According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, casino revenue in the state was down 2% in April … except that it wasn’t. Since the month ended on a Saturday, slot revenue from the last two days of April got slopped in with the first dollars of May. This leaves Wall Street analysts to play 3-D chess and extrapolate what the results would have been if Nevadans reported their casino revenue the way the rest of the country does. The good news is that these regulatory monkeyshines won’t recur until the end of September.
In other words, what looks like a blah month was actually a good one, with revenues probably closer to $822 million (+2%) than the $806 million reported. Slot win would be +2.5% statewide and up 1% on the Strip. Even with an ongoing cutback in comps, players are spending a little more loosely. The slot-revenue increase on the Strip was driven by higher coin-in and not by (lower) hold percentages. Table winnings were down, mostly due to 29% lower baccarat play — which was expected to be recouped in May — but operators were able to eke out modest increases in winnings on both the baccarat and non-baccarat fronts. That eases one worry: That the Strip is at the mercy of Chinese high rollers and their whims (and winnings).
After a dreadful (-18%) April 2010, the locals segment posted a 4% gain, a rare manifestation of recovery in that sector, which bottomed out last July and has made fitful progress since. Markets that posted a gain despite the screwy slot-reporting methodology included the Boulder Strip (2.5%), Elko (5%) and Lake Tahoe (15%), weak but still hanging in there.
It wasn’t any surprise, then, that tourism in the Silver State was up 5% in April, consistent with the year to date, even as ADRs rose to $106 (+9%) to meet the trend. Drive-in traffic from California posted the biggest gain (3%), although air travelers and motorists from other markets came in greater numbers, too. So did 436,000 conventioneers (+2%) and conventions, up slightly from April ’10, helping to push hotel occupancy to 91%. The affordability of hotel rooms continues to hammer the low-end segment, with motels but 60% full. Another month or two of numbers like these and I’ll start to believe those casino CEOs who say recovery is just a quarter away. Of course, better times in the office suites will mean fewer deals on hotel suites, so gather ye rosebuds (and comps) while yet you may.
Just like that the appeal of would-be Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino was quashed by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Although recent grand jury testimony has been damning toward the PGCB, none of it dealt with the process whereby Gettysburg lost out to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Isle of Capri Casinos. The Mason-Dixon proponents have another fortnight to get this matter before the courts and it’d be a great surprise if they didn’t avail themselves of the legal system, having endured numerous skirmishes just to get this far.
Fearing a veto from the pen of Gov. Pat Quinn (D), the Illinois Senate is holding off sending its casino-expansion bill to the governor’s desk. In the meantime, more cities have begun jostling for position, should Quinn succumb to the seductive wiles of Senate President John Cullerton (D, left). The two latest are Calumet City and Lynnwood, bringing to at least four the number of Cook County cities not named “Chicago” that hope Quinn plays Santa Claus this year. Calumet city fathers might want to rein in their boast that giving them a riverboat would “stop the flow of Illinois dollars to Indiana gaming tables in Hammond, East Chicago, Gary and Michigan City.” Caesars Entertainment‘s Horseshoe Hammond could whup that Calumet City casino with one hand tied behind its back and it’s doubtful that Ameristar Casinos and Boyd Gaming are losing any sleep over the idea either.
