Kansas City, Mo. ? October riverboat gambling revenues rose 4 percent statewide over the same month a year ago, but that number is skewed by a new St. Louis casino that wasn’t included in last year’s tally.

Patronage at the casinos also was up in the final month before the repeal of the state’s loss limits, but that also is tempered by Lumiere Place casino, which opened in December.

Without the $12.6 million reported by Lumiere Place, casino revenues for the month would be down about 6.4 percent statewide – though much of the money lost at Lumiere might have gone to other St. Louis-area riverboats. Without Lumiere’s attendance numbers, ridership statewide would be down about 8.3 percent.

Overall, gamblers lost nearly $131 million to the boats in October, with a statewide per-patron loss of $69.26.

In Kansas City, where casinos already are jittery about expanded gambling across the state line in Kansas, revenues dropped 3.5 percent from their year-ago levels and about 50,000 fewer people walked through the turnstiles during the month.

In its monthly report, the Missouri Gaming Commission said only one of the state’s 12 casinos, the Argosy in the Kansas City suburb of Riverside, showed an increase in patrons. One casino stayed about the same and nine saw a decline, while Lumiere Place did not have numbers to compare.

The Argosy is one of only three casinos that reported an increase in revenues over October 2007, with a 3 percent rise. The other two are small-market riverboats in LaGrange, which saw a 9 percent increase, and in St. Joseph with a 2 percent increase.

Less than a week after Missouri voters approved a measure removing the state’s unique loss limits, gambling officials say it’s too soon to know whether there has been any impact. Casinos were notified Friday morning by the state that the caps had been removed, effective immediately after Election Day.

While pushing Proposition A, which removed the $500 loss limit per two-hour “excursion,” proponents pointed to an estimate by the state auditor’s office that eliminating the cap would bring in an additional

$105 million to $130 million in new money for schools.

That was before the economy went into a nosedive.

“We’re not different than other industries,” said Michael Winter, executive director of the Missouri Gaming Association. “There is the potential for individuals to re-evaluate whether want to come to our properties.”