By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer

With a month to go in 2003, the three riverboat casinos in southeast Indiana already had "won" more money than they did in all of 2002.

Through November, the three casinos won a total of about $630 million - or $2 million more than all last year, the Indiana Gaming Commission said Monday. A casino's win is the amount customers have lost on slots and table games. It accounts for gross gambling revenue - the amount a casino takes in before paying taxes, salaries and operating expenses.

Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg "won" $35.5 million in November, bolstered by almost 50,000 visitors over the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the commission said.

The win was 14 percent more than November 2002. This year, Argosy hosted 306,881 visits in November.

Grand Victoria Casino in Rising Sun won $11.6 million, 10 percent more than last year, on 130,900 visits.

And Belterra Casino in Switzerland County, about halfway between Cincinnati and Louisville, won $10.7 million, or about 2 percent more than the same month last year. It hosted 141,421 visits.

Year-to-date, Argosy has won $377 million, or $3 million more than it did in 2002.

Belterra also has exceeded its win for 2002, with $121 million through November compared with $117 million for last year.

The casino, the newest in the area, had seven months in 2002 where its win was less than $10 million. But it's only had one such month this year.

Grand Victoria has won a total of $131 million in 2003. That means the casino will easily exceed its $136 million win in 2002 once the year is completed. Its win to date is about $5 million ahead of where it was in November 2002.

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E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com