Warm spring for Indiana; Trouble ahead for Packer and Ho

While Illinois casinos were flat last month, the action was livelier next door in Indiana. Admissions declined 4%, meaning that players were spending 9%, as casino revenues rose 5%. The percentage champion was Tropicana Evansville, up 17% on an $11 million gross. Other casinos enjoying notably good fortune were Full House Resorts‘ Rising Sun ($4 million), ascending 16%, French Lick Resort ($7 million), up 12%, and Indiana Downs ($23 million), prospering 10%. The only casino to outgross Indiana Downs was Horseshoe Hammond ($37 million), up 1%. Although there were no dramatic fluctuations at the other casinos, all did well except for Majestic Star II ($6 million), incrementally down, and Belterra ($9 million), minus 4%.

Healthy grosses were seen both at Ameristar East Chicago (+6%) and Horseshoe Southern Indiana (flat), both making $21 million. Hoosier Park raked in $18 million (+4%), while Hollywood Lawrenceburg (+4%, $16 million) has never been quite the same since casinos came to Ohio. Boyd Gaming posted a healthy $14 million gross and 5% increase at Blue Chip, while Majestic Star I grossed $9 million, good for a 5.5% increase.

* Lawrence Ho and James Packer may be regretting pulling the Studio City Macau project back from the brink of death. “The casino has mass operation with no VIP and very limited high-end premium mass play. Consequently, it takes a longer time to ramp and drive profitability,” said the analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein. The bad news for Melco Crown Entertainment doesn’t end there. Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen sees an impending danger from Wynn Palace: “We can’t get over the mounting competitive threats that will be faced by all casinos but especially by Melco Crown’s City of Dreams (for both its customers and its operating staff) as Wynn Palace comes online in August and competes aggressively for a very similar premium customer in a segment of the market that, while stabilizing, isn’t showing signs of growth (yet).” Unlike the happy-days-are-here-again tone affected by Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, Ho minced few words about the “very tough operating environment” in Macao. In a nod to the string-pullers in Beijing, he added, “We believe our business approaches are in line with the government’s new direction from a macroeconomic and social perspective.” He better hope so.

* Caesars Entertainment should be glad that a planned casino in Azov City, Russia, never came to fruition. Soviet strongman Vladimir Putin has signed legislation to shutter the Azov City casinos in 2019 and concentrate casino business in Sochi instead.

* “Mr. Trump’s companies had sometimes been able to retire debt at a discount because creditors feared they might default.” Donald Trump‘s fiscal policies appear to have been borrowed (pun unintended) from his casino days.