Las Vegas Advisor – Page 26 – Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on August 5, 2021September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 3 Comments

Wynn “strong” this summer; MGM returning to form

Wynn Resorts released 2Q21 results yesterday and JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff called them “strong” in both Las Vegas and Boston. In Macao, eh, not so much. He began by saying “results by region unsurprisingly reflect differences in vaccination rates and mobility/visitation availability.” Wynncore is gaining momentum as the temperature rises, posting the largest cash flow ever since except when it opened. Occupancy hovered around 95% on weekends and in the 80% neighborhood during midweek. “In Macau, limited mobility and small outbreaks continue to pressure travel, unsurprising and similar to 2Q commentary from” Sands China and Melco Resorts & Entertainment. As for WynnBet, it “expects to ramp up marketing ahead of the NFL season,” which seems to be a nice way of saying nothing much is happening right now. Wynncore generated $207 million in cash flow compared to a feeble (and worse than expected) $67.5 million in cash flow from all the Macanese properties. Wynn Macau and Encore Macau only contributed $14 million, while Wynn Palace has finally found its sea legs with a $53.5 million donation. Encore Boston Harbor was a little bit under certain projections at $47 million, though it improves month by month.

Due to a sharp decline in VIP play in Macao, Wynn Resorts is remarketing them as premium mass-market casinos, in order to get pre-Covid revenues without pre-Covid foot traffic. As Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli put it, “Las Vegas & Boston shine as Macau remains a waiting game.” Word! “We don’t think we heard anything from management tonight that will meaningfully change the view on the resumption of normalized operations in Macau, with management acknowledging an uncertain timeline, while noting encouraging trend that resemble pent up demand at certain times,” he elaborated. “We expect the Macau names to continue to trade on virus headlines and policy decisions, things we, nor most, can truly opine on with any legitimate confidence.” Back in Vegas, business is fueled by slot fanatics, with coin-in up 37% and table wagering down 3%. Blame the latter on a lack of international players.

Posted on August 2, 2021November 26, 2023 by LVA — Leave a comment

Allegiant Stadium Tour

Even before it opened, we received frequent questions about whether tours of Allegiant Stadium would be available and we understand the curiosity. It’s not every day you get to go behind the scenes of a $2 billion building, let alone one you see on television with 65,000 people in the stands, NFL teams on the field, and celebrity broadcasters in the booth.

The tours depart from the first-level base of the Al Davis Memorial Torch, which rises to the third level of the stadium. Upwards of 20 people were on the tour in front of ours and 25 on ours; they’re definitely popular. Our guide was excellent—full of energy and passion for the building and team, he imparted a steady stream of information about both. After getting your first view of the field, you head to one of the restroom/concession areas and learn that the stadium has 297 restrooms and 1,430 toilets, along with 76 concessions, so people at games and concerts won’t have to miss much while waiting in line for food and bathroom breaks; you also see a video of the “flush test,” in which the plumbing for all 1,500 toilets and urinals was checked.

From there, you go up a level to where the corporate suites and broadcasters’ booth are. The booth is just an empty (carpeted) box; the networks and radio stations have up to 72 hours before games to load in all their sets, electronics, robot cameras, etc. But the view, right at the 50-yard line on the second level, is the best in the stadium. Second-best is from the 127 VIP and corporate suites on two levels that feature luxury box seats and bars and buffets behind them in small rooms; we walked through one of MGM Resorts’ high-roller hangs.

Then you descend to the bowels of the stadium for stops at the Raiderettes exhibit and locker room, post-game press room, and Raiders locker room. Again, they’re pretty much empty, just a few props for the tours, and smaller than you might expect for all the people they accommodate on game days. The players’ locker room, though, is fancy, with black-and-silver décor; you watch a video of Raiders of different eras getting ready for games, then the climax of the tour is a hologram of current coach Jon Gruden giving a rousing pep talk.

