Caesars’ Temporary Danville Casino Made $11.9M in First Two Weeks After Launch

Article ByDavid Weir

June 19, 2023

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Posted in: Virginia Gambling News, US Casino News

Caesars gained approval for a temporary casino in Danville, Virginia, in late April, and it opened its doors on May 15.

Since then, it has brought in $11.9 million in operating revenue, according to new figures from the Virginia Lottery.

The temporary venue is still an expansive operation, with some 40,000 square feet of gaming space. That includes more than 740 slot machines, eight sports betting terminals, 25 live table games, and 28 electronic casino games.

It will operate until Caesars opens its permanent Virginia resort across the road from the current site in 2024. In an interesting aside, you can see a 24/7 livestream of the Caesars Virginia construction site, including the temporary casino.

“This two-week period is a grand opening, everyone’s excited, it’s new, and everybody wants to be there,” said Danville City Manager Ken Larking. “It’s definitely on track and exceeded expectations.”

Related: The best online casinos in Virginia, rated and ranked

Great Numbers

The temporary Caesars Danville casino did almost as well as the temporary Hard Rock Bristol venue in May, despite opening halfway through the month.

The bulk of its revenues came from slots, at $10.196 million (and 20 cents). The 25 table games pulled in $1.729 million.

“We were expecting good numbers. But we weren’t expecting these great numbers in such a short time with a temporary casino. This has been astounding,” Mayor of Danville, Alonzo Jones told WDBJ Virginia.

The temporary Danville casino was accountable for a $2.146 million tax bill in May. That’s 26% of the state’s $5.3 million total for the month, despite only being open for two weeks.

Competitive Start

Those kinds of numbers from a temporary venue might have their two competitors looking nervously over their shoulders.

Rivers Casino Portsmouth is the only permanent operation of Virginia’s three casinos. It was the most popular operator during May, pulling in some $20.6 million.

That was despite it becoming the first casino in Virginia history to receive a fine from regulators, the docking coming at the beginning of the month. It settled for a $275,000 penalty and a promise of future compliance after being accused of various infringements since it opened in January this year.

Overall, Virginia’s three legal casinos pulled in $45.471 million in revenues for the month. Slots represented the lion’s share of that at $35 million, compared to $10.4 million for table games.

However, the ratio between slots and table game revenues was much lower at Rivers Portsmouth than the two temporary casinos. Both Hard Rock Bristol and Caesars Danville took in around five to six times more from slots than table games.

At Rivers, it was closer to twice as much. Rivers Portsmouth does have 81 table games, compared to fewer than 30 at the two temporary venues.

Community Funds

The $5.3 million tax bill from all three casinos was already exciting local Danville politicians, including Larkin.

“They [Caesars] made recommendations on how to most wisely use the funds for the people in our community,” he said. “This includes improving education, helping to create new economic opportunities for our residents, economic development, neighborhood improvements, quality of life amenities, and financial stability.”

The Danville Committee also negotiated a $300,000 grant as part of the development agreement. Those funds are to be used on local community projects.

Mayor Jones said some of the funding has already gone towards the construction of two new community water parks for Danville’s younger residents.

“These are the exact things that the Danville Committee asked us to do. So, when you just drive through Danville, you’ll see so many exciting things happening. You can’t miss it,” he said.