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Iowa Riverboats Outpace Rest

IOWA – As reported by the Fort Madison Daily Democrat: "Southeast Iowa's riverboat outpaced the growth of all other Iowa casinos, according to Catfish Bend Casino CEO Joe Massa.

"'Ridership was up by six percent for the year,' Massa said at the quarterly Southeast Iowa Regional Riverboat Commission meeting Tuesday night, 'and revenue was up by eight percent (from 2003). We feel good about that because all of the other boats in Iowa only saw four percent growth. If you add the racetracks, it was seven percent. So we did better than the average.'

"According to accounting information provided by Lee County SIRRC treasurer Dave Walker, the total number of passengers was up to 557,901, or 41,000 over the previous year, and revenues were up to $932,901, or $31,000 over the previous year.

"However, the turnaround is recent, and both revenue and passenger turnout is down overall from 2002 and before. So while Massa said he was optimistic about the future, he said that he was unsure how high those numbers would climb…"

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