Saratoga racino's revenues slip in 2014

An ornamental cast iron horse greets visitors at the Saratoga Casino and Raceway.

Saratoga Casino and Raceway ended 2014 on a high note with its best December ever, but still couldn’t reverse a trend of annual net revenue declines that started with an off-year in 2013.

The racino had a net win — also called a hold — of $12.06 million last month, marking a $1.08 million, or 9.8 percent, increase over the figures recorded in 2013. But despite ending the year with a bang, the Saratoga Springs facility with about 1,700 video lottery terminals saw a year-to-year net win decline of about $829,462, marking a decrease of about a 0.52 percent.

The decline followed a slightly smaller one registered through 2013, when the racino’s net win declined by $157,176. At the time, the dip was the racino’s first after increasing net revenues annually since its opening in 2004.

In a month-to-month comparison, the racino saw better net revenues in May, July August and December. All of the other months represented declines over what was recorded in 2013.

Racino spokeswoman Rita Cox said many factors affect net revenue. For instance, she said the brutally cold weather that lingered over the Capital Region for much of the first four months of 2014 certainly had an impact on the racino’s business.

“The winter we had during the first quarter of the year had a big impact,” she said Friday.

But she also pointed to competition from other areas. Cox said the facility’s planned 108-room boutique hotel, 137-seat fine-dining restaurant and day spa now under review by the state Gaming Commission are intended to help the racino keep pace in an increasingly competitive gaming environment. “People have a lot of options where they can spend their entertainment dollar,” she said.

The racino, however, wasn’t alone among VLT facilities seeing a decline in net revenues. Among the state’s nine video lottery terminal facilities, seven saw a decline last year. Only Resorts World Casino in Queens and Batavia Downs Gaming in the western part of the state saw increases over net revenues recorded in 2013.

Altogether, the state’s nine VLT facilities saw a 1.41 percent decline in net revenues last year. Absent revenues from the two New York City-area racinos — Resorts World and Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway — upstate’s VLT revenues saw a 4.76 percent decline in net revenue between 2013 and 2014.

And the declines come long before these VLT facilities will have to contend with at least three state-licensed casinos cutting into their business. Last month, the state Gaming Commission’s siting board recommended issuing full table gaming licenses for three proposals: Rivers Casino and Resort at Mohawk Harbor in Schenectady; Montreign Resort Casino in Sullivan County; and Lago Resort and Casino in Seneca County.

Now the board will contemplate a fourth casino license for the Southern Tier at the urging of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cox doesn’t expect a fourth license in the Southern Tier to have a pronounced impact on Saratoga’s racino.

But Rivers Casino in Schenectady is a different story. Located just 22 miles from the racino, the casino expected to open sometime in 2016 could draw nearly half of the racino’s business away, according to studies conducted by the operators last year.

“We’ve said from the very beginning that any casino in this market could cost us as much as 40 or 50 percent of our business,” Cox said. “We’re sure there will be an impact.”

At the same time, Cox said the operators are encouraged that the racino will bounce back in the coming year. Despite the net revenue declines, she said the racino is pleased with the results realized in 2014.

“Overall, when you look at the results, we’re pleased with the way 2014 went and the way we’re looking moving forward,” she said. “We do think our business is going to grow next year.”