Grinning Bandits

See that guy? He’s the single most overpaid CEO in Big Gaming. We’re talking about Jay Snowden, helmsman of Penn Entertainment. As revealed by the Nevada Current, the Institute for Policy Studies and Inequality.org, Snowden makes 734X the median wage of a Penn employee, who must eke out a living on $36,322 a year. Snowden’s obscene pay packet? $26.6 million. Nor is he alone in robbing shareholders blind. Read on.

Snowden, however, may be unique in the disconnect between what he pulls down and how his company performs. Over the past year, Penn stock has fluctuated between $13.25/share and $23, mirroring its seesawing fortunes. Penn is kept upright by the brick-and-mortar regional casinos Snowden inherited from his predecessors. His signature venture, online sports betting, veers between disastrous and merely disappointing. Barstool Sports was a colossal calamity and ESPN Bet is struggling to make its nut, with turning the corner to profitability seemingly always one quarter distant.

By contrast, Station Casinos CEO Frank Fertitta III, formerly the poster boy for C-Suite greed, is a veritable pauper with ‘only’ $3.3 million in take-home pay. Station employees’ median wage is also notably higher than that of Penn workers. And the Station stock price ($61.35/share) reflects the company’s puissant performance. The 78:1 ratio of Fertitta’s compensation to that of John Q. Employee seems almost abstemious.

At the next family get-together, Fertitta can certainly point an accusatory finger at brother-in-law Blake Sartini, whose Golden Entertainment has been disappointing Wall Street of late. Sartini makes 155X as much as his median employee, whose take-home pay is a bare $34,783. Trying raising a family on that. Golden stock has spiked as high as $35.50/share but is trundling along now at $25.25.

Bally’s Corp. may be barely afloat (careening from $22.40 a share to $9.90) but CEO Robeson Reeves is only making 54X his median employee: $2.3 million to $41,912/year. At those prices, he ought to consider wearing a hair shirt. On the other hand, Boyd Gaming may finally be getting the Wall Street love it deserves ($85.35/share) but CEO Keith Smith‘s pay seems way out of whack at 304X the median salary of $37,755. Smith takes home $11.5 million, over triple what arch rival Fertitta does.

At least Smith’s not getting rich off the Low Wage 100. That dubious distinction goes to Las Vegas Sands CEO Rob Goldstein. He was rewarded with $21.9 million compared to the median employee salary of $42,426 a year. The latter amount seems munificent when one considers that LVS operates solely in Red China and Singapore, where life is cheap and labor not much costlier.

Although the report focuses on Caesars Entertainment emperor Tom Reeg and MGM Resorts International supremo Bill Hornbuckle (above) as the supposedly fattest hogs at the trough, their paychecks pale next to Snowden’s wretched excess. Even so, the mismatches between median wage and executive compensation are absurd: 419X in Reeg’s case and 332X in Hornbuckle’s. For context, the median wage of Caesars’ U.S. employees was $48,261 (per the SEC). The median MGM salary was $47,607. Reeg pocketed $18.4 million and Hornbuckle $15.8 million. Caesars shares, however, have stuck in the mid-$20s for a year or more, while MGM has bounced around between $25.30 and $42.55/share during that same time frame. It hardly seems a fair match for their compensation, but at least it explains Reeg’s and Hornbuckle’s ongoing detachment from reality. If you were pulling down that much, everything would be coming up roses, too.

Casinos were flat in Detroit last month, with MGM Grand Detroit (where “security” is a dirty word) grossing $51 million, off a point and perhaps slightly dimmed by recent bad publicity. Motor City, however, gained a point, reaching $31.5 million while Hollywood Greektown slipped a point to $23.5 million. That’s the sort of result we call “inconclusive.” iGaming, however, was very conclusive, shooting up 31% to $250.5 million. Sports betting brought in an additional $34 million on handle of $282.5 million for a tight 13% hold. The biggest beneficiaries were FanDuel ($14 million) and DraftKings ($9.5 million), as BetMGM finished with $5 million, despite a considerable gain. Caesars Sportsbook came up just short of our Mendoza Line, while better finishes were posted by ESPN Bet ($1.5 million) and even PointsBet ($2 million).

Also flat was the commonwealth of Massachusetts, where casinos gathered $99.5 million from players. Encore Boston Harbor dipped 2% to $60 million, while Plainridge Park (no tables, remember) leapt 6% to $15 million. MGM Springfield also showed signs of life, up 2% to $24 million, possibly aided by a cagey PR campaign to create the perception of the casino as one where players win frequently. At a 10% hold, sports betting garnered $49 million on $489 million of handle. DraftKings pasted FanDuel, $25 million to $12.5 million. Both Caesars Sportsbook and BallyBet were south of the Mendoza Line, while ESPN Bet ($1 million) was barely north of it. Fanatics and BetMGM were gripped in a death struggle, with $4.5 million each.

