{"id":29067,"date":"2021-01-06T11:08:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T19:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=29067"},"modified":"2023-09-18T13:17:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T21:17:46","slug":"maryland-craters-mgm-snow-job-mob-museum-in-your-ear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/maryland-craters-mgm-snow-job-mob-museum-in-your-ear\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland craters; MGM ‘snow’ job; Mob Museum in your ear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It’s pretty clear that the casino industry is entering its second recession in 10 months and too soon to know if the ‘skinny’ stimulus will bring a January boost. One of the most reliable markets in the U.S., Maryland<\/strong> plunged 20% last month. The gross was $119.5 million. JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong> pins the declivity upon both an upsurge in Covid-19<\/strong> cases and consequent restrictions in casino capacity (25% at the big three). “We expect a similar trend to play out in other regions, which points to a retrenchment,” Greff added. Market share was dominated by MGM National Harbor<\/strong> (41%) and Maryland Live<\/strong> (above<\/em>, 36%). MGM had a 28% falloff in high-priority table revenue and shed 18% at the slots, for a total haul of $58.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryland Live slipped 17% to $43 million while Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong> posted an anemic $13 million, a 32% plummet. Small wonder Penn National Gaming<\/strong> recently re-acquired Hollywood Perryville<\/strong>. It was actually up 8.5% to $6.5 million. Ocean Downs<\/strong> was down 10% to $5 million and Rocky Gap Casino<\/strong> tumbled 16% to $3.5 million. Final West Virginia<\/strong> tallies aren’t yet available but the week-to-week tracking of revenue indicates that their results will make Maryland casinos look flush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Halfway around the world, MGM Resorts International<\/strong> is facing agitation from stockholders in Macao<\/strong>. “Earlier today, MGM Resorts disclosed that Snow Lake Capital<\/strong>, an Asian investment firm with a 7.5% stake in MGM China<\/strong> (rated Neutral by DS Kim<\/strong>), sent a letter to its board pushing for MGM to sell a 20% stake in MGM China to a strategic Chinese consumer, travel and\/or leisure company,” Greff wrote. MGM holds 56% of MGM China at present and, other than Pansy Ho<\/strong>, Snow Lake is the second-largest shareholder in the joint venture. Snow Lake is shopping for an investor with “significant non-gaming resources,” with an eye toward making the company more attractive to Macanese authorities, whenever they get around to re-tendering gaming concessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also desired by Snow Lake is a greater concentration of power under Pansy Ho, integrating MGM China with Sociedade de Jogos de Macau<\/strong>. It’s dangling the idea of generating capital for MGM that the latter can plow it into Osaka<\/strong>, prompting Greff to ask, “Is Japan<\/strong> a tangible high ROIC opportunity, and how long from now will this be? Is it worth trading Macau now for Japan uncertainty?” (We answer “No, when Hell freezes over, and no.”) Newly freed-up equity could also be invested in online sports betting, although Greff is skeptical. There are a couple of other Snow Lake strategic rationales but we’ve touched upon the biggies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greff argues that “Macau still matters and selling down at these levels is premature,” prefacing his conclusion by saying, “we have a tough time seeing MGM selling its equity anywhere close to current levels for this to make sense, following two tough years for Macau fundamentals (2020 was\u00a0COVID-19 and 2019 GGR was negatively impacted by US-China<\/strong> trade\/relations).” As he says, we’re “not sure it really goes anywhere.” We’re not convinced MGM is sufficiently desperate as to sell a bird in the hand for not even two in the bush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\" Meanwhile back at corporate headquarters, MGM has picked Jonathan Halkyard<\/strong> as its new CFO. If the name sounds familiar it’s because Halkyard held the same position at Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> before being ousted by Gary Loveman<\/strong>. Since then he’s been hanging his hat at Extended Stay America<\/strong>. He’s associated with the worst years of Caesars, its ill-advised LBO and ensuing bankruptcy. That said, he’s certainly well-acquainted with adversity, which MGM presently faces. He replaces Corey Sanders<\/strong>, who moved up to COO of MGM. “We respect Jonathan\u2019s corporate finance IQ, his ability to think strategically, and like his background in gaming, industry M&A, and hospitality\/REIT operations in general. We think he adds to MGM\u2019s bench strength and could see him, eventually, taking on additional larger roles at MGM,” opines Greff, although isn’t a little early to be contemplating successors to Sanders and CEO Bill Hornbuckle<\/strong>? Their chairs are scarcely warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you keep museum tours viable during a pandemic? The Mob Museum<\/strong> has devised a self-guiding audio tour, featuring anecdotage by Oscar Goodman<\/strong>, as well as background info read by volunteer docents. The new tour treats 40 exhibits and runs 85 minutes … hardly enough to cover all the museum’s riches but a hefty start. Did you Al Capone<\/strong> was a bandleader in prison? Who was the “Kiss of Death Lady”? And what does forensic evidence from the St. Valentine’s Massacre<\/strong> tell us? These and other questions will be answered on the audio traversal. Alas, you won’t learn who offed Jimmy Hoffa<\/strong> or Bugsy Siegel<\/strong>, although both topics are raised. If you’ve been to the Mob Museum, it’s a reason to return and if you haven’t\u2014why the heck not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s pretty clear that the casino industry is entering its second recession in 10 months and too soon to know if the ‘skinny’ stimulus will bring a January boost. One of the most reliable markets in the U.S., Maryland plunged 20% last month. The gross was $119.5 million. JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff pins the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83928,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1728],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83928"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}