedingfield
