The company attributed this mainly to customers’ gambling less throughout the period as a result of increased taxes and delayed tax refunds. Station Casinos’ Chief Financial Officer Marc Falcone said that while there were a number of reasons for the revenue decrease, revenues appeared to be improving once again.

“Net revenues in the first quarter were impacted by a combination of the increase in Social Security payroll tax, federal tax refund delays and one less day in February this year versus last year,” he said. “Results improved meaningfully in March.”

Station Casinos recently made headlines in the poker world after the launch of Ultimate Poker in the US state of Nevada. The company owns 57 percent of the parent company of Ultimate Poker, which is the first and currently only real money online poker service to operate in the state.

While Ultimate Poker appears to have had a solid start, Mr Falcone did not want to be drawn to the company with regards to Station Casinos’ first quarter revenue performance. “It’s too early to understand revenues and profitability of this start-up business at this point,” Mr Falcone said.

He did add, however, that Ultimate Poker’s launch had exceeded the company’s expectations and that the company is viewing online poker as an increasingly significant area of its total business following the launch. “We are committed to expanding our presence in Nevada while, at the same time, expanding our reach to other states as online poker becomes legalized on a broader scale,” Mr Falcone said.

Ultimate Poker is currently 36th on Pokerscout’s Online Poker Traffic list, with a seven-day average of 167 players on the site. The poker site dealt its one millionth hand on Tuesday, two weeks after its anticipated launch.