Gambling revenue up in the last six months

The weather’s warmed up and so has the gambling at the state’s race track and riverboat casinos in the last six months. Jack Ketterer, the Administrator of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, says in the last half of 2001, overall gambling revenues in Iowa were up eight percent. Ketterer says much of the increase came in November and December.Ketterer says November was up around 14-percent and December saw a 26-percent increase in revenue over last year. He says record snow and poor weather pushed revenues down in November and December of 2000.The snow combined with cold weather made it hard for people to get to the casinos, and high heating bills left them with less money to spend once they got there. Ketterer says the aftermath of the September 11th attacks didn’t have much impact on Iowa’s gambling industry because people could still drive there, as opposed to a place like Las Vegas which relys on people flying in.The state’s three race/track casinos and 10 riverboats took in over 472-million dollars in the last six months.