Baccarat players stayed home or played smaller last month. The Strip’s most important revenue driver dropped 30% on 12.5% less play. So luck and players’ wallets were both working in the casinos’ disfavor. Despite a 2% increase in coin-in, slot revenues were down 4%. Non-baccarat table play was down 7.5% and house win fell 13%. Bottom line, Strip casinos got their clocks cleaned by players. By contrast, locals play was 7% more remunerative for casinos — albeit not in Downtown, where revenue fell 4%. North Las Vegas was flat but play on the Boulder Strip leapt 14%. Laughlin grew revenue 4% and the nebulous “balance of Clark County” rose 3%. On average, the Las Vegas Strip was down 12%.
* Penn National Gaming parent Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. has hit its first snag. GLPI was poised to purchase Meadows Racetrack & Casino from Cannery Casino Resorts. But yesterday matters took a hard left for the worse. GLPI is now suing Cannery, claiming fraud, breach of the membership interest purchase agreement, and violation of a related consulting agreement. With masterly understatement, J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff wrote, “GLPI is unable to predict the effect this suit may have on the closing of the transaction.”
GLPI, meanwhile has substantial pocket change on hand: $31 million. Managing entity Penn finished $100 million Mahoning Valley Race Track for $88 million and $89.5 million Dayton Raceway came in at $85 million. It’s nice to see a company that recognizes that a million here and a million there adds up to real money.
* Headline of the day: “Casino industry is Macau’s largest employer.” No shit, Sherlock. Breaking down the numbers, gambling directly employs 81,500 people, far 
outstripping the (massive) construction industry’s 56,000. And those jobs aren’t going anywhere, unlike the — by its very nature — peripatetic construction sector. While gaming represents 21% of the Macao workforce, that’s not counting indirectly created jobs in the F&B, retail and hospitality sectors. You won’t get rich working in a Macanese casino — $8,512 a year — but you’ll do much better than the market median, 31% better. Still, that factor isn’t likely to quell labor unrest that’s rolling through the casino industry.
Players, meanwhile will have a hard time finding a table with a bet minimum of less than $65. And even those only represent 13% of table inventory. The overwhelming majority aren’t taking action of less than $130 a hand. Research firm CLSA calls this “astronomical” and notes that casinos would like to accelerate the pace of play, too: “The launch of new products like non-commission baccarat, fast-action baccarat or electronic table games are ways to improve the speed of game, which in turn increases the number of games that can be played in a fixed timeframe and subsequently the gaming revenue.” How players feel about getting less time on device remains to be seen.
