Maryland didn’t just do well in April, it posted its third-best month ever. Gaming win grew 11.5% from 2019, to $162 million. That’s with 50% capacity constraints at MGM National Harbor and Horseshoe Baltimore (all other casinos are operating at 100%). MGM still took 38.5% of market share with a $62.5 million gross, up 2.5%. Maryland Live was second with 36% market share, hauling in 22% more than in 2019 and grossing $58 million. Horseshoe was flat with 2019, cantering in a distant third (12% market share) with $20 million. Speaking of cantering, Ocean Downs crossed the finish line with $8 million, a 30% boost. Hollywood Perryville leapt 36.5% to $8.5 million and Rocky Gap Casino gained 19% to $6 million. Even West Virginia is looking a little better. Over a three-week period ending April 24, it was down only 14%, with slots (-14%) propping up tables (-18%). Hollywood Charles Town underperformed the state, as slots declined -21%, tables were off 24%, averaging a 22% decline overall.
While on the subject of Penn National Gaming, it reported 1Q21 results yesterday. JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff described it has having a “very strong regional casino top line,” similar to its peers. Although the quarter saw partial casino closures in New Mexico, Illinois and Pennsylvania, revenues were down only 6% from 2019, while cash flow grew 7% (no doubt due to operational economies). Furthermore, the company “indicated that strength has continued into April and May, with strong spend per visit continuing but now experiencing improved visitation relative to earlier in the pandemic, with a return of the important 55 year-old plus demographic.” Whereas Wall Street consensus had Penn achieving $1.1 billion in revenue and $394 million in cash flow, the company delivered $1.3 billion and $447 million respectively. Revenues from Penn Interactive helped shore up the year/year comparison, while numbers were boosted especially in the South, where dining and casino capacity restrictions have been lifted the most. As for revenue comparisons with last year, they were—as might be expected—all positive, except the West region (Las Vegas and New Mexico), down 24%.
Previewing the second quarter, Penn told investors that March and April results combined were $1 billion in revenue (up 8% from 2019), with $410 million in cash flow, a 29% gain from two years ago. Clearly, Penn is finding ways to do more with less. A Penn executive was quoted as saying he “saw volumes in the month of March that we have not seen since 2019. Today, we’re still seeing spend-per-visit that is much higher than it was pre-Covid, and visitation is at or near 2019 levels in most of our markets, which is a great combination. Importantly, the younger demographic continues to choose gaming as a viable entertainment option while the 55-plus age group has been returning to our casinos as vaccines continue to roll out.”
Looking further ahead, Penn hopes to have Barstool Sports live in eight states by the start of NFL season and 10 by year’s end. Barstool incepted in Illinois on March 11 and results were described as “exceeding first-time deposit conversions relative to what it had generated” in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Barstool enrolled 54,700 customers and generated $68 million in handle, as well as $6.5 million in revenue. Greff was sanguine about Penn’s balance sheet, which sees the company sitting on $2.1 billion in cash plus a $672 million revolving line of credit. Penn would seem to be in a good position to acquire … but are there any sellers?
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas used to be the Covid Mary of the Las Vegas Strip. No more. It has achieved an 80% vaccination rate among its employees, having gone into vaccine overdrive last April 13. As a reward, the Nevada Gaming Control Board is permitting the Cosmo to go to 100% casino capacity this past Tuesday. Plexiglas barriers will be coming down and social distancing relaxed, even abandoned. Unfortunately for Cosmo employees, if vaccination rates at the resort don’t hit 85% by Saturday nobody will win the $10,000 raffle conducted by management. Win some, lose some.
With so many casinos on the Strip, what’s one more? That seems to be the calculus made by the PR maestros at Resorts World Las Vegas. Sure, there will be 1,400 slot machines, 117 tables and a 30-table poker room, as well as an unaffiliated sports book, President Scott Sibella says, But the big draw will be amenities, he told Nevada regulators. He emphasized the 5,000-seat showroom (bigger than the Coliseum), which will host Celine Dion, Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan—quite a hand of cards. There’s also a mall devoted exclusively to Asian cuisine, 16 restaurants thick. They deliver, too. That’s just part of 600,000 square feet of F&B, plus a nightclub built to hold 2,000 partygoers. Sibella called the amenities “integral” to Resorts World’s success, projecting that as little as 30% of revenue would come from the casino.
Sibella is also banking on Resorts World’s proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center, which it can complement with 300,000 square feet of discrete meeting space. He was bullish on the convention trade, saying “I don’t think conventions will take as long” to come back. “We’re getting a lot of leads on groups wanting to come back, and I think late in the second half of next year and 2023 will be gangbusters.” They’ll find 3,506 hotel rooms awaiting them, including 236 under the luxury Crockfords banner. (Hilton Hotels is running all three hotel branches.) Despite the ritzy branding, Sibella says Resorts World will be courting mass-market customers. It probably needs to, given its $4.3 billion price tag. Staffing seems to be running behind schedule: Only 600 people of a needed 5,000 have been hired and, remember, opening is set for June 24. Sifting through 110,000 applications can’t be easy.
For their part, Nevada Gaming Control Board members fairly salivated over Resorts World LV. “It’s a beautiful property. I commend you on your architecture and investment. It’s a gorgeous piece of work,” enthused NGCB Chairman Brin Gibson. Earlier he said it would be probably the most exciting moment in Strip history in the past decade (What, not Lucky Dragon?), although we’d reach even further back, to the 2008 opening of CityCenter. As for Genting Group‘s financials, he called them “outstanding,” which is what we like to hear, especially after that Catskills debacle. Fortunately, the company has money-spinners in Singapore and Queens. Will Las Vegas be a third? We’ll find out by August. Lord knows, other north-Strip hoteliers have been hoping and praying for a long time that Resorts World is the rising tide that will lift their boats.
In other matters regulatory, the NGCB has opened a can of worms, er, a study into permitting unrestricted i-gaming in the state, from which we can only conclude that the big operators have come around to idea, having only permitted i-poker up until now. While we’re having a crown put in on May 13, regulators will be conducting a hearing to consider allowing “all games offered on an interactive gaming system.” Unless they encounter heavy resistance from operators, which we don’t expect, this represents a dramatic volte-face for Big Gaming, which has not only been resistant to I-gaming but only grudgingly acceptant of online sports betting. Consider that Internet gambling and OSB saved Big Gaming’s bacon during the Great Shutdown, the change of heart is easy to understand. Meanwhile, the 2001 restriction to i-poker has been a flop in the Silver State, where an erstwhile four poker sites have dwindled to just one: WSOP.com. Regulators won’t be offering any input at the May 13 hearing—but operators will. We’re all ears.
I will be out in Vegas later this year and I cannot wait to see both Resorts World and Circa. It took Genting 8 years to finish building Resorts World after they bought it from Boyd Gaming and with all that land the pool area should be fantastic along with the rest of the property.