Author: David Mckee

Casino winnings in Atlantic City dipped a bit last month, down 1.5% to $231.5 million. Slot revenues led the way, down 3% on flat coin-in. Table games actually did better, up 3% despite flat wagering but A.C. is a slot player’s town. Only less weekend day this year didn’t help, either. Only two casinos were revenue-positive in April: The Golden Nugget courted enough low rollers to gain 6.5% to $13 million, while Ocean Casino Resort surged 30% to reach $34 million, hard on the trail of Hard Rock Atlantic City ($39 million, -4.5%). New-look Borgata sputtered somewhat, down 6% to $58 million, still good enough to kick everyone else’s patootie. Last place went to Resorts Atlantic City, tumbling 13% to $12.5 million. Golden Nugget’s uptick wasn’t enough to overtake Bally’s Atlantic City ($14 million), in spite of the latter’s 4% setback. That leaves the Caesars Entertainment threesome, with Caesars Atlantic City (-3%) and Tropicana Atlantic City (-13%) all knotted up at $19.5 million. No surprise, Harrah’s Resort did best with $21.5 million, although it dipped 6%.

Continue reading All Atlantic City, all the time; Bally’s blunder

In its frenetic effort to gain market share in the U.S., Fanatics has cut a deal with outgoing PointsBet. For the relatively cheap price of $150 million, it is buying the American (but not Canadian) operations of PointsBet, which tells you something about how badly PointsBet wants to get out of the Land of the Free. Fanatics beat Penn Entertainment and Bally’s Corp. to the punch, although it’s not clear what Bally’s inchoate sports-betting operation would have gained from yet another acquisition. PointsBet’s reason for quitting the scene is quite simple: It just doesn’t have the moolah to stay the course to profitability, so it’s getting out while it’s behind. Among those taking a bat on their PointsBet investment will be NBC Universal, which backed a loser. If the PointsBet gaming licenses currently valid devolve to Fanatics, the latter will have made a head start toward getting into 12 states by late August. Fanatics claims it has a 10-year business plan but OSB moves fast. It’s already five years old in this country and the market share has ossified around four or five operators.

Continue reading Fanatics and freeloaders; Texas fails twice over

As much as we sensed it was coming and were resigned to it, it’s sad to know that the Tropicana Las Vegas has been marked for imminent death. The Las Vegas Strip dowager is showing her years, admittedly, but she’s the last remaining vestige of classic Vegas, especially after Sam Nazarian disemboweled the Sahara and the Riviera went the way of all flesh. Just when Station Casinos thought it was going to see a big real estate payday, it was double-crossed by the Oakland Athletics. Turns out the A’s had been playing footsie with Bally’s Corp., which did a great job of pretending nothing was transpiring at the Trop. Under the new deal, which was sniffed out by Howard Stutz, the A’s would build a nine-acre $1.4 billion stadium atop the ex-Trop, with Bally’s holding onto 25 acres for future redevelopment.

Continue reading Adios, Tropicana; Wynn’s beat goes on; Sex & OSB

Penn Entertainment stock collapsed 13% Wednesday afternoon after Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy took to Twitter to rant and rave about the firing of Ben Mintz, a ‘Stool fool who dropped the N-word on air for all the world to hear. A panicky Portnoy simultaneously trashed Penn’s decision whilst pretending to rationalize it by saying the company could lose all its gaming licenses over the Mintz matter. Not bloody likely, although it would certainly imperil Penn’s provisional OSB license in Massachusetts, where it just squeaked by the last time—possibly in Ohio, as well, where it had been running a scofflaw operation.

So stupid is Portnoy that he scored an own-goal on his personal stock holdings, being heavily invested in Penn. He quickly tried to spin his gaffe, tweeting that it’s “Great time to buy. It’ll bounce back in my humble non financial advise [sic] opinion.” What an idiot. As Credit Suisse analyst Ben Chaiken diplomatically put it, “well publicized Barstool personnel changes likely drove the stock reaction.”

Continue reading Portnoy torches Penn; Station “outstanding”; DraftKings improves; Alabama betting brouhaha; Derby gone to the dogs

“Mac-Holy-Cau!” So exclaimed Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas about MGM Resorts International‘s 1Q23 earnings statement. Fueled by better than expected grosses in Macao, MGM beat the Wall Street consensus for first-quarter cash flow by 8%. Cash flow was $1.25 billion on net revenues of $3.9 billion, while cash flow in Las Vegas alone was a best-ever $836 million. Table games on the Las Vegas Strip were up 6% while slot winnings vaulted 19%. Hotel revenue shot up 43% on 92% occupancy, as daily room rates hovered at a stratospheric $258 per night. As for new arrival The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Jonas observed, “MGM remains pleased with trends at the recently acquired Cosmo … and is in the process of converting the property to the MGM Rewards platform.”

Continue reading Macao propels MGM; Ohio sports betting scandal (again)