Louisiana casinos show 3.3 percent drop in winnings

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana's state-licensed casinos won $2.37 billion from players in 2010 -- a 3.3 percent drop over what was left behind in 2009.

In 2009, casino winnings totaled $2.45 billion in Louisiana.

At the same time, state figures show the casinos increased their take last month by 6.2 percent over December 2009. Last month, gamblers lost $204.3 million, compared with $192.4 million in December 2009.

Last month, the 13 riverboat casinos won $140.9 million. Harrah's downtown New Orleans casino won $32.2 million, while the four race track casinos took in $31.2 million.

The figures do not include the three Indian reservation casinos in Louisiana, which are not required to report their winnings to the public.