Las Vegas, you’ve got a problem on your hands. During May, casino revenues across the rest of the United States went up, sometimes dramatically. What did the Las Vegas Strip do? It declined 4%. And Las Vegas locals’ business was flat with 2024. Maybe consumers have gotten fed up with being dinged $26 for a tiny bottle of water. Or maybe—and more likely—the consumer is “one with no visibility into the future and thus preference for smaller/experiential purchases over large outlays/vacations.” That’s the assessment of new J.P. Morgan gaming analyst Daniel Politzer and it’s spot-on. Given that there was an extra weekend day in May this year, gaming overlords are probably thanking their lucky stars things didn’t turn out worse.
Back to that $26 H2O for a moment. That’s MGM Resorts International‘s idea of ‘customer service,’ specifically at $4 billion Aria … and they suck at it. What clearer ‘fuck-you’ to John Q. Public could be sent? Between removing valet service at its bargain-niche resorts and socking you with a $25 room-service upcharge for cutlery, MGM is pioneering the concept of the resort where the customer simply doesn’t matter. Way to make your guests feel like nuisances, Bill Hornbuckle! Then again, Hornbuckle’s too busy shilling for MGM’s (paid) parking garages, suddenly claiming that there’s a superfluity of parking spaces on the Strip. Maybe because people are getting wise to the nickel-and-dime policies of Big Gaming, in which MGM has taken a shameful lead.
Anyway, whether repulsed by Big Gaming’s naked greed or, more plausibly, doing their gambling spending closer to home, customers made Las Vegas the odd man out in May. Nor did it help that baccarat win plummeted 10% on 10% smaller wagering. Slots saw 1.5% more coin-in but 5.5% less win, whilst table games experienced 1.5% less wagering and 3.5% less win. Lady Luck was definitely with the players last month. To rub it in, international air travel plunged 8.5%, as Canada and others returned the one-finger salute they’ve been getting from the federal government. Isolationists might love it but Las Vegas thrives on overseas travelers and some of them ceasing to come. At a time when U.S. discretionary dollars are expected to be in shorter supply (domestic air travel to Sin City is down 4% year to date), it’s an exquisitely bad time to piss off our foreign guests.
Strip casinos had a lean month, if $714 million (-4%) qualifies as ‘lean.’ But then, what ails Downtown? It tumbled 11% to $66 million. The Boulder Strip was off 8.5% to $78 million, but North Las Vegas was a bright spot ($26 million, 6.5%), as was miscellaneous Clark County ($174 million, 3.5%), promotional wars notwithstanding. The drive-in markets tended to prosper. Laughlin leapt 17% to $43 million, while Mesquite jumped 9.5% to $18 million. Wendover continued to bode well for the state at large, up 6% to $24 million. Reno slipped 3% to $63.5 million and Lake Tahoe plunged 23.5% to a puny $13.5 million, poor even by that unreliable market’s standards. At least Sparks had a spark, up 12% to $17 million.
Slots on the run. Having as much as 500 fewer slots per Pennsylvania casino is bad news for the manufacturing sector of gaming. But it makes excellent sense in a state experiencing saturation with gambling product and state Sen. Dan Lansing (R) is to be congratulated on apparently having shepherded it halfway through the Lege. Before Lansing’s bill, Keystone State casinos were required to deploy at least 1,500 slots apiece. That could now be shaved to 1,000 per casino. As the state GOP says, the move “reflects shifting market conditions and increased competition in the gaming industry.” Lansing, somewhat disingenuously, points to casino expansion in Ohio and New York State but the problem is much closer to home … and it could worsen if the state legitimizes gray-market slot routes, resulting in an explosion of one-armed bandits statewide.
In a word, lame. The cosmos is panning the feeble groundbreaking for the Sacramento Athletics‘ purported baseball stadium on the Las Vegas Strip. In true Potemkin village fashion, even the “construction equipment” on view was rented solely for the symbolic occasion. Rep. Dina Titus (D) and others made damn fools of themselves, turning dirt on top of a table in a truly surreal ceremony. We’ve seen some silly groundbreakings but this has got to be the stupidest. Athletics owner John Fisher can’t even pony up $100 million in earnest money to unlock $380 million in foolish public subsidies. His strategy is to try and sell off pieces of the team instead but seems to be finding no takers. Morally vacant Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) literally took food out of K-12 students’ mouths to help pay for this abomination, which henceforth deserves to be known as Lombardo’s Folly.
JOTTINGS: After a brief tenure, Palms Casino Resort General Manager Stephen Thayer is out. Vital Vegas speculates as to the cause … There’s no timeline, no budget nor any coherent plan for the Bally’s-branded megaresort announced for the site of the Tropicana Las Vegas. We took a deep dive into Bally’s Corp.‘s business plan and found the Emperor’s New Clothes instead … Facing a slower-than-usual summer, Las Vegas casinos are rolling out incentives. Not only are all Cirque du Soleil shows being deeply discounted, two are being comped outright … Think you can’t get away from gambling? Delta Airlines wants to put it on planes. Egad! Customer response was, shall we say, less than receptive … Finally, a reason to visit Fontainebleau. Broadcaster Tom Brady has opened his Hall of Excellence at F-blue. The GOAT terms the collection of superstar souvenirs “this Smithsonian of sports artifacts” … Having been drubbed by a series of state-level tax increases, DraftKings is resolving not to get beaten again. It has formed a PAC for the purpose of “shaping regulatory and legislative developments affecting its business across the United States.” It’s worth a try … Five years behind schedule and as much as $725 million over budget, Two Kings Casino in North Carolina is staggering toward permanence in 2027. An “introductory casino” featuring 22 table games and 1,350 slots is slated for next March. Anything would be better than those hideous “Trailer Stations” the Catawba Nation has been using.