{"id":29007,"date":"2020-12-29T09:27:28","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T17:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=29007"},"modified":"2021-01-07T08:08:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T16:08:25","slug":"circa-debut-boosts-downtown-lots-of-moving-shaking-predicted-for-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/circa-debut-boosts-downtown-lots-of-moving-shaking-predicted-for-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Circa debut boosts Downtown; Lots of moving, shaking predicted for ’21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Although casinos across the nation have been swooning in November, results in Nevada<\/strong>\u2014which we feared would take it worse than average\u2014were in line with national trends, a victory of sorts. Statewide, gaming win fell 18% and the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>, which has been the epicenter of the problem, tumbled 32% but frankly we expected a lot worse. Locals came out to play, too, and win from them was up 6%. Since October ended on a Saturday (a non-reporting day), a weekend’s worth of previous-month revenue helped fatten the November results, offsetting one less weekend last month. December is not likely to be such a positive story, casino-capacity restrictions having been tightened to 25% on Nov. 24. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as Strip casinos were concerned, baccarat continued to be a black hole, with players wagering less (-25%) and winning more, are revenues toppled 45%. Other table games fell 32% on 35% less wagering. Strip slots slid 29% (to $197 million) on 33.5% less coin-in. Even tighter holds didn’t help. Overall, Strip casinos grossed $350 million. Downtown<\/strong> the story has to be Circa<\/strong>, whose first full month coincided with a 2% increase in gaming revenues ($53 million), Derek Stevens<\/strong>‘ rising tide lifting all boats. North Las Vegas<\/strong> was off 2% ($19 million) but the Boulder Strip<\/strong> was boffo, up 18% to $68.5 million, while the balance of Clark County<\/strong> was flat at $105 million. Laughlin<\/strong> missed the boat, flopping 19% to $33 million. Mesquite<\/strong> was off 8% to $11 million while Wendover<\/strong> slipped 17% to $15.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Snowbirds flocked to Lake Tahoe<\/strong>, leaving $17 million behind, a 23% increase. However, the good luck didn’t spill over into nearby Reno<\/strong>, down 6% on $47 million. The Carson City<\/strong> area hopped 2% to $9 million. The state collected $50 million in gaming taxes, far less than what is needed but a good bit more than might have been expected. Now for December … we’ll know in a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> got over the antitrust hurdle in its acquisition of William Hill<\/strong> sooner than expected<\/a>. The deal now looks to close in March. The casino empire will amortize $2 billion of the $3.7 billion purchase by spinning off William Hill’s non-U.S. assets. Four more states\u2014Nevada, Pennsylvania<\/strong>, Indiana<\/strong> and New Jersey<\/strong>\u2014still need to sign off on the deal but we don’t foresee any hesitation, least of all in the Silver State. In a move designed to palliate regulators, Caesars-branded casinos will not have Hill-branded sports books in them. Caesars expects to realize $700 million from the alliance next year, but that includes i-gaming, currently outside the remit of the partnership. DraftKings<\/strong> and FanDuel<\/strong> may be looking over their shoulder although we don’t expect them to lose too<\/em> much sleep over the new kids on the block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vital Vegas<\/em> author Scott Roeben<\/strong> has posted 21 fearless predictions for 2021<\/a>, leading off with the prognostication that Station Casinos<\/strong> will sell Palms Casino<\/strong> at a loss. (That won’t make him any more popular at Station.) He also predicts that Station will sell its three other closed casinos\u2014the two Fiestas<\/strong> and Texas Station<\/strong>\u2014to either Boyd Gaming<\/strong> or burr-under-the-saddle Dotty’s<\/strong> but that flies in the face of Wall Street<\/strong> expectations that Station will unload them under deed-restricted (i.e., non-gaming) stipulations, probably to private equity buyers. Also, look for Caesars Entertainment to sweat the comps further under CEO Tom “Rain Man” Reeg<\/strong> (his alleged handle among employees). Other projected sales are the long-suffering Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong>, The Cromwell <\/strong>and Planet Hollywood<\/strong>. “Nonsensical … scam” Bluetech Park<\/strong> follows the route of all failsinos as “the meds kick in and this utter stupidity finally goes away for good.” Las Vegas gets the 2024 Super Bowl<\/strong> but Allegiant Stadium<\/strong> defaults on its bond payments, in another indignity for Raider Nation. Bellagio<\/strong>‘s Conservatory closes and The Rio<\/strong> gets a date with the wrecking ball. (This is a really depressing set of predictions, man.) The long, long-mooted conversion of Bally’s Las Vegas<\/strong> to a Horseshoe finally happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On other happy notes, Virgin Las Vegas<\/strong> outperforms expectations and the Seminole Tribe<\/strong> acquires a Las Vegas casino (how about a Hard Rock rebrand of Planet Ho?), while The Drew<\/strong> continues to be a black hole. No, that’s not a happy note. Cirque du Soleil<\/strong>, carrying $1.6 billion in debt, may soon be rid of CEO Daniel Lamarre<\/strong>, as well as of a few more Vegas shows, contract renewals notwithstanding. $4.3 billion Resorts World Las Vegas<\/strong> will open to critical acclaim and a very challenging marketplace. Roeben is even more pessimistic on the chances of the MSG Sphere<\/strong> (scant) and thinks Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> will, as he’s vowed, cash out Venelazzo<\/strong>, investing the proceeds in other markets. On the other hand, an NBA<\/strong> expansion team is forecast for T-Mobile Arena<\/strong>, which would be only about damn time. Our crystal ball is not as acute as Roeben’s but if Elvis (i.e., Adelson) is leaving the building, we really are in for an Era of Diminished Expectations in Sin City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although casinos across the nation have been swooning in November, results in Nevada\u2014which we feared would take it worse than average\u2014were in line with national trends, a victory of sorts. Statewide, gaming win fell 18% and the Las Vegas Strip, … 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":[88,60,244,80,155,181,51,14,290,59,190,37,76,241,49,126,245,207,78,159,6,25,79,279,200,12,74,243,57,280,9,263,247,252],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29007"}],"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=29007"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29021,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29007\/revisions\/29021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}