- Iowa slot machines won $123 million in July, 90% of the state’s $136.1 million in casino revenue.
- Slot win fell 6.7% from July 2025 even though coin-in rose 5.9% to $1.41 billion.
- Penny slots held 9.45% of play, the highest rate of any standard denomination, and won $101.2 million.
- Prairie Meadows led all 19 floors with $18.4 million in slot win, and slots made up 96.7% of revenue at Bally’s Marquette.
DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa slot machines won $123 million in July, 90% of the $136.1 million the state’s 19 licensed casinos kept, according to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission’s July gaming revenue report. Slot win fell 6.7% from a year earlier even as play rose.
Machines Kept Less Of More Play
The commission’s July gaming revenue report, which breaks each property’s floor down by machine count and denomination, shows $1,414,909,629 in slot coin-in for the month against $123,037,408 in slot revenue. The machines held 8.70% of what ran through them, down from 9.87% in July 2025, so players got back a larger share of July’s wagers than they did a year earlier. Slot payout percentages by state tracks where those hold rates sit against other markets.
Coin-in counts every wager, including winnings replayed as credits; the cash that entered the machines, the slot drop, was $990.5 million. Iowa’s casinos ran 13,694 slot machines in July, 247 fewer than a year earlier, and the average unit won $290 a day against $305 in July 2025.
Penny Slots Carried The Floor
Penny machines took $1.07 billion of the month’s coin-in, about three-quarters of all slot play, and won $101.2 million, 82% of statewide slot revenue. They also held 9.45%, the highest rate of any standard denomination in the report; dollar slots and nickels each held 6.31%, and quarters held 6.01%.
A dollar cycled through an Iowa penny game in July cost its player more on average than the same dollar through a quarter or dollar machine, a gap that comes down to the math of how slot machines work. The 10,948 penny units made up four of every five machines on Iowa floors. At the other end of the scale, the state’s two $100 machines, one at Ameristar II and one at Prairie Meadows, kept $66,753 of $341,400 in play, a 19.55% hold.
Prairie Meadows Led While Small Floors Leaned Hardest
Prairie Meadows Racetrack & Casino in Altoona posted the state’s largest slot month, winning $18,391,428 on $209.5 million in coin-in across 1,215 machines, 91% of the property’s total revenue. Horseshoe Casino Council Bluffs was second at $10,613,782, though its 80.1% slot share was the lowest in the state, and Ameristar II, also in Council Bluffs, won $10,218,865 on the most machines of any floor.
Prairie Meadows Racetrack & Casino
- Slot Machines
- 1,215
- Slot Coin-In
- $209,473,755
- Slot Win
- $18,391,428
Horseshoe Casino Council Bluffs
- Slot Machines
- 1,107
- Slot Coin-In
- $124,656,089
- Slot Win
- $10,613,782
Ameristar II
- Slot Machines
- 1,259
- Slot Coin-In
- $127,555,581
- Slot Win
- $10,218,865
Diamond Jo – Worth
- Slot Machines
- 788
- Slot Coin-In
- $96,885,044
- Slot Win
- $9,029,915
Riverside Casino and Golf Resort
- Slot Machines
- 876
- Slot Coin-In
- $105,053,208
- Slot Win
- $8,704,051
The smallest floors depended on the machines the most. Bally’s Marquette drew 96.7% of its $2.3 million in revenue from slots, Q Casino in Dubuque drew 96.1%, and Wild Rose Jefferson drew 95.3%. At Rhythm City Casino in Davenport, slots won $7,066,944, more than the property’s entire $7,059,085 in revenue, because its table games lost $7,859 for the month.
The Whole Decline Came From The Machines
Statewide revenue of $136.1 million ran 6% below July 2025’s $144.9 million, and slots account for all of it: slot win fell $8.8 million while table games’ $13.1 million in win was up slightly. The comparison figures come from the commission’s fiscal year 2026 archive, which carries the July 2025 property pages.
Admissions eased to 1,410,318 from 1,429,982, and the month produced $20,159,804 in state gaming tax. Iowa’s 19 commercial floors rank it among the larger states with slots. July opens the state’s 2027 fiscal year, and the commission’s August report is its next monthly release.
