Category: Casino News

Casinos in Atlantic City are having trouble catching a wave from the Great Reopening. Last month’s brick-and-mortar revenues were $214.5 million, 9% down from 2019. Slot win ($154 million) was 8% lower on 11% less coin-in and luck wasn’t with the house at the tables: 16% less revenue ($58.5 million) on only 1% less wagering. Borgata ($56.6 million) was luckier in that respect than most, with its table win flat despite 11% less betting, while slots plunged 20% on 23% less coin-in for an overall -13%. The Caesars Entertainment threesome slid 15%, on 17% lower slot win (18% less handle) and an 8% dip at the tables, where players bet 7% less than two years ago. Caesars Atlantic City fell 14% to $20 million last month, Harrah’s Resort slipped 13% to $21 million and Tropicana Atlantic City tumbled 18% to $21 million.

The only-revenue positive casinos were Ocean Resort, gaining 14% to $23 million (outdoing any Caesars property), and Hard Rock Atlantic City, surging 17% to $35 million. It will take more than new, pink windows to turn around Bally’s Atlantic City, plummeting 30% to $11 million. Also falling on hard times was the Golden Nugget, down 23% to $12 million, which left Resorts Atlantic City, down 11% to $14 million.

Continue reading Atlantic City plays catch-up; Pennsylvania, Michigan flex online muscles

Casino winnings in Indiana came up just a few increments short of $200 million last month, a 13% gain on 2019. Hard Rock Gary came out of the blocks fast, grossing $26 million, although Horseshoe Hammond climbed 7% to retain supremacy at $34.5 million. Consigned to third place in the northern tier, Ameristar East Chicago won $21.5 million, still a 20% surge from 2019. Blue Chip, on the other hand, suffered. It was down 15% to $11 million. It’s Horseshoe’s ballgame to lose.

Farther south, it was more of a mixed bag. Two big gainers were Indiana Grand, up 15% to $24.5 million, and Harrah’s Hoosier Downs, galloping +16% to $18 million. Caesars Southern Indiana also put in a strong showing, up 11.5% to $19.5 million. Hollywood Lawrenceburg ceded 2% to $13 million, while Belterra Resort slipped 9% to $8 million. Tropicana Evansville edged 3% higher to $12 million, Rising Star eked out $4 million, a 6.5% downturn, and French Lick Resort tumbled 17% to $7 million.

Continue reading Indiana, Missouri stay strong; Mixed feelings about buffets

Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli took a gander at the terms of MGM Resorts International‘s purchase/re-sale of Aria and Vdara, and liked what he saw. He reaffirmed his “buy” rating on MGM shares, with a price target of $54. He applauded the deal for three reasons: simplification of MGM’s corporate structure by removing joint-venture partner Infinity World; cash and lots of it; the transaction “allows MGM to better manage its Strip assets, as opposed to receiving fifty cent dollars at a key core asset, as it had been.” Santarelli believes MGM will use at least some of the proceeds to pay the remaining $1.7 billion in CityCenter debt. Considering that it cost MGM $4 billion to build Aria alone, we think the transaction is, at best, a wash, not to mention the death knell for “New Urbanism” on the Las Vegas Strip. Still, when one considers the collapse of the condo market, the slow, slow ramp-up of Crystals and the Harmon Hotel fiasco, MGM is getting out relatively unscathed.

Continue reading CityCenter sale applauded; DraftKings sued twice over

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