These equivocal signals about the comeback of gambling arrive at the same time as similar ones from Caesars Entertainment. The Roman Empire is taking bookings at The Linq, Bally’s Las Vegas, The Rio, Paris-Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood and The Cromwell—but retaining the option to move you to a different property if there’s not enough demand to go around.
It looks like, instead of reinvesting in their properties, hotel owners are—like vultures feasting on carrion—going to put their money into mergers and acquisitions. “If there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire something like, say a company with the cachet of Four Seasons, and the conditions are right, big caps like Blackstone might buy,” said R.W. Baird senior analyst Michael Bellisario. Mid-sized companies in fly-in leisure destinations and with heavy convention exposure are deemed especially vulnerable.
‘The appetite for M&A is huge. They’re going to have to put strategies in place to protect themselves from becoming targets,” stated Canyon Equity CEO Homi Vazifdar. ‘Hot niche concepts’—does gaming have any?—are also considered to be prime targets. Concluded Kempinski Hotels CEO Martin Smura, Smaller operators who don’t have cash to buy each other might start looking at how to join forces.” Imagine Colony Capital let loose in such an environment. Scary.
Some good news for the Nevada economy: Continued claims for unemployment are declining as the state continues to reopen. Initial claims slumped slightly, to 10,620 while continued claims fell 22,173 (or 6.5%). To put these numbers in perspective, there have been 528,545 initial claims this year, 506,893 of which have come in the last fourteen weeks. Continued claims constitute 313,009.
Jottings: BetMGM has landed the contract to be sports-betting provider to Spirit Mountain Casino in Oregon … Scientific Games offshoot SciPlay has acquired “casual game” developer Come2Play. The Israel/Ukraine-based company specializes in offerings like backgammon and solitaire … Jing restaurant in Las Vegas is closed today for “wellness.” Three employees in the crowded eatery tested positive for Coronavirus and the general manager will be getting a test, too … After a three-month-plus shutdown, Ute Mountain Casino in Colorado is reopening its RV park on June 22, followed by the rest of the hotel-casino on June 26. Guests will be subjected to temperature checks and are “expected” to wear masks … Jilin Province, in China, is incentivizing its citizens to rat out neighbors suspected of illegal gambling. $7,000 is your reward if you snitch successfully … After testing negative in order to go back to work, an employee at Guy Fieri‘s Linq restaurant is positive for Covid-19. The eatery is temporarily closed after a very brief reopening … Three workers at Northside Café & Chinese Kitchen at the Sahara tested positive for Coronavirus. The restaurant has closed … Hotels in the Miami Beach area are said to be booked solid. Expect a Covid-19 resurgence at South Florida casinos.
South FL is getting whacked anyway with a very high new case rate. This will only make it higher. My 96 year old Dad lives in Boca, and my Brother has my casino loving Dad locked down. It does seem that with much more testing, there are more positives, and many more known cases with no symptoms, surprising the heck out of a lot of people when their test come back positive. My employees get checked every 2 weeks. So far, 2 of them have been positive, and did not have a sniffle. I am in So Cal, and LA County is getting hit, too. Although hospital rates are not going up, than goodness. We will see. An Italian doc says that the virus is getting weaker, but more easily spread. Doubt that’s trud.