Vegas News February 10, 2024

This will be a throwback edition of Vegas News for some of you. We will start with an overview of the first few Las Vegas casino operator earnings before getting quick hits of individual items. Also, be sure to take note that Fontainebleau Las Vegas has announced a tier match!

Boyd Gaming, Red Rock Resorts (Station Casinos), and Wynn Resorts kicked off casino earnings season. MGM Resorts will report earnings next week, and Caesars will follow in two weeks.

Most media just cover the financials and we’ll share the press releases if that’s important to you. The calls themselves offer context to the financials along with news that may not be important enough for mainstream media. 

Earnings Calls – Las Vegas – February 2024

I’ll share my notes from the earnings calls. This should offer some info that won’t be anywhere else. 

Wynn Resorts

The Wynn fourth quarter and full-year earnings press release and financials here.

As expected, Wynn Resorts had a massive record-breaking fourth quarter thanks, in part, to the Las Vegas Grand Prix (LVGP) F1 race. This capped off a great year financially for the company.

There’s always one financial number that amuses me every quarter at Wynn, and this is no different. The average daily hotel room rate in the fourth quarter was $631. That’s a whopping 28.3% increase over 2022. 

The LVGP bump was just the beginning for the company. Wynn expects to see record hotel revenue from Super Bowl weekend. Since the Super Bowl brings many corporate guests who don’t gamble the company doesn’t expect the same gaming revenue boom as it saw from the F1 race.

Wynn – “Not IF, but WHEN”

As they’ve said before, Wynn is continuing to increase the number of events it hosts. The company expects good results moving forward with the improvements on the general Las Vegas event calendar.

There are no plans to expand in Las Vegas right now but Wynn CEO Craig Billings said “It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when” the company will use the land across the street. You may remember the plan for Wynn West on that land in 2018.

Wynn was impacted greatly by the LVGP and had the most information to share of all the companies that reported earnings.

Red Rock Resorts (Station Casinos)

You can see Red Rock Resorts’ fourth quarter and full-year earnings press release and financials here.

I was hoping for information about the possible expansion of Durango during this call. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The company didn’t announce any new properties during the call.

However, Durango was the focus of the call since it opened during the best fourth quarter in the history of the company. Durango has been profitable since day one. As you’d imagine, the company is extremely pleased about this and said the opening was as close to perfect as they hoped. 

Similar to Wynn, Station says business from the Super Bowl “looks like the biggest event ever” in Las Vegas. They didn’t share specifics so we’ll have to wait three months for more information.

In a surprise to nobody, they commented that guests like the new restaurants and casino floor changes that have been made over the past couple of years at Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch, and other properties. 

Sunset Station will be the next casino to see changes.

Boyd Gaming

You can see Boyd Gaming’s fourth quarter and full-year earnings press release and financials here.

Boyd had the least interesting earnings call of the week. The financials were good but most of the questions were about a competitor.

Numerous stock analysts asked about the impact of Durango on Boyd’s Las Vegas locals casinos. The company said it was concerned but it’s not seeing too much in the early days of the new casino. However, they are paying close attention. 

This is interesting to me because Durango isn’t close to a Boyd casino. When Palms reopened across from Gold Coast and around the block from The Orleans the company had zero concern.

Boyd will be renovating the hotel rooms at Gold Coast this year. There could be as many as half the rooms closed at once during construction. 

The company has no expansion plans but could upgrade food and beverage at its properties. There are no specifics here but don’t be surprised to see changes later this year. 

There was no mention of how the LVGP affected the company but they did comment that room rates are strong for Super Bowl weekend.

That’s enough earnings…let’s get to the news in and around Las Vegas!

Las Vegas Quick Hits

• By now you’ve probably heard that the Tropicana is closing on April 2. If you’re not aware you can read more here.  
• The saga of the Oakland A’s moving to Las Vegas might be the most annoying of the past decade. Read the latest here.

Fontainebleau Tier March

• Fontainebleau is now tier-matching. Read more here. Make special note that the “sweet spot” for matching is for sure MGM Rewards Platinum, Wynn Rewards Platinum, and Caesars Rewards Diamond Elite to Fontainebleau Rewards Gold.

• Caesars is also tier matching…but only for new members. Read more here. 
• Forbes dropped its annual Travel Guide. Read more here and see the sortable list here. 
• You can see the four and five-star restaurants in Las Vegas here and the hotels here. There could be changes but both look similar to previous years.
• A dude climbed The Sphere. Read more here.
• Unrelated, the Sphere reported earnings. Read more here.
• Possibly related, Dead and Company are doing a slew of shows at the Sphere. Read more here. 
• Emmitt Smith’s restaurant at the Fashion Show Mall is finally opening. Read more here.   
• There’s a new show coming to The Linq later this year. Read more here.
• Mariah Carey has a new limited engagement at Park MGM. Read more here.
• Whataburger is open on the Vegas Strip. It’s in the former Bobby’s Burger Palace space near Waldorf Astoria.
• Play Playground is now open at Luxor. It sounds like fun for anyone looking for a different kind of environment to drink. Read and see more here.
• There’s a new hot pot restaurant coming to Resorts World this summer. Read more here.  
• Zouk Nightclub at Resorts World released its 2024 resident DJs. Read more here.