Question of the Day - 03 December 2024

These are more specific fiscal details than casino companies are willing to divulge. Fortunately, we were able to call upon the knowledge of former Stratosphere president Richard Schuetz, now a gaming columnist and consultant at large.

“It really depends,” he responded. “When you wonder if there a difference in what casinos win from day to day, that's undoubtedly true, determined by who's in the house, luck, and the mix of players (slots vs. tables, etc.). One can generate a list of random numbers and there will be a series of six sevens, say. In the same sense, you can lose in streaks or all properties under a corporate flag can lose on the same day, etc. It's just a spinning wheel and all kinds of different things can happen.”

Schuetz adds, “If the results appear to be governed by something other than the laws of probability and statistics, we start taking a look at controls.”

We might also note that companies as large as Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International insulate themselves from company-wide swings by owning properties in all price tiers (think Excalibur vs. Park MGM vs. Bellagio and Harrah's vs. Paris vs. Caesars). Also, the amount of win can be affected by fluctuations in travel volume, something that seems to cut across price points.

Finally, the wild card in the Las Vegas deck is baccarat. The full-blown version is offered mainly in the upper-tier casinos with stratospheric max bets, so it's a highly volatile game and the resultant swings in the casino win can make or break a month, even a quarter. Fortunately for the house, the baccarat risk can be somewhat mitigated by money made from the hordes of mass-market players … unless we’re talking about Macau, where baccarat is everybody’s game of choice and slot machines are the red-headed stepchild of the casino floor.

But that’s a whole different can of worms.