From there, it’s right onto the field for your pro-football fantasy. You have five minutes to take a line-of-scrimmage stance, run, do a touchdown victory dance, and/or tackle your husband. It’s interesting to see the Wynn Field Club behind the north goalpost for the highest rollers. As always in Las Vegas, you exit the field right at the logo store. From there, the cheap tickets go through the store and out to the parking lot, while the VIP tickets—tour and a drink—go back up to the main concourse bar.

The tours depart every 20 minutes between 10:40 am and 9 pm, though the number of tours and days is shrinking as the stadium hosts more events. They last 75 minutes and cost $59, or $80 for the drink and view (discounts available for locals and “those who serve”). Make reservations and pay online. Parking is free. Wear walking shoes; you cover a lot of ground. It’ll be fun to watch Raiders’ home games on TV after seeing the stadium from the players’, cheerleaders’, broadcasters’, and high-roller points of view.

Posted on July 29, 2021 by David Mckee — 3 Comments

Station hits records, drops hints; Strip suffers mild setback

Station Casinos announced 2Q21 earnings yesterday and “blows through” previous peaks, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli. Despite expiration of the management contract at Graton Rancheria, Station recorded record levels of net revenue ($426.5 million) and cash flow ($210 million), leaving Wall Street‘s $159 million consensus in the dust. Management is in no hurry to reopen Texas Station or Fiesta Rancho or Fiesta Henderson and why not? It costs only $2 million per quarter to keep them dark and their business is obviously being soaked up elsewhere. Station execs performed a fan dance regarding Durango Station, withholding the budget but announced their intent to break ground in early (pre-April) 2022, with an 18-24 month construction timeline envisioned. When completed, it will have 2,000 slots, 40 tables and four restaurants, along with the inevitable sports book. Santarelli expects Durango Station to be financed out of (abundant) free cash flow, possibly filled out with the sale of some excess land. The $650 million all-cash Palms sale proceeds have also been earmarked to cover construction costs.

Buffets may be gone with the wind but Station expects to reopen its showrooms in the second half of this year, and for group business to return over the next two years. Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas noted “incremental hotel business” improvements congruent with the distribution of the Coronavirus vaccine. “Stimulus payments have also played into recent strength, though management noted sizable savings and discretionary income with their core customer base beyond stimulus.” While acknowledging “uncertainty” around the state mask mandate, Station brass said that business didn’t change markedly when masks came off in June. “This suggests there may not be any meaningfully negative impact with reintroducing masks,” reported Jonas, “Management also notes that they expect any potential impact to be short-lived.”

Posted on July 23, 2021September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 3 Comments

‘ElDiablo’ rides again; Sports betting on the verge in Massachusetts

Last week, Vegas Message Board hosted a lengthy, detailed and impassioned screed from a self-professed Seven Stars member about a recent trip to Las Vegas and stay with Caesars Entertainment. First, the good news: the player host was extremely obliging, guest service was friendly and great, and the food was very good. The bad news was … almost everything else. The guest rooms at Harrah’s Las Vegas (our source’s hotel of choice) “were all recently remodeled, were nice enough, and had a low comp rate.” But mention the magic word “Eldorado” to an employee and, boy, did they spill! This started as soon as the party arrived, being informed that valet parking was closed from noon on Tuesdays until the weekend. The valet parking attendant “told me they are always hiring but that they have plenty of parkers and plenty of business to have valet open 24/7 like it used to be. He said it’s all Eldorado being cheap and not caring about providing the customer the proper service they are entitled to and have come to expect.”

“This became a theme of the trip; mention Eldorado to an employee and they knew YOU knew what was going on and felt they could talk candidly about how far and how quickly Eldorado is bringing the company down and treating not just guests, but also employees, with disdain.” The hits just kept on coming: The Seven Stars/Diamond lounge was closed, ostensibly on a temporary basis. Our source was told it has been defunct since the Great Reopening and they don’t expect it ever to resume hosting players. Upon check-in (understaffed), the visitors witnessed a line like the one seen below—by a friend of S&G—at 4 p.m. on a Sunday over at the Flamingo.

