{"id":14322,"date":"2014-08-13T10:33:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T18:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14322"},"modified":"2014-08-13T10:33:05","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T18:33:05","slug":"stations-big-quarter-smoke-gets-in-your-slots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/stations-big-quarter-smoke-gets-in-your-slots\/","title":{"rendered":"Station&#8217;s big quarter; Smoke gets in your slots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although customers are holding their purse strings tighter, <strong>Station Casinos<\/strong> registered noteworthy growth in earnings last quarter. Powered by <strong>Graton Resort &amp; Casino<\/strong> in <strong>California<\/strong>, Station reported <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vegasinc.com\/business\/gaming\/2014\/aug\/12\/station-casinos-earnings-87-percent-2nd-quarter\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">revenue of $55 million, up from $7 million a year earlier<\/a>. In the larger picture it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/red_rock.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/red_rock.jpg\" alt=\"red_rock\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/red_rock.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/red_rock-150x104.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>was a 2% increase in revenue. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/casinos-gaming\/station-casinos-says-customers-still-hesitant-spend\" target=\"_blank\">Cash flow was up 7%<\/a>, despite being sapped somewhat\u00a0by <strong>Ultimate Gaming<\/strong>. Disruptions to food and beverage service &#8212; part of a $55 million renovation &#8212; drove those sectors down but Station is getting a strong showing out of <strong>Red Rock Resort<\/strong>&#8216;s new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/referenceguide-diningdetail.cfm?DiningID=1559\">Mercadito<\/a> &#8212; as well it should. &#8220;Despite the softness in revenues and some unanticipated costs, we were still able to yield significant flow-through this quarter,&#8221; stated CFO <strong>Marc Falcone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe big picture is that the economic indicators are better,&#8221; Falcone added. \u201cVisits are stable, but customers are hesitant to spend. We\u2019re still not seeing the levels of discretionary income we saw in the past.\u201d Perhaps it&#8217;s partly a <!--more-->service issue. One <strong>Kimberly Richter<\/strong> writes, &#8220;<span style=\"color: #3f4549;\">Recently a maintenance tech came into my suite to fix a TV that wasn&#8217;t working, and I got an earful about how management had called this giant all-staff meeting. Everyone was required to attend. They went on and on about the exciting remodel money they&#8217;ll be spending on Red Rock and <strong>Green Valley<\/strong> [<strong>Ranch<\/strong>]<\/span>, then got quiet and mean when employees chimed in to ask about their cost of living increase.&#8221; Station ownership must never forget who made them rich.<\/p>\n<p>* <strong>Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wlwt.com\/news\/cincinnati-casino-wants-to-offer-outdoor-slots-for-smokers\/27436386#!bCNTr1\" target=\"_blank\">is having second thoughts<\/a>, petitioning <strong>Ohio<\/strong> for outdoor slots to accommodate patrons who smoke. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Cincinnati_Casino_Rendering.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-10930\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Cincinnati_Casino_Rendering-300x138.jpg\" alt=\"Cincinnati_Casino_Rendering\" width=\"300\" height=\"138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Cincinnati_Casino_Rendering-300x138.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Cincinnati_Casino_Rendering-150x69.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Cincinnati_Casino_Rendering.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>It&#8217;s part of a trend shared by <strong>Penn National Gaming<\/strong> casinos in <strong>Columbus<\/strong> and <strong>Toledo<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cincinnati.com\/story\/money\/2014\/08\/12\/exclusive-ohio-casinos-smoke-gamble\/13969517\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">both of which are creating gambling areas for smokers<\/a>, reneging on a 2009 campaign promise.\u00a0Horseshoe&#8217;s slot patio, the largest casino smoking area in the state, seems a cinch for approval. The casino estimates that the deck could generate another $10 million in casino revenue per year.<\/p>\n<p>The question is: What took them so long? You can&#8217;t have gambling without smoking, as <strong>Illinois<\/strong> casinos discovered to their woe. The lack of smoking at <strong>Belterra Park<\/strong> may explain that casino&#8217;s financial malaise. The utterly smoke-free environment of <strong>Horseshoe Casino Cleveland<\/strong> may help explain why so many players have defected to <strong>Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>&#8216;s sibling <strong>Thistledown Racino<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>* Happy fifth anniversary to <strong>Rivers Casino<\/strong> in <strong>Pittsburgh<\/strong>. As the city&#8217;s <em>Post-Gazette<\/em> opines, &#8220;<span style=\"color: #000000;\">after five years in Pittsburgh, we can say that the Rivers Casino, neither a calamity nor a cure-all, has on balance proved a good bet for taxpayers.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although customers are holding their purse strings tighter, Station Casinos registered noteworthy growth in earnings last quarter. Powered by Graton Resort &amp; Casino in California, Station reported revenue of $55 million, up from $7 million a year earlier. In the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/stations-big-quarter-smoke-gets-in-your-slots\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,18,117,7,91,71,69,95,30,111,57,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14323,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14322\/revisions\/14323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}