Category: Casino News

It was a great sign for investors in Station Casinos when the company accelerated its 2Q24 earnings report to yesterday. Station execs were clearly bursting with good news. As Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas summarized, Durango Resort continues to be boffo, with same-store results at most other Station properties stable and cannibalization of former flagship Red Rock Resort no worse than expected. A hastened Phase II enlargement of Durango was formally announced this afternoon but it was the worst-kept secret in Las Vegas for quite some time.

Contrary to this morning’s gloom-and-doom headlines, casinos in Atlantic City did just fine last month. Big Gaming is probably spinning the numbers as bad ones in order to evade A) smoking bans and B) higher taxes. Gambling revenue was $244 million, 1% above last year and 3.5% higher than pre-pandemic 2019. The downside is that the upside was driven by but four casinos out of nine. Bally’s Atlantic City charged out of last place with a 9% surge to $13.5 million. Borgata hopped 6% to $64 million (no surprise there) and Hard Rock Atlantic City rose 12% to $48.5 million. Tail-end Charlie Golden Nugget even managed a 6% jump to $12.5 million.

A Faustian pact has been struck by Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim. In order to gain the cash necessary to build his $1.8 billion obsession, Bally’s Chicago, Kim has had to sell practically everything of value that Bally’s has. On paper, he gains a flagship megaresort. However, he loses assets against which he could leverage projects in Las Vegas and New York City. Maybe there’s a disguised blessing. Perhaps Kim, whose Standard General hedge fund is the largest BALY shareholder, will finally be forced to focus on one big thing at a time.

Casinos in the Land of Lincoln had something to celebrate last month, as they actually improved same-store results by 3%, although they still lagged 3% behind 2019 figures. (Blame it on the thermonuclear proliferation of slot routes). The overall haul was $138 million. The bulk of this was logged in the northern tier of the state, where Bally’s Casino (above) in Chicago pulled in $10.5 million, about par for its course. Despite being down a point, Rivers Des Plaines grossed $44 million and is staving off new competition rather impressively. Speaking of which, The Temporary at American Place vaulted 33% to $9 million.

Hope may spring eternal for Bally’s Corp. in Virginia. The enterprising Virginia Mercury has been like a bloodhound on the tainted casino-award process for Petersburg and has dug up fresh dirt. We’ve already detailed the shakedown of Petersburg by state Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D). She made it pretty clear that, for reasons unknown, she wanted the casino concession awarded to Bally’s before any allocation was made by the Lege. Petersburg civic leaders, it is now known, caved to Aird’s extortionate demand. A damning letter penned by City Manager March Altman, but never sent to Bally’s, states that it had been tabbed as the preferred casino operator.