Posted on June 15, 2021September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 2 Comments

Indiana, Missouri keep rebounding; Casino boom benefits all

Scratch two casino riverboats in Indiana. The Majestic Star-branded flotilla went out of business—and Hard Rock Gary came in, quite auspiciously. Total Hoosier State gaming revenue for last month grew 18% over 2019 to $185.5 million. Hard Rock Gary opened mid-month but booked $20.5 million in a fortnight, good enough for third in the northern tier of casinos. Give it a full month and we’ll really see something. Horseshoe Hammond, still on the selling block, led with $38 million (+22%), followed by Ameristar East Chicago‘s $26.5 million (+34%). Blue Chip missed out on the prosperity, down 6% to $12.5 million.

Elsewhere in the state, Indiana Grand was tops with $30 million (+32.5%), while Harrah’s Hoosier Downs grossed $21 million (+29%) and soon-to-be-orphaned Caesars Southern Indiana brought in $22 million, a 12% gain. French Lick Resort was down 19% to $6.5 million. Also suffering declines were fellow small fry Rising Star ($4.5 million, -1%) and Belterra Resort ($8.5 million, -7,5%). In its last month as a Caesars Entertainment property, Tropicana Evansville was up 6% to $13.5 million. Hollywood Lawrenceburg was flat at $14.5 million.

Posted on June 14, 2021September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — Leave a comment

Las Vegas heats up; Zombies overrun Atlantic City

In a benchmark development, three of the four major Las Vegas Strip operators posted higher midweek rates for the July 4-July 10 period than in 2019. Caesars Entertainment was flat, probably due to its sheer proliferation of hotel rooms. MGM Resorts International inched up 2%, Wynncore was +22% and Venelazzo rose 9%. And we’re not even into convention season yet. Weekend rates tended to be stellar: MGM leapt 41%, Caesars hopped 19%, Wynn Resorts vaulted 54% and Las Vegas Sands was up 28%. Obviously the holiday weekend is a big contributor to this phenomenon but who would have thought the Strip would be outperforming 2019 so soon?

Perhaps visitors got a sneak peek at WalletHub‘s finding that Nevada is the third-most-fun state in our great country. It’s tops (like, duh) in access to casino and fourth in arts, entertainment and recreational venues. Surprisingly, the Silver State is 15th in access per capita to amusement parks and 17th in performing-arts theaters (all those casino showrooms, you know … although Las Vegas boasts a remarkably vigorous theatre scene). We could do better in access to national parks, ranking only 24th. Only California and Florida outdid Nevada (we blame Disney), while Mississippi and West Virginia are the least-fun places to be. Nevada has the fifth-fewest marinas per capita but, with the way Lake Mead is shrinking, can you blame us?

Posted on June 11, 2021September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 3 Comments

Trump banned; Richmond: The fix was in

Donald Trump won’t be opening a casino in Doral. Neither will anyone else. Not if the Doral City Council has its way. It voted unanimously to bar casino gambling within the city, which encompasses The Donald’s struggling resort. This has nothing to do with Trump’s financial chicanery and moral turpitude (which ought to bar him from a gaming license outright), and everything to do with preserving the letter and spirit of Amendment 3 to the Florida constitution. The latter reads, in part, “This amendment ensures that Florida voters shall have the exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling by requiring that in order for casino gambling to be authorized under Florida law, it must be approved by Florida voters pursuant to Article XI, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution.” It’s hard to be much clearer than that. The juice job for Trump and Jeffrey Soffer recently passed by the Lege is unlikely to withstand the smell test in court and it certainly flopped with the Doral city fathers.

