Praise be! Casino revenues in Illinois were actually flat (+0.5%) last month. It’s mainly a consequence of Penn National‘s Empress Joliet being back in the fray, raking in $40 million. (You’ll recall that, a year ago, its pavilion was but a charred husk.) This wasn’t such good news for Penn’s Hollywood Aurora or Harrah’s Entertainment‘s casino in Joliet, which lost an average of 23% of business. MGM Mirage‘s Grand Victoria came through unscathed, however.
St. Louis-area casinos continue to lose business to Missouri, however. Both Penn’s Alton Belle and independently owned Casino Queen were down 10% and it’s certainly more than coincidence that Pinnacle Entertainment bolstered its Missouri-side arsenal with River City at that very time. At least the rollout of slot routes in Illinois continues to be a flop, buying some relief for the state’s long-suffering riverboats.
Cap-and-trade at Sands. Combing through Las Vegas Sands‘ 1Q10 report and the first week of business at Marina Bay Sands, analysts at J.P. Morgan are generally bullish on the company. They’re not expecting Sands to move many of its Macao condo units this year but speedily growing VIP play at Venetian Macao (left) generated that megaresort’s highest margins to date. Despite a negligible contribution from Sands Bethlehem (but a better-than-expected one from Venelazzo) the company surpassed cash-flow expectations … although there is some cannibalization at work, judging from the fact that Venetian Macao exceeded projections but both Sands Macao and Four Seasons undershot them.
Morgan also stands by its prediction of $1.7 billion in gross gaming revenue for 2011, based on $400-$900 in daily slot win, and while its profit estimates are considerably lower than those of CEO Sheldon Adelson, JPM says it’s being “conservative.” Perhaps the most interesting disclosure was that Adelson has it in writing from Peking (or one of its Macanese vassals) that he can put 400 new table games — plus 100 e-tables — into his Cotai Strip™ casinos and swap out another 170 from existing resorts. This refutes scuttlebutt that Galaxy Entertainment was juiced in for 4/5 of the 500 unallocated tables and brings the week at Sands HQ to an upbeat close.
