Well, they weren’t that dramatic about it. But Boyd Gaming executives surprised Wall Street analysts by announcing their interest in having a Japanese casino. For all the ongoing success of Borgata, we still think of Boyd as a small-casino company, getting by on locals play and Hawaiian tourists. “We’re much larger today than we were in early the early 2000s,” said CEO Keith Smith, who added that it was too early to talk about financing. Small wonder, with $178 million cash on hand against $4.5 billion in debt. Downtown business improved last quarter while Las Vegas locals business remained on a flat trajectory. (“Relatively OK,” said JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff.) However, Boyd has improved cash flow for four quarters in a row.
A $1 billion writedown on the abandoned Echelon project pushed Boyd to a 4Q13 loss. The company also did the responsible thing, retiring an aggregate $585 million in debt and interest. We like seeing that kind of probity in the gaming biz.
SLS Las Vegas was thrown a lifeline this week. It entered a guest-loyalty program with Preferred Hotels & Resorts. Which is a good thing because Sam Nazarian offloaded the old Sahara database to Circus Circus and his SBE customers are dancing their brains out at Bellagio. Today’s news makes SLS a bit less of an island in a North Strip slum.
You can’t fix stupid but you can try to sue your way out of it. A Downtown Grand customer admits to gambling away a half-million dollars while on a three-day drinking binge on Super Bowl weekend. The sobering realization didn’t hit him until Sunday, in what must have must as much of a surprise as the Seattle Seahawks‘ runaway victory. If it were to comment (it hasn’t), the Grand would say he’s trying to welsh on his markers. His attorney says the man, Mark Johnston, was “blackout drunk,” couldn’t read his cards and yet kept being served drinks despite his visible intoxication, in violation of Nevada law. Needless to say, the Nevada Gaming Control Board is on the case.
The Saratoga Springs City Council voted unanimously against expanding gambling at Saratoga Casino & Raceway but no two people agree on what the vote meant. To some, it sent a message. For others, it’s a bargaining chip.
Elsewhere in New York State, what’s halfway between Rochester and Syracuse? The answer is either A) the middle of nowhere or B) Tyre, a wide spot in the road that just qualifies as a town (900 souls). Strangely enough, this is where developer Thomas Wilmot wants to put a 2,000-slot, 200-room casino. The project looks like a flop on the face of it but some Tyre residents are worried about potential disruption of their bucolic, agrarian lifestyle.
Penn National Gaming may yet thwart the lifting of its Sioux City license. In a hearing before the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission, Penn’s big-gun attorney, Chris Tayback (imported from 
L.A.), was able to extract several damaging admissions from the IRGC. One was that it discouraged Penn from reapplying for a casino license, due to the deterioration of its relationship with Missouri River Historical Development. Penn also nailed MRHD for cashing a seven-month backlog of checks just hours after the IRGC decided to supersede Argosy Sioux City with a Hard Rock-branded rival project … now affiliated with MRHD. Tayback also got an IRGC official to concede it would be “possible” for two casinos to operate in Woodbury County, opening the door to a compromise in which Hard Rock and Argosy would both remain in business. Further deliberations were scheduled for today.
Boyd = Bigger and Smarter that they may look. Go for gold!