Stalking horse Eric Trump has been jawboning in favor of Doral for months, telling the Washington Post, “Many people consider Trump Doral to be unmatched from a gaming perspective—at 700 acres, properties just don’t exist of that size and quality in South Florida, let alone in the heart of Miami.” Admittedly, “many people” is usually Trumpspeak for “I’m totally pulling this out of my ass,” but even if Trump fils is right, that doesn’t make it constitutional. The Eric needn’t start putting slot machines in yet; a long court fight is surely looming over the Seminole compact, which has the watertight integrity of a sieve.

Posted on June 4, 2021September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 1 Comment

Getting nasty in Florida; Police blotter

A “tortured artifice.” That’s what Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber (D) calls the new Florida gaming compact in a letter to the Interior Department. He urged them to reject the deal, not because of any issues with the Seminole Tribe, but on account of various baubles appended to the compact to placate private interests. Or, as Gelber put it in a nine-page missive Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, “It was simply a vehicle hijacked by non-tribal casino interests who fully corrupted the legislative and executive process in order to obtain advantages outside of tribal land and in direct contravention to the interests of Floridians.” Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ agenda, Gelber argues, was not to cut a deal with the Seminoles but to appease political donors and “his most important political patron,” Donald Trump. Incidentally, the latter is reportedly planning to flip his Doral resort to a gaming-centric corporation, should it get a casino license, which we didn’t expect.

Gelber accuses DeSantis of accepting free airplane rides and partying on yachts owned by his patrons, then rewarding them with gaming entitlements. “Indeed, their efforts paid off, as Governor DeSantis included provisions in the Florida Compact that set the groundwork for casino expansion for a prime campaign donor at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and for his major political patron at the Trump Doral.”

Posted on June 3, 2021September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 2 Comments

Don’t make mine Manhattan

That’s the word from key legislators, who have made it clear that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) would be putting a casino in Manhattan over their dead bodies. “I believe it would be seriously detrimental to the residential and commercial quality of Manhattan,” said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried. Cuomo’s idea of compromise was to allow Manhattanites to hold their nose and choose where on the island a megaresort would go. Sort of a pick-your-poison deal. But lawmakers said that was spinach and to hell with it. “This got really close. It fell apart in the wee hours of the morning,” a source told the New York Post.

Meanwhile, executives for the three interested companies—Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and Bally’s Corp.—are waiting until January, when solons may revisit the issue. For Sands, which essentially builds convention centers with ‘big barn’ casinos tacked on, a Manhattan site may be crucial. As for Cuomo, he has sugarplum fairies bearing $1.5 million in licensing fees dancing in his head. In theory, it should be a five-way race for a three full-spectrum casinos but everyone and their brother expects MGM Empire State in Yonkers and Resorts World New York in Queens to be juiced into the first two licenses, leaving Sands and its ilk squabbling over the last one.

Posted on May 17, 2021September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 3 Comments

Hard Rock, Ocean drub Borgata; Caesars massacres shows

Casinos in Atlantic City grossed $189.5 million last month, 9% behind their 2019 pace. Slots were off 5% and tables 17%. Regular top-grosser Borgata had a terrible month, falling 28%, spurring by lackluster table-game winnings (-34%), with slots tumbling 25%. The Caesars Entertainment threesome fared almost as poorly, sliding 20% as table win plunged 40% and slots were down 11%. Borgata’s $38.5 million gross put it within striking distance of hard-charging Hard Rock Atlantic City, which won 35% for a 51% leap in revenue. Also soaring was Ocean Casino, vaulting 45% to $22 million and elbowing aside Harrah’s Resort ($21 million, -24%) for third place. Caesars’ much-vaunted $400 million capex may not be enough to prevent a permanent change in the pecking order.

Caesars Atlantic City, despite its reputation for volatility, was a relatively stable -14.5%, grossing $19 million, while Tropicana Atlantic City closed out the portfolio, slipping 20% to $19 million. There was a surprise among the grind joints, with Resorts Atlantic City up a percentage point to $13 million. Little Golden Nugget won $11 million but that was a 29% plummet, while Bally’s Atlantic City also grossed $11 million, down 22.5%.

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