Author: David Mckee

Masters Week has come and gone, and Augusta now sinks back into an 11-month torpor. Which also helps us return to standard-edition S&G. (Seen on the marquee of the church closest to Augusta National: “This is Amen Corner.”) Where to begin?

For all the talk of inflation, shortages and hardships these days, one thing is incontrovertibly plentiful: discretionary income as manifested in gambling revenue. Every state in the upper Midwest save one is reporting casino winnings higher than 2019. The lone loser is … Illinois. No surprise there. It’s 5.5% down on the surface and when temporary Hard Rock Rockford is subtracted, the declivity is 9.5%, for a total of $119 million (inclusive). For the glass-half-full perspective, revenue is 8% higher than March 2021, when casinos were still on the comeback trail. Nor was March 2022 helped by two fewer weekend days.

On his way home from Black Hawk, Colorado, gaming analyst Barry Jonas of Truist Securities popped into Las Vegas. He met with various and sundry publicly traded companies, even MGM Resorts International, for which he feels little love. He also sat down with executives from Caesars Entertainment, Station Casinos, Boyd Gaming, International Game Technology, Light & Wonder and Everi. His conclusion? “Start your engines.” What did Jonas mean by that? As he explained, “We left incrementally positive on Vegas’s outlook post-Omicron. The Strip and Locals markets appear healthy with each month since January seeing [sequential] improvement, and a full return of group/convention business pending but increasingly visible.” He also noted that slot manufacturers were seeing “increasing demand” due to “strong content,” ratifying other reports that game-buying is going to pick up well in advance of Global Gaming Expo, the normal starting gun for product purchases.

Withered baccarat numbers meant that the Las Vegas Strip had a muted February, only a percentage point above 2019. Players dropped $599 million (-44.5%) of which the house won just $62 million (-52%). That offset a bonny month at the slots, where Strip casinos kept $336.5 million (+26.5%) on coin-in of $4.3 billion (up 32%). Non-baccarat table games gained only modestly (3.5%) to $200.5 million on 25% more wagering. By contrast with this near-stagnation, albeit at high levels of play, on the Strip, locals casinos shot 19.5% past their 2019 mark to $223 million. Downtown hopped 19% to $69 million (remember, this is a comparison to a pre-Circa era) and Reno leapt 37% to $62 million. Passenger loads into and out of Las Vegas, by the way, finally caught up with pre-Covid demand, hitting 107% of last year’s mark. While barely 100,000 of them were international travelers, that latter metric was an exponential increase.

When a casino is named Barley’s Brewing Co. you’d expect to get a decent glass of suds there. Not so. Las Vegan Lon Enwright is $8 million richer—but physically damaged beyond price—after being served cleaning fluids instead of beer (the taps were in the process of being flushed and the facts are not in dispute; there is even a hint of employee malice). The former Strip wine steward has lost his sense of taste, suffers from stomach and esophageal ulcers, and is at increased of risk of cancer as a result. Literally adding insult to injury, Barley’s owner Station Casinos offered Enwright a piddling $300,000 settlement. A Las Vegas jury thought differently and awarded the plaintiff $8 million in damages. Station hasn’t said what it will do but if it’s got any decency it will pay up. However, given its “contumacious” character, we’re not hopeful but appeal to the better angels of CEO Frank Fertitta III‘s nature.

Star Entertainment is feeling the heat Down Under. CEO Matt Bekier has resigned as the government continues to investigate alleged breaches of anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorism laws. Australia has had somewhat of an anything-goes approach to the casino biz, so Bekier falling on his sword represents an inevitable reaction to this over-lenience. Last week, Crown Resorts was deemed “unfit” to operate Crown Perth (shown) but allowed to run it for the next two years under state oversight. As always, Aussie regulators know how to send a mixed message to offending casinos.