Flooding hurts Isle of Capri quarterly results

Regional gaming operator Isle of Capri Casinos took a hit in the first quarter due to flooding conditions along the Mississippi River in May and June.

The St. Louis-based company, which is licensed in Nevada but does not have a casino in the market, said this morning company revenues declined 2 percent to $245.8 million for the three months that ended July 24, primarily due to the flooding issues.

Six of Isle's casinos in Davenport, Iowa, Caruthersville, Mo., and Lula, Natchez and Vicksburg, Miss., experienced closures at different times and lengths. The Davenport casino was closed for six days while parts of the Natchez property were closed for 41 days.

"This quarter clearly contains numerous outside factors that make it difficult to compare our progress to prior year," Isle of Capri CEO Virginia McDowell said in a statement.

The company said that in addition to the actual days closed, the properties did not operate at normal levels for some period of time before or after their respective closure due to conditions in the surrounding areas.

Still, Isle of Capri was able to cut its net loss to $2.3 million in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $2.7 million in the prior-year quarter.

KDP Investment Advisors gaming analyst Barbara Cappaert said many of Isle's nonflood impacted properties produced better than expected results.

"While we are disappointed in the performance of the flooded properties, we take this as a one time problem, which will likely have some residual impact into the second fiscal quarter but no long lasting impact," Cappaert said.

Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.