Gavin Isaacs will be taking it easy, the CEO of Scientific Games is moving up to vice chairman, his CEO’s chair to be filled by former Norwegian Cruise Line executive Kevin M. Sheehan. If anybody’s earned the right to take it easy, it’s Isaacs, whose varied tenure has 
taken him to Aristocrat Technologies, where he was the company’s new broom on the American front, to Bally Technologies, to Shuffle Master and to Scientific. Most of those companies have subsequently been consolidated (including Bally and Shuffle Master into Scientific), some of them under the Scientific banner. “This management change, we think, increases execution risk in a set of complex, low growth businesses, that were relatively recently put together in a series of M&A transactions. Losing Gavin is a loss of gaming industry talent, and SGMS loses an executive who was well thought of by its customer base globally and well respected by his competitors,” wrote a somewhat shocked J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff. In other words, the incoming CEO has big shoes to fill while learning a new industry.” He took comfort in the fact that Isaacs’ resignation didn’t take effect until the end of 2016 but couldn’t help noting that Sheehan had no background in the gaming sphere. (In other news, Scientific opened a new outpost in Australia, with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval [R] partaking of the festivities.)
Carlo Santarelli of Deutsche Bank went much further, headlining Isaacs’ departure as “shocking” in a dispatch to investors. He “viewed Mr. Isaacs as a good steward, who is and has been, as engrained as any leader in the industry. While the change was shocking, we believe most investors will have some level of familiarity with Mr. Sheehan … That said, Mr. Sheehan’s background will for sure leave questions for investors given his lack of experience in the gaming industry. While gaming is certainly not multi-variable calculus, we will say that the operations and broad reach of [Scientific] make it one of the more, if not the most, difficult of the gaming names to understand. Furthermore, gaming, especially the equipment sales side of the business, is a relationship business and we believe Mr. Isaacs was influential to operations, even in his CEO role, to gaming product sales.”
Isaacs is certainly one of the most impressive people we’ve met in the gaming industry. Sheehan returns from the groves of academe (Adelphi University‘s business school) to take charge of Scientific. He’s certainly well-versed in customer service, having overseen Cendant Corp.’s vehicle-services division, which included Avis Rent A Car, Budget Rent A Car and several other fleets. Speaking of fleets, he improved profitability at Norwegian and was in charge during the company’s IPO. We wish him well in his new assignment. The news comes as Scientific reported a slight decline in second-quarter revenue, but higher results in its lottery and interactive divisions and a better-than-expected replacement cycle, including placing 431 VLTs in Oregon casinos, not mention new-machine sales that included 740 units for the voracious Illinois slot-route market. Incidentally, Scientific’s newest games include Cirque du Soleil Kooza. Cirque is omnipresent in casinos. Why not on slot floors?
* Limp revenues in Macao for Melco Crown Entertainment were partly “partially offset by slightly better than expected results in Manila,” according to J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff. He urged caution, given the impending arrivals of Las Vegas Sands‘ Parisian and 
Wynn Resorts‘ Wynn Palace, not to mention the sucess d’estime status of Studio City Macau. Even a favorable quarter at City of Dreams Manila “doesn’t really move the needle from an equity value perspective or an investor sentiment point of view.” Bright spots where that Manila cash flow is “more than Studio City, Altira, and Mocha Clubs combined.” Also, Studio City “has started to ramp up significantly in July.” Mass-market play fell worse than average at City of Dreams Macau, “particularly concerning at this time, because it will have to face tougher competition from the opening of Wynn Palace later this month (recall Palace’s location and core target clientele would directly overlap with CoD’s).”
* Kudos to Don Laughlin, 85 years of age and still going strong, for a half-century of casino operation in the Nevada town that bears his name. Don Laughlin took what was no more than a fishing camp and, through will and skill, built it into the nucleus of an (unincorporated) resort city on the banks of the Colorado River. We don’t agree with all of Laughlin’s business decisions (namely, confiscating dealers’ tips) but we applaud his civic achievement, having built a considerable something out of virtually nothing. His entrepreneurial spirit and tireless work ethic are an inspiration.
* A perplexing quote emerged from Boyd Gaming‘s most recent earnings call. “We just want to make sure we know what makes these companies successful before we start making changes to them,” said CEO Keith Smith of Aliante Casino, The Cannery and Eastside Cannery. Ummmm, didn’t you know what made them successful before you bought them — or was it an impulse purchase? Sounds like putting the cart before the horse to us.
* Thanks to having to shore up its bankrupt operating division, Caesars Entertainment posted a crushing, $2 billion loss last quarter. The way Caesars blows through money staggers the imagination.
