Caesars Entertainment, aka Eldorado Resorts, has become possessed by the evil spirit of spare-every-expense Columbia Sussex. In one of the most odious of recent cutpurse moves, bartenders have been ordered to short-pour liquor: The ‘new normal’ is .75 ounces per drink, meaning you’ll have to buy more drinks in order to get that buzz going. Caesars has been the prime offender in recent moves such as jacked-up table limits but this story, broken by Vital Vegas, has clearly struck a nerve, going viral in no time flat. (Viral Vegas?) CEO Tom Reeg had already established a reputation for cheeseparing but this move couldn’t have been better designed to alienate customers if he tried. Much more of this and Sin City will lose its cachet as a bargain destination, if it hasn’t already.
To get to the nub of the issue, Linq has essentially halved the amount of liquor that will be poured into your Vodka Cranberry but will of course charge you just as much for it as though it were actually a stiff drink. (It’s 1.25 oz. per pour at MGM Resorts International, in case you wondering.) Vital Vegas paid a visit to Linq and found it in a significantly down-market state: “there were virtually no customers. Entire swaths of table games have been removed and replaced with slot machines. Such moves make some sense given low demand (table games involve much higher labor costs), but even if these changes are temporary, you’d think casinos would want to draw customers, not repel them with weak drinks.” Indeed.
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Penn National Gaming reported 4Q20 earnings today and they were down 23% from last year. Many reasons were cited, including lower consumer spending, casino closures in Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and new restrictions in Ohio and Maine. Oh yes, and Covid-19. Fortunately for Penn, it had done a sufficiently good job of lowering expectations that Wall Street wasn’t fazed by the numbers. After the New Year ‘skinny stimulus,’ Penn is describing January business as “thus far encouraging,” with more foot traffic and longer stays. Sports betting is also providing a critical boost. JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff wrote that Penn “is continuing to see encouraging growth in the younger demographic tiers of its database, and expects the roll-out of vaccinations will encourage more guests in all age segments of its database to return to land-based facilities soon.”
More than 23 million Americans are expected to bet legally or otherwise on the Super Bowl, according to the American Gaming Association, which predicts $4.3 billion in handle. 7.5 million punters will be doing their wagering online, 63% more than last year. The action leans heavily (56%) toward the Kansas City Chiefs—sorry, GOAT—with 12 million citizens betting against friends, as opposed to 1.5 million using retail sports bookies, down 61% from last year, before Covid-19 struck. Action with Lefty in the back alley will be patronized by nearly two million Americans, down 21%, a sign of progress. Speaking of progress, the AGA says, “34 percent of Americans remember seeing responsible gaming messaging in the past year, up five points from 2020. Super Bowl bettors were even more likely to see responsibility content, with 53 percent seeing responsible gaming messaging in the past year.” As AGA prexy Bill Miller puts it, “Responsible gaming is core to legal sports betting’s long-term success, and this is borne out by continued demand for consumer protections only available in the legal market.”