Vegas News May 8, 2022

Wild Week In And Around Las Vegas

This was a wild week in and around Las Vegas for me and the business side of things. Personally, I spent two nights at Cosmopolitan. Turns out my offers are just reduced and not entirely eliminated.

Much of my time at Cosmopolitan was spent in the hotel room listening to earnings calls and writing about the information. You’ll see some of those notes later.

While this is work, I love casino earnings calls despite my distaste for corporations. These calls allow us to learn about why these businesses operate the way they do. In turn, we can use that knowledge to our advantage.

Palms – Casino And Hotel Experience

I spent another day and night at Palms checking out the casino and hotel experience. We have a detailed article on the hotel room that also discusses eating, drinking, and gambling for the day. Go figure. You can see the review here.

While I love spending time in casinos, it will be nice to be home and on a normal schedule for a few days.

I usually separate earnings news from the Quick Hits but I’m feeling experimental today and feel like combining everything. Enough about me, let’s get to the Vegas news!

Las Vegas Quick Hits

• Wynn Las Vegas sent out a press release for the new hotel rooms. If this is news to you, read more here.  (TravelZork Review: NEW Wynn Las Vegas Rooms – The OG Of Vegas Luxury)

Caesars News/Earnings – Flamingo May Be Sold

• Caesars reported earnings this week. You can read the press release here.
• During the last earnings call, Caesars said it would announce a casino sale on this call. They decided not to. The company now says an announcement should come in the next six months.
• Flamingo May Be Sold! — It looks like my hunch that the Caesars’ “center strip” property sale will be Flamingo Las Vegas. Read more here.
• Caesars’ hotel occupancy trends are heading in the direction the company predicted last quarter. Occupancy in Las Vegas was 75% in January, 81% in Feb, and 91% in March. It sounds like April will be even better.
• Caesars says the company has added 1.4 million Caesars Rewards Loyalty Program members from sports betting. MGM is seeing similar success. 57% of new MGM Rewards members in the first quarter came from BetMGM. All these new members could be something to keep an eye on. 
• Evidently, the properties Caesars is rebranding are doing well. Expect to see more Horseshoe’s around the country.
• Unrelated to the Caesars earnings call, Bat Out of Hell – The Musical will hit the stage at Paris Las Vegas in September. Read more here.

MGM Resorts Earnings/News

• MGM Resorts also reported earnings this week. You can see the press release here.
• The big takeaway is that the company announced it expected to take over operations at Cosmopolitan before the month is over.
• Nevada Gaming Control Board is having a special meeting to discuss MGM + Cosmopolitan on May 12. The switchover may begin sooner. See the notice here.
• During the earnings call, MGM Resorts said it will take 90 days to a year to integrate different parts of Cosmopolitan into its system.
• The company expects the William Hill sportsbook will become a BetMGM sportsbook about 90 days after the deal closes. 
• I expect it will take a year for Cosmopolitan to be completely part of MGM Rewards. In the meantime, the company will have some kind of makeshift rewards combination like it had with Borgata.
• During the monthly Nevada Gaming Control Board meeting last week, MGM mentioned eventually remodeling hotel rooms at Cosmopolitan. There’s no timeline on this. 
• MGM CEO Bill McBeath also said that the company has its eyes on a couple of restaurants to possibly change. A couple of less popular restaurants could be swapped out. Also, the Estiatorio Milos space is still vacant.
• Fingers crossed they don’t change the complimentary drink policy at Chandelier Bar before my next visit. 
• Unrelated to earnings, there will be a BetMGM poker championship at Aria in June. Read more here.

More Quick Hits For Las Vegas

• This was a busy casino earnings week. Bally’s has no plans for Tropicana yet but the company might build a casino in Chicago. The Tropicana deal should close by the third quarter. Read more about Chicago here.
• Formula 1 purchased land on the corner of Koval and Harmon for the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix races. Maybe we can get an F1 casino someday! Read more here.
• Penn National Gaming is hot or cold about Las Vegas during every earnings call. The company says it has no interest in a Vegas Strip casino. If that’s true, the company probably isn’t buying Flamingo Las Vegas. Read more here.
• The Fremont Street Experience added a few shows. The only different band I noticed was Dishwalla. I’ve watched this video 10 times since the announcement. See the new lineup here.
• We’ve come a long way, baby! Nevada is ending the State of Emergency from Covid-19. Read more here.
• One of the original plans for Resorts World was that there would be a panda habitat. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Now the casino will be home to 26 life-size baby elephant statues. Read more here.
• Crossroads Kitchen & CB Burger are opening at Resorts World on May 25. Read more here. 
• Red Rock Resorts reported earnings this week. The call was similar to the past few. Read more here. 
• If my notes are correct, Red Rock Resorts is one of the only Las Vegas casino operators that mentioned inflation starting to impact some of their lower-end customers.
• At the same time, the company is still seeing high-end players leaving the Vegas Strip for some of their top-tier properties.
• Red Rock Resorts now has cashless gaming at all of its properties that aren’t Wildfire casinos.
• Red Rock Casino has a new high-limits room. Read and see more here.
• Unrelated to the earnings call, Boulder Station is getting a food court. Read more here.
• Golden Entertainment (The Strat) had a good first quarter. Read more here.
• Palms has 39 table games with the Bonus Spin Xtreme side bet. I wanted to see what it was like but they don’t offer this at Pai Gow Poker games. Read more here.

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