{"id":17050,"date":"2015-10-23T10:58:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T18:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=17050"},"modified":"2023-02-19T06:02:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T14:02:36","slug":"boyd-whats-not-to-like-poker-cheat-gets-flushed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/boyd-whats-not-to-like-poker-cheat-gets-flushed\/","title":{"rendered":"Boyd: What’s not to like?; Poker cheat gets flushed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Try as it might, Boyd Gaming<\/strong> just doesn’t feel any warm fuzzies from Wall Street<\/strong>. J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong> \"Wall-street\"<\/a>called the most recent quarter “very impressive,” with 3% revenue growth and huge increases in cash flow. Still, Greff wrote, “we\u2019d wait for a better entry point …\u00a0We remain Neutral at current levels and continue to prefer [Penn National Gaming<\/strong>]\u00a0within the U.S. regional gaming sector given its robust development pipeline, solid free cash flow generation …\u00a0and better balance sheet.” Greff adjusted his full-year cash flow expectation for Boyd significantly upward, though.<\/p>\n

Contributory factors to Boyd’s exceptional 3Q15 were 5% greater net revenue in the Las Vegas<\/strong> locals market and lower costs of charter flights from Hawaii<\/strong> (still a tower of strength for Boyd). The Peninsula Gaming<\/strong> acquisition continues to look like genius, with the Louisiana<\/strong> and Iowa<\/strong> properties representing 36% of Boyd’s cash-flow\u00a0pie chart. (Borgata<\/strong> was second, with 32%.) Atlantic City<\/strong> wasn’t too shabby: Greff expected cash flow of $29 million and Borgata delivered $38 million.<\/p>\n

Deutsche Bank<\/strong>‘s Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> reported that Boyd “continues to see growth from the upper and mid tiers of the database while the lower tiers remain flat. The commentary was akin to PENN\u2019s color<\/a> earlier this morning.” The uptick\u00a0in Boyd’s numbers was attributed the company to “a stable promotional environment, effective marketing and upgraded non-gaming amenities.” Santarelli still hankers for “a potential REIT conversion” although Boyd seems to have gone off the boil on that topic.<\/p>\n

Potentially leaving money on the table, Boyd CEO Keith Smith<\/strong> said the company isn’t going to offer DFS<\/a>, although it could do so, likening fantasy sports to the failure of online poker in Nevada<\/strong>. Pressed on the topic by the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>, Smith said,\u00a0“I want to make it clear that I’m not opposed to fantasy sports, but we really haven’t [looked] at the business model.” Is Smith too hasty in reaching a conclusion?<\/p>\n

*\u00a0When smoking was banned at Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong>, management said the sky was falling. But casino revenues were up 2% last month. Increases like that neatly undercut the casino’s \"Harrahs_NO\"<\/a>attempts to renegotiate its lease with the city (something Mayor Mitch Landrieu<\/strong> is having no truck with), which smacks of bankruptcy-related cheeseparing. Elsewhere in the state, Lake Charles<\/strong> ($73 million) has fully eclipsed the Big Easy ($49 million). This reinforces Gary Loveman<\/strong>‘s mistake in pulling out of Lake Charles in order to try (and fail) to double-down on Biloxi<\/strong>. Lucky for G-Lo, he made a characteristic blunder and still kept his job. We should all be so fortunate.<\/p>\n

* Remember the guy who tried to flush counterfeit casino chips down a Harrah’s Resort<\/strong> toilet after cheating in (and closing down) the Borgata Winter Poker Open<\/strong>? Well, he’s the one in the crapper now. Christian Lusardi<\/strong> has been sentenced to five years in the slammer for his chip caper (and another five years in an unrelated DVD-counterfeiting scheme). He also has to reimburse Borgata\u00a0$463,540 for aborting its tourney and<\/em> pay another\u00a0$9,455 to Harrah’s for the plumbing he ruined. Good luck retiring that debt on prison wages.<\/p>\n

* Bradley International Airport<\/strong> has previously been mooted as a site for off-reservation gambling in Connecticut<\/strong>, so it’s no surprise that its host community, Windsor Locks<\/strong>, wants in on the hunt for a third casino site in the state. The town joins East Hartford<\/strong> and Enfield<\/strong> as contenders to try and stave off competition from Massachusetts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Try as it might, Boyd Gaming just doesn’t feel any warm fuzzies from Wall Street. J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff called the most recent quarter “very impressive,” with 3% revenue growth and huge increases in cash flow. Still, Greff wrote, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,60,117,7,144,37,86,84,69,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17050"}],"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=17050"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32366,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17050\/revisions\/32366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}