{"id":18059,"date":"2016-04-11T12:49:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T20:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18059"},"modified":"2016-04-11T12:52:30","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T20:52:30","slug":"penn-talks-turkey-celebrity-brawl-at-aria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/penn-talks-turkey-celebrity-brawl-at-aria\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn talks turkey; Celebrity brawl at Aria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next week Penn National Gaming<\/strong> turns on the Marquee Rewards<\/strong> spigot at the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong>. Given some of management’s recent disclosures, it won’t come a day too soon: 85% of Penn’s customer base comes to Sin City but stays elsewhere. Casino \"TROPICANAplayers only represent 10% of the Trop’s guest pool, with 45% of room nights filled through online travel agencies. Penn wants to even out that equation to the point where it’s filling 40-50% of rooms with Marquee Rewards customers. Given Penn players’ allergy to the Trop, it then comes as no surprising that it’s got the lowest-grossing gaming floor\u00a0in the Penn portfolio.<\/p>\n

Despite negative headlines in Massachusetts<\/strong>, Penn says it is seeing a 20% return on investment (impressive in gaming) from Plainridge Park<\/strong>. Ownership may not be paying sufficiently close attention to the Mashpee Wampanoag<\/strong>‘s activities in Taunton<\/strong>, as it continues to believe meaningful competition (read: Wynn Boston Harbor<\/strong>) is three years away. The Mashpee Wamps intend to have a casino up and running next year. Penn has signed 175,000 Marquee Rewards players “and continues to experience a healthy rate of weekly new signups,” according to Deutsche Bank<\/strong> analyst Carlo Santarelli<\/strong>. The company is also spiffing up Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races<\/strong>, in anticipation of MGM National Harbor<\/strong>. It expects it will take a worse hit than it did (7%) from Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong>, but not the 20% wallop it got from Maryland Live<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Penn’s Mahoning Valley<\/strong> racino is still\u00a0the company’s breakout performer. Even after adding 70 more VLTs, slot win continues to exceed $300\/slot\/day. The company is also sanguine about the tax situation in Ohio<\/strong>, Gov. John Kasich<\/strong> (R) having promised no increased levies for seven years.<\/p>\n

* Maybe the Easter Bunny really did make off with business that might otherwise have gone to casinos, as Wall Street<\/strong> analysts theorize. The second state to have experience a \"ameristar-st-charles\"‘meh’ March is Missouri<\/strong>, up slightly less than 1%. Results were mostly negative at the outlying casinos, with Affinity Gaming<\/strong>‘s Mark Twain<\/strong> down 8% but Lady Luck Caruthersville<\/strong> up 17.5%. Other than Ameristar St. Charles<\/strong> losing market share (-2%) to Hollywood Casino St. Louis<\/strong> (up 4%), the news from St. Louis<\/strong> was mostly good. River City<\/strong> rose 2% and Lumiere Place<\/strong> — while still a distant fourth — continues on the comeback trail, up 6%.<\/p>\n

Both Penn and Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> had a good month in Kansas City<\/strong>, taking market share from Harrah’s North Kansas City<\/strong> (-3.5%) and Isle of Capri Kansas City<\/strong> (-4%). Ameristar Kansas City<\/strong> grew revenue 2%, while Penn’s Argosy Riverside<\/strong> was up 2.5%. “Overall Missouri visitation was down 5.2% y\/y, while spend per visitor was up 6.5% for the month,” records Santarelli, whose forecasts for Pinnacle and Penn proved overly optimistic.<\/p>\n

* Whether or not you believe in the Easter Bunny Theory for March gaming revenues, Indiana<\/strong> also saw fewer customers come aboard (-6%) but much higher spending per patron (+9%). Most casino companies’ revenue was flattish, excepting a 4% gain by \"Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172\"Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>. Among those seeing their revenue pancake were Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Blue Chip<\/strong>, Penn’s Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg<\/strong>, Hoosier Park<\/strong> and Majestic Star I<\/strong>. (By contrast, Majestic Star II<\/strong> was up 3%. Did the house just have better luck?) Eye-opening gains were posted by Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/strong>, vaulting 30% on a $22.5 million gross and Tropicana Evansville<\/strong>, which gained 13% on an $11 million gross. The dollar leader in the state was, no surprise, Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong>, grossing $39 million despite a 7% slippage in business. The disappointment was Belterra<\/strong>, still hurting from Ohio competition, down 11%. In other results, Ameristar East Chicago<\/strong> ($22 million) was up 7%, as was French Lick Resort<\/strong>, while low-grossing (less than $5 million) Rising Sun<\/strong> managed 6% improvement. Rounding out the Hoosier State take was Indiana Downs<\/strong>, grossing $24 million, up 5% and good enough for a second-place finish.<\/p>\n