JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff has been keeping a watching brief on reopening trends at casinos around the country, mainly in Nevada, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Iowa. He reports that “average daily casino traffic across reopened regional casinos for the week ending Saturday, June 20th increased to ~80% of pre-COVID-19 levels (i.e., down 20% relative to Feb. 2020), up from 72% observed in the prior week and 68% observed two weeks prior. In Clark County, Nevada, casino visitation for the week ending June 20th increased to ~61% of pre-COVID-19 levels (i.e., down 39% vs. Feb. 2020), up sequentially from 57% and 53% in the prior two weeks; we view these results as fairly encouraging given that ~65% of LV Strip hotel rooms are back online and Nevada limits gaming capacity to 50%.”
Gamers’ duration is reported as “strong,” indicative of high-value players. The exception is Louisiana, where gamblers are spending 12% less time per visit. But it’s 12% longer in Mississippi, 9% moreso in Clark County (where the average visit to the casino lasts 51 minutes) and 4% more in Missouri. “We view this visitation data, along with [gross gaming revenue] reports and company commentary on traffic trends as encouraging, and undoubtedly, better than previously feared,” writes Greff. His takeaways include that demand was initially very strong, briefly dipped and now has returned. He adds that “casinos are indeed seeing a benefit from better quality/higher volume players, but it does seem that lower levels of visitation may still be a drag.”