The calm (or steadiness, if you prefer) over the gaming industry extended to Pennsylvania, where revenue was—you guessed it—flat. The total haul was $285 million, led by Parx Casino at $47.5 million (-2%). Wind Creek Bethlehem was close behind at $46 million (flat). Non-Parx casinos in the Philadelphia area were as follows: Philadelphia Live $19.5 million, -8.5%; Rivers Philadelphia $19 million +1.5%; Valley Forge Resort $12.5 million +11%; Harrah’s Philadelphia $11 million +6%. Pittsburgh saw Rivers Casino add 3% for $28 million, while Hollywood Meadows was flat at $15 million and Pittsburgh Live gained 4% to $10 million. Flatness was also the rule for Mohegan Pocono ($17 million) but Presque Isle Downs was down indeed: -9.5% to $8.5 million. Hollywood Penn National hopped 2% to $14 million and yet Mount Airy Resort was flat at $17 million. Lady Luck Nemacolin had another impressive month, up 12% to $2.5 million. Parx Shippensburg was the coffee achiever, leaping 13.5% to $3.5 million. Hollywood York was flat at $8 million and Hollywood Morgantown jumped 8.5% to $6 million.

Keystone State OSB providers brought in $49.5 million and gave back $11.5 million in promos. DraftKings gained on FanDuel but still came in second, $14.5 million to $20 million. Caesars Sportsbook was barely in the picture with $1 million (a mooted IPO hardly seems warranted), while ESPN Bet managed almost $2 million. We rightly bemoan Penn Entertainment‘s struggle to dent the OSB market but Caesars Entertainment‘s comparable—or greater—failure to do so is overlooked. PointsBet, meanwhile, edged BetMGM, $3.5 million to $3 million.

While the rest of the country was seemingly on cruise control, Louisiana was putting the pedal to the metal. So long in the doldrums, casino revenues shot up 10% … or 4.5% on a same-store basis. New kid on the block Louisiana Live continued to ravage the Bossier City/Shreveport market, raking in $9.5 million. The lone exception to the carnage was Horseshoe Bossier City, catapulting 57.5% upward to first place and $13.5 million. God only knows what kind of promotions Caesars Entertainment is putting out there but more power to them for evidently being so George. They consigned Louisiana Live to third place for the first time in its brief lifespan. Margaritaville was exiled from primacy to second-place status with $11 million (-23.5%). Others feeling the pain were Boomtown Bossier ($3 million, -19.5%), Sam’s Town Shreveport ($3 million, -21%), Bally’s Shreveport ($6.5 million, -23%) and Louisiana Downs ($3 million, -11.5%).

There weren’t any losers in Baton Rouge. Even fossilized Belle of Baton Rouge vaulted 65%—albeit to only $800,000. Queen Casino rose 15.5% to $8 million, while L’Auberge Baton Rouge hung onto first place with $13 million (+7.5%). In Lake Charles, a run of good luck for Horseshoe Lake Charles evaporated as its grossed a mere $7 million (-8.5%), compared to Delta Downs‘ $14 million (+9.5%). Golden Nugget regained the top spot with $27 million (+7%), slightly outdistancing L’Auberge du Lac (pictured, $24.5 million, +5%). Both of Boyd Gaming‘s rural casinos did well in July. Amelia Belle rose 3% to $2.5 million and Evangeline Downs was up 3.5% to $6 million.

That leaves the Crescent City, where Caesars New Orleans continues to find its mojo, leaping 20.5% to $21 million. Treasure Chest, meanwhile, slowed its growth to 6% for a $13 million take. Boomtown New Orleans slipped 2.5% to $8 million and Fair Grounds hopped 4.5% to $3 million.

JOTTINGS: The bad guys won. Phil Ruffin, Wynn Resorts and Caesars Entertainment all skated on a price-fixing lawsuit. The court found no evidence of outright collusion to fix room rates in Las Vegas. The allegedly liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling only a plutocrat could love: “pricing one’s hotel rooms in a manner calculated to maximize profits is how one competes.” And there we were, thinking that people shop for the lowest price … Is 4,000 slot machines too many? Mohegan Sun clearly doesn’t think so. It added 22 more recently, many of the high-denomination variety … Not content with also-ran status in Pittsburgh, upstart Pittsburgh Live is planning to augment itself with an $86 million hotel (satellite casinos aren’t required to have them) and convention center. The economic impact is pegged at $720 million over a 10-year span … Petersburg Live continues to ramp up in Virginia. Its latest move its to open a school for dealers … The owner of a Georgia racetrack wants to build a $1 billion megaresort. Of course, he’s got to get casino legalization through a spineless Lege and onto the election ballot. Good luck with that … Penn Entertainment memorably stubbed its toe at Jamul Casino Resort, near San Diego. The tribe took over, deciding they couldn’t do any worse—and have done considerably better. A $515 million, 200-room hotel that opened August 11 is the latest proof.