February wasn't kind to three southeast Indiana riverboat casinos.

Numbers released Thursday by the Indiana Gaming Commission show that the three gambling boats closest to Cincinnati all posted lower revenues than they did for the same month in 2002.

But severe weather might only be partly to blame for sluggish revenues, as all three casinos managed to bring about the same number of people into the casinos as they did in February 2002.

The biggest dip occurred at the Grand Victoria in Rising Sun, which won $11.9 million last February and won $9.6 million last month.

Win is the amount customers lose and accounts for gross gaming revenues - the money a casino takes in before it pays salaries, taxes and other expenses.

The Belterra Casino in Vevay was down about $200,000 to $8.8 million.

The Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg pulled in $29.7 million, about $400,000 less than in 2002. But Argosy managed to bring in 261,942 guests, about 4,500 more.

Belterra casino brought in 182 more people last month. Grand Victoria was down about 3,800 visitors.

Robert Anglen