“Wait ’til next year” seems to be Penn National Gaming‘s mantra for the Tropicana Las Vegas. At present, the company is still installing Marquee Rewards, replacing older slot 
machines and getting out of any leased-game arrangements. It doesn’t expect any significant bottom-line contribution from the Trop until 2017. As for the relationship between the Trop and M Resort, Penn told JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff that it is still trying to find synergies between the two. In the meantime, Penn sure wishes it could find financial extraction from its casino at Jamul Indian Village (left), near San Diego. Penn has been carrying the entire project cost, which it says it can do for another year or year-and-a-half but would like to find someone else to take over the loan. If that happens, it will probably be announced in the next month or so.
Unlike the Boston newspapers, Penn is “very comfortable,” it says, with the performance of Plainridge Park, although it doesn’t expect revenues to stabilize for another three years. Greff said Penn had “broad-based strength in the Southern Plains region excluding Alton Belle” but its vulnerable flank was Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, which Greff expects to lose 35% of its revenue in the first three quarters that MGM National Harbor is open. Penn’s expectation — 10% — is more modest and it predicts worse impact on Maryland Live (close to 20%) and a slightly smaller one (around 5%) at Horseshoe Baltimore. Its new slot-route subsidiary is concentrated on recapturing Illinois revenue at the moment but Penn is looking at opportunities beyond the Land of Lincoln.
Finally, Penn stated that February’s results were than last year’s beyond what could be attributable to Leap Day, and that “they continue to benefit from low gas prices and some level of wage growth.” It’s nice to see that Penn is bullish on the American economy, even if our Debbie Downer field of presidential candidates isn’t.
* The indictment of our David Baazov did a number on Amaya Gaming‘s stock. The latter lost 20% of its value once the charges were disclosed.
