Question of the Day - 11 February 2019

Any thinning out of Eastside Cannery amenities would seem to give a thumbs-down to the idea of owning two locals casinos that are side by side and trying to compete with yourself. You can get away with this sort of thing on the Las Vegas Strip (think of MGM’s Mandalay Mile or Caesars' from Harrah's to Planet Hollywood ), and even in downtown, but on the Boulder Strip, it doesn't work quite as well.

Says VitalVegas.com blogger Scott Roeben, “They definitely overshot on that one. It was aspirational, I think. Sort of like Beau Rivage in Biloxi. If you build it, they don't always come.”

Roeben believes it’s a cost-cutting measure en route to making Eastside Cannery a slot joint. Boyd “can't really sell it, because they don't want another competitor in the neighborhood. I suspect they saw the success of the other Cannery and thought this one might perform the same. No such luck.”

Representing the opposite perspective, Boyd Gaming communications director David Strow says, in essence, there’s no news here. “We made these adjustments some time back (May or June of 2018, as I recall). The idea is to operate the two properties in a complementary way (and as complementary offerings), rather than duplicating amenities at both properties. As a result, we have consolidated some amenities between the two properties. 

“Most of the consolidation to date has been at Sam’s Town, due to the property’s larger parking capacity and stronger business volumes. So rather than operating two bingo rooms, two sports books, two buffets, and two steakhouses between these properties, we consolidated into one operation at Sam’s Town. On the other side, Eastside still offers a traditional casino café (Snaps), an amenity we don't have at Sam’s Town.”

Strow continues, “While the offerings are different at Eastside than they used to be, the property still offers a full range of amenities, including slots and tables, hotel, meeting space, and the café. As we’ve noted on our quarterly conference calls over the past couple of years, we're quite pleased with the results of the Cannery acquisition and have seen consistently strong growth from this acquisition (and the Aliante) since we added these properties in late 2016.”

Still, we can help but wonder if the expansion into North Las Vegas (original Cannery, Aliante Casino) hasn’t come at the price of some redundancy along the Boulder Strip.