Author: David Mckee

At the risk of flogging a deceased equine, the emperor at Caesars Entertainment has yet again showed himself to be without clothes. The latest Eldorado-ization of the Roman Empire is the wholesale slaughter of table games along the Las Vegas Strip. As Vital Vegas reported over the weekend, “entire swaths” of the games have disappeared from casino floors, leaving blank patches to be filled in with slot machines or that dreaded new idol of casino executives, electronic table games. Just think of all the high-salaried dealers you can pink-slip! As Scott Roeben wrote to us, it’s “a really big shift that was happening under our noses.” We should have known, perhaps. Caesars execs had been promising to run a post-pandemic company at pandemic-era cost levels, which would require some real creativity. Enter the robo-games and the conversion of properties like Caesars Palace and The Cromwell into giant slot parlors.

Not only do ETGs cost less than old-fashioned table games, they offer lower minimums (and table minimums along the Strip have gotten pretty steep). It’s a shameless play for the low-roller clientele and another symptom of “Less Vegas,” the post-Covid environment in which the casinos make money by offering a diminished experience for the same—or sometimes higher—price. Certainly in Caesars’ case it bespeaks a contempt for the player, providing a regional-casino atmosphere in what was supposed to be the Holy See of gambling. It’s the latest in a death of the Roman Empire by a thousand cuts: short-poured liquor, closed buffets, shuttered shows and defunct player lounges. Roeben gloomily writes, “As there’s unlikely to be a new wave of demand for table games, expect this to be the new normal in Las Vegas casinos.”

Continue reading Caesars massacres table games, renames Superdome; Bally’s boffo

Shares of Las Vegas Sands traded down yesterday after the company missed its second-quarter estimates. Wall Street expected cash flow of $290.5 million and LVS delivered $244 million, a significant shortfall. (Mind you, Sands no longer reports earnings from Venelazzo.) Revenue overall was $1.17 billion, not the expected $1.37 billion. Sands execs blew sunshine up Wall Street’s keister, predicting better Macao business in the third and fourth quarters, albeit conceding that Singapore was harder to predict. Due to Marina Bay Sands-derived Coronavirus cases, the megaresort is closed from today through August 5. As for LVS’ new focus on i-gaming, the company is thinking small, planning to act as a supplier to other online companies and make minor purchases. Or, as President Patrick Dumont wisely put it, “I don’t think we’re going to buy our way into a business.”

Back on terra firma, CEO Rob Goldstein is still in denial about Texas after the company’s stunning rejection there, while continuing to ramp up ($17 million and counting) a ballot drive in Florida to permit new resort casinos. The company is concentrating on the gaming-averse northern part of the Sunshine State, going out of its way not to antagonize the powerful and well-heeled Seminole Tribe.

Continue reading LV Sands overpromises, underdeliver; Court to Station: Unionize!

With the exception of brave outliers Las Vegas Sands and Westgate Las Vegas, most casinos in Sin City are reacting to the resurgence of Covid-19 by doing … nothing. There’s a ‘been there, done that‘ attitude toward crisis-period measures like requiring guests to wear masks or stepping up hotel sanitization (one recent guest to Harrah’s Las Vegas says his room was cleaned once in four days). “Where we sit right now with the information we know, that’s the best approach, for each operator to evaluate their own situations,” said industry apologist Josh Swissman. “It really comes down to what makes the customers feel comfortable.” And if that means sickness and death, isn’t that the cost of doing business in Las Vegas? About the only hammer that could be deployed to motivate a robust response would be new safety mandates from the Nevada Gaming Control Board and we don’t seem to be at that desperate juncture yet. (Operative word “yet.”)

Continue reading Las Vegas flirting with disaster; Pennsylvania sickly

Shazam! Massachusetts casino revenues for June were $84 million, 67% higher than 2019. But wait … as Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli points out, Encore Boston Harbor wasn’t operational two years ago (it debuted on June 23, 2019), so on a same-store basis, casinos were actually down 6%. How come? The Bay State doesn’t have Internet gambling, which is starting to sap Pennsylvania. Capacity is unrestrained, although poker rooms aren’t back and we hear that players are hopping mad about it. Maybe Massachusetts players just don’t have that pent-up demand we’ve seen just about everywhere else. Encore dominated with $52.5 million, while MGM Springfield actually managed a 1% increase, to $20 million. Plainridge Park was the laggard, falling 16.5% and grossing $11 million. Expect owner Penn National Gaming to renew its mewl for table games at what was always and explicitly meant to be a slots-only facility.

Drilling further down, Wynn Resorts had 63% market share, MGM 24% and Penn 13%. MGM’s comeback was powered by slots, up 4% whilst tables were 9% down. It was the other way around at Encore, where tables were up 3% ($23 million) and slots dipped 4% ($29.5 million). Wynn’s decision to predicate Encore on upper-market play is coming up aces but what MGM thought it was doing building a high-end property way out in Springfield will be a head-scratcher for future historians of the company. We know the rich folks like to luxuriate in nearby Lenox but still …

Continue reading Massachusetts stumbles, Louisiana cruises; Big blunder at Circa

Tourism to Las Vegas in May was 12% higher than April and June should continue the climb, even if long-awaited World of Concrete was a flop (one-sixth of the expected attendance). Next up was the Nightclub & Bar Show, which drew 9,000 attendees. “I have goosebumps,” said one conventioneer of the back-to-almost-normal atmosphere. Despite the pounding techno music, amenities ran toward such mundane finger foods as Cheetos and tater tots. Portable bowling alleys and karaoke machines were among the items of interest. Evidently attendance was a last-minute decision for some, judging from the on-site registrations spotted by the Wall Street Journal. Most of the products on display were rather humble, such as a new drinking game (patent pending?) and a green-colored schnapps called Nuke Waste—how apt for Nevada.

It wasn’t quite the Nightclub & Bar Show of years past, being significantly chastened by Covid concerns. Where the expo had once been synonymous with six nights of clubbing, this year there were but two. Panels and (the more important) happy hours were also curtailed. Attendance was down 15%, exhibitors by 20%, which is still a lot better than World of Concrete managed. “Most of my sales from 1980 until today are still in-person,” said game entrepreneur Bobby Earp. “There’s no substitute for the contacts we make here.” Attendees were more worried about rising labor costs and flagging social-media presences than about Coronavirus. Even if the event was rather muted, the expo floor was awash with booze, which was freely sampled, one of the great bonuses of almost any Vegas convention. With 35 large-scale events booked between now and the end of the year, the Sin City convention calendar looks surprisingly healthy.

Continue reading Nevada conventions healthy, Nevadans not so much