Shawn Bolton

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) earns revenue through casinos, hotels, food and beverages, and convention or retail operations. The company’s main revenue driver is casino revenue. It’s generated from slot machines and table games. Casino revenue represents ~79% of the total revenues.

The occupancy rate is very important for casino resorts. The occupancy rate shows the relationship between the number of occupied rooms and the total number of rooms.

Casinos’ popularity is growing. This suggests that people like to gamble occasionally. Unfortunately, they don’t always win. For most of the people, the real fun is playing the game—not necessarily winning.

Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management took Harrah’s Entertainment, now Caesars Entertainment, private in a leveraged buyout deal valued at $30.7 billion in 2008.

Casino gambling is spread across major destinations around the world. Casinos, at major destinations, are being influenced by certain factors. This is hampering industry growth.

Adjusted property EBITDA shouldn’t be regarded as an alternative to looking at income from operations, which indicates operating performance. Nor is it an alternative to looking at cash flow from operations, which measures liquidity.

As an investor, you should know whether or not MGM’s (MGM) management is committed to its future. Management shows its commitment by owning shares.

The casinos in the Las Vegas Strip clearly benefit from high-end Baccarat play. Over the last four years, Baccarat revenue ranged from 43.5% of table games revenue in 2011 to 48.2% in 2013.

Marriott repurchased 7.7 million shares of common stock valued at $544 million in 4Q14 and 24 million shares for $1.5 billion in 2014.

MGM Resorts (MGM) was founded in 1986. MGM is based in Nevada. It’s one of the leading global hospitality and entertainment companies.

Caesars Entertainment has 51 casinos in 13 U.S. states and five countries. 38 are in the U.S. and primarily consist of land-based and riverboat casinos.

Caesars Entertainment’s (CZR) stockholders equity is negative, according to its latest balance sheet. Stockholder equity consists of capital contributed and retained earnings.

On December 22, 2014, CZR and Caesars Acquisition Company (CACQ) entered into a definitive agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction.

The initial term of each lease will be for 15 years with four five-year renewals. CZR will guarantee payments and performance of the OpCo’s obligations.

In its merger agreement with Bally Technologies, Scientific Games agreed to acquire all outstanding Bally common stock for $83.3 cash per share.

The executive management team of SGMS includes President and CEO Gavin Isaacs and Executive Vice President and CFO Scott Schweinfurth.

Las Vegas Sands’ adjusted property EBITDA at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore doubled, reaching a property record of $518.5 million, up ~100% year-over-year.

WYNN’s hotel occupancy increased at Macau and Las Vegas in 4Q14. Macau had 98.6% and Las Vegas had 82.1% compared to 96.7% and 80.8%, respectively, in 4Q13.

When inflation is low, consumers have greater purchasing power. They have a higher spending capacity. Greater purchasing power is a positive sign for casino resort companies.

Wynn Resorts (WYNN) earns its revenues through casinos, hotels, food and beverages, and entertainment and retail operations.

Wynn Resorts (WYNN) is currently constructing Wynn Palace, a fully integrated resort in the Cotai area of Macau.

REITs generate income by collecting rent and pay out at least 90% of taxable income in the form of dividends to shareholders. By converting CEOC into a REIT, the beneficial holders of CEOC’s senior secured credit facilities would receive a 100% recovery in cash and debt.

Performance metric Penn National Gaming, Inc. (PENN) defines adjusted EBITDA as earnings before interest, taxes, stock compensation, debt-extinguishment charges, impairment charges, insurance recoveries and deductible charges, depreciation and amortization, gain or loss on disposal of assets, and other income or expenses. Adjusted EBITDAR is adjusted EBITDA excluding rent expenses such as those associated with PENN’s […]

MPEL derives ~94% of revenues from casino operations. Its casino business gross margin is 50% for the trailing 12-month period ending September 30, 2014.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (SIX) is the world’s largest regional theme park company with $1.1 billion in revenue and 18 parks across North America.

Six Flags derived 55% of its revenues from theme park admissions for the last 12 months ended September 30, 2014.

Industry debt-to-equity ratio is about 5.5. Six Flags’ debt-to-equity ratio of 4.0 shows the company aggressively finances operations with debt capital.

Six Flags’ share price on May 10, 2010, reflects $7.36 per share, the price of new common stock upon the company’s emergence from bankruptcy.

Six Flags’ management plays a vital role in shaping the company and leading it in the desired direction. This article reviews three management positions.

On a year-over-year basis, real disposable income increased 2.9%. More disposable income boosts consumer buying power.

An overview of Las Vegas Sands (LVS) shows that the company currently owns 70.1% of Sands China Ltd., which operates LVS’s four Macao properties.

In 2006, Starwood’s management embarked on an asset-light strategy. It decided to sell a significant portion of Starwood’s owned hotel portfolio.

On February 10, 2015, Starwood Hotels and Resorts announced plans to spin off its vacation ownership business into a separate publicly traded company.

The revenue from owned, leased, and consolidated joint ventures is primarily derived from hotel operations. This includes room rentals and food and beverage sales.

Marriott’s revenues totaled nearly $3.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to $3.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Hilton Worldwide (HLT) generates revenue from its hotel operations. Hilton’s system-wide occupancy increased 2.3% YoY to 71% in 4Q14.

Hilton’s 4Q14 revenue increased 7% YoY to $2,828 million. For 2014, its revenue increased by 10.5 billion, or 7.9%—compared to 2013.

Real disposable income increased 3.7% year-over-year. This boosts consumer buying power and means consumer spending in leisure activities may increase.

Six Flags’ per capita guest spending increased $2.79, or 7%, to $42.97 in 2014, primarily due to improved admissions pricing and new offerings in the parks.

Six Flags’ (SIX) admissions revenue per capita increased by 9% in 2014, primarily driven by pricing improvements on multi- and single-use ticket offerings.

Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK) incurs direct costs in gaming, food and beverage, lodging, retail, entertainment, and other areas.

The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (or SWOT) analysis is a useful tool for decision-making in businesses and organizations. It helps companies identify the positive and negative factors inside and outside an organization.

Gaming revenues are more volatile than consumer staples. Customers in markets outside of Las Vegas usually travel short distances to reach casinos. This is a major component of casino revenue. How much money gamblers bring is determined by their discretionary income.

The casino industry has heavy capital expenditures in gaming machines. This contributes significantly to the total output that’s generated by a casino operator. This is why the threat of new entrants to the industry has been low.

The international gaming industry is growing quickly. It’s expanding to new jurisdictions. Many U.S. commercial casino companies, including Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN), have helped the industry become an important part of the global economy.

Casino gaming is the largest part of the commercial gaming market. It continues to grow in popularity. There has been a surge in demand for casino games. As a result, new casino destinations have been created. Existing casinos have also been expanded.