Author: David Mckee

Gaming’s recovery continues unabated in the Free State. Maryland gambling revenues for June were $161.5 million, a 13% gain on 2019. $64 million of that went to MGM National Harbor, up 12% and hoarding 39.5% market share. Maryland Live chugged along with $58.5 million, a 19% gain—and 36% market share—and Hollywood Perryville booked $8 million for a 21% leap. Vaulting 29%, Ocean Downs won $9 million, while Rocky Gap Casino was up 12.5% to $6. Did Gary Loveman build Horseshoe Baltimore on an Indian burial ground? Alone among Maryland casinos it was revenue-negative. It grossed $17 million for a 9% decline. West Virginia casinos finally caught up with the 2019 pace, being only 1% down from that halcyon year. Slot winnings were flat, tables down 6%. At Hollywood Charles Town Races, revenues actually outpaced 2019 by 5%, with a 6% slot gain overcoming an 1% dip at the tables.

It’s highly uncommon in our experience for a Wall Street analyst to put a “sell” rating on a stock but that’s just what Deutsche Bank‘s Carlo Santarelli did to Penn National Gaming yesterday. Penn has been the darling of The Street ever since it eviscerated the company during the Great Shutdown, which did wonders for its margins. The stock is trading at $72/share and Santarelli put a $31 price target on it. Why? Primarily because he believes Penn’s Internet gambling operations and Barstool Sports are “considerably overvalued” relative to its performance so far. (Shades of DraftKings.) He’s also skeptical of forecasts that call for year after year of revenue growth when he sees an upcoming contraction, especially compared to lean-and-mean 2021. Not even the additions of Hollywood Perryville and two slot parlors in Pennsylvania alleviate his gloom. Penn has tantalized Wall Street with preannouncements of $1.5 billion in 2Q21 revenue, a bit of bare ankle that may have been intended to distract from the issuance of $400 million in new debt.

Continue reading Maryland keeps booming; Penn panned

Some of us thought Nevada would never regain the giddy gambling heights of 2007. We were wrong. May was the best month in Silver State history, as casinos raked in $1.2 billion. (The previous high was in October 2007, on the cusp of the Great Recession.) Admittedly, it was a long march—14 years, but Big Gaming is arguably healthier than it has ever been. Look for that new record to fall soon. It was achieved in a month during which casinos were still operating with capacity constraints. Think what’s probably been happening since Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) lowered all the restraints on June 1. In May it appears to have been a case of fewer players wagering more, as occupancy hovered at 71%, averaging 88% on weekends. That’s still shy of 2019 levels. Slot play, however, hit an all-time peak, while sports betting saw $27 million in revenue from $477.5 million in handle. All of this bounty fattened Sisolak’s tax coffers to the tune of $107 million.

Resorts World Las Vegas, meanwhile, is out of the starting blocks fast. It saw 20,000 visitors its first weekend and is, if my sources are to be believed, the new must-see attraction in Las Vegas. That’s quite a journey from being an iffy prospect when Genting Group took it over, lo, those many years ago. Genting’s patience has paid off and it opened just as the wave of Vegas tourism curled and crested. It’s far too soon to assess its long-term prospects but it throws a lifeline to Circus Circus and Sahara, two casinos whose business plan seems to have been to hunker down and wait for Resorts World to rescue them. There’s already some rather precipitate talk about putting a megaresort across from the Sahara but, in the time it will take to build one, we’ll have a much better idea if the north Strip is here to stay, so to speak. As for Resorts World itself, we will leave the assessments to those who have actually seen it, which Yr. Humble Blogger will be unable to do until Global Gaming Expo in October. In the meantime, have one on us, Sin City. You’ve earned it.

Continue reading Resorts World a smash hit; Cranky Maine woman stiffs tribes

May’s gaming revenues from Nevada are in and they are blockbuster. When the Strip is 26% higher than 2019 (winning $655.5 million) and locals play is 25% stronger it is fair to say the recovery has been achieved—and far sooner than expected. One analyst had predicted only a 3% uptick on the Las Vegas Strip. There, slot revenue was $385 million (+24.5%) on 23.5% more coin-in Baccarat winnings fell 97% and haven’t been able to get up—and won’t until international travel returns in a meaningful way. Non-baccarat table games saw 14% less wagering but won 9% more than two years ago. Locals slot revenue vaulted 24% to $219 million and table play yielded $39 million, up 34.5%. May was the first month of 100% capacity in Nevada casinos and players obviously turned out in force, including a substantial number (approximately 60,000) traveling to and from Sin City by air.

