Photo courtesy of Elite Casinos

COVID-19 disruptions to the operations of Riverside Casino and Golf Resort in 2020 is trickling down financially to the City of Riverside.

City Administrator Christine Yancey says they normally receive about $1.2 million annually in casino tax revenue, but the pandemic is going to lower that number this year, “It wasn’t as bad as people might have been predicting. We did have an adjustment period in August because they (the casino) had been closed, but the revenues are still coming in. They’re getting close to becoming back up to normal so we’re going to take a minor hit, but not as bad as what we thought.”

Yancey says they’re currently trending towards a casino tax revenue reduction of $150-180,000. She says that may mean the city will need to scale back on a couple of projects, but they’ll adjust funding those projects as best they can.The city council will discuss the situation further during their regular meeting tonight at 6:00 p.m.