Continue reading Merry month of May in Las Vegas; Beehive of activity in Atlantic City

This is how it’s done. Or supposed to be done. DraftKings and FanDuel are teaming to back a petition drive to legalize sports betting in Florida. Aimed at the November 2022 election ballot, the resolution would dedicate tax revenues from sports betting to funding for education. As opposed to Gov. Ron De Santis‘ Hard Rock International-controlled setup of sports betting, the proposed constitutional amendment would create an open market. The federal Interior Department is currently scrutinizing the DeSantis compact, which uses a rather absurd construal of ‘tribal lands’ whereby you could place a mobile wager from your back porch and—because it must pass through a Seminole Tribe computer server—it is deemed ‘tribal’ gaming. Also, the Florida Lege is constitutionally enjoined from authorizing any expansion of gambling in the Sunshine State. Even if Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signs off on this misshapen afterbirth of the congress between DeSantis and the Seminoles, litigation at the state level is already in train. We hate to agree with Rob Sowinski of No Casinos but the compact really needs to be struck down.

We don’t know the full details of the DraftKings/FanDuel proposal yet but it appears on the surface to be a more-palatable alternative. One thing Florida Education Champions don’t address is tribal sports betting. Their amendment would simply deal parimutuels and professional sports parks into the action. Seminole Gaming spokesman Gary Bitner fumed that the petition drive “is a political Hail Mary from out-of-state corporations trying to interfere with the business of the people of Florida.” Ah, but it was those same people of Florida who decreed that the Lege had no say in the spread of gaming. Harrumphed Bitner, “They couldn’t stop Florida’s new gaming compact, which passed by an overwhelming 88 percent ‘yes’ vote from Florida’s elected legislators and enjoys 3-to-1 support from Floridians and guarantees $2.5 billion in revenue sharing. The guarantee is the largest commitment by any gaming company in U.S. history.” Constitution be damned! The next hurdles for the PAC are to get 891,589 valid signatures and to have the Florida Supreme Court OK the ballot language. What could hobble them out of the gate is that the window is rapidly closing to collect campaign contributions, capped at $3K apiece as of this Thursday. Petition drives are seven- and eight-figure enterprises, so DraftKings and FanDuel may run out of money sooner than signatories.

Continue reading Florida gets tag-teamed; Penn upbeat on 2021; Vegas room rates soar

We were stumped for a lead item until we got this snap from our Atlantic City bureau. One has to puzzle at Borgata‘s cretinous idea of a welcome, particularly its implicit slap at women. Did property President Melonie Johnson sign off on this affront?

Next door in Pennsylvania, terrestrial casinos are still having a difficult time catching up to the palmy days of 2019, being 2.5% behind last month for a gross of $278.5 million. Surely what we’re seeing is a saturated market, exacerbated by a string of new-casino openings that has not yet played out. Parx Casino continued to be untroubled, up 5% to $56 million. As for the other Philadelphia-area casinos, Philadelphia Live‘s tight-fisted marketing habits may be catching up with it. It slipped incrementally behind Rivers Philadelphia (still -33%), which came in $300K ahead of Live’s $19 million. Valley Forge Resort suffered a bit, down 10% to $11 million and Harrah’s Philadelphia suffered a lot, sliding 21.5% to $16.5 million. Cordish Gaming won $8.5 million at Live Pittsburgh, while competitors Rivers Pittsburgh ($28 million, -14%) and The Meadows ($16.5 million, -23%) felt the pinch. Rivers Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is upping its game with a $60 million hotel.

Aside from Parx, the only revenue-positive casino in the state was Mount Airy, up 8.5% to $17.5 million. Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs was down 12% to $18 million and Wind Creek Bethlehem won $36.5 million, a -16.5% slippage. Presque Isle Downs dropped 16% to $10 million, Hollywood Penn National made $20 million, off 8% and Lady Luck Nemacolin tumbled 29% to $2 million.

Continue reading Same to you, fella; Mega-Jottings