Century feels immediate uplift from Caruthersville opening although wallets remain soft elsewhere
Whilst fourth quarter results fell short of analyst expectations, with revenue falling by four per cent to $6m and losses increasing significantly, Century Casinos highlighted the successful opening of its new land-based casino and hotel in Caruthersville, Missouri on November 1, 2024.
The new casino offers a total of over 60 gaming positions, which is a 20 per cent increase compared to the older boat and a 50 per cent increase compared to the temporary location.
Peter Hoetzinger, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Century Casinos, said: “The property is much more convenient for our customers and allows for significantly more efficient operations. We are very happy with the strong and immediate uplift on the revenue side. While unfortunately, we had to close the temporary casino for some time before the new opening, resulting in lost revenue and EBITDA in October, the new casino is off to a great start.”
“In the four months since opening, revenue and EBITDA are up 27 and 32 per cent respectively, which has exceeded our initial expectations. We are seeing increases in nearly all demographic segments with the strongest growth rate coming from the higher end of the database. From a distance standpoint, customer visits increased by 20 per cent from all mileage ranges, but greater percentage gains were seen from 70 plus miles. That’s a promising sign that the new casino is drawing more customers from further away, expanding our overall catchment area just as we planned it.
Referring to the quarter as a whole, Mr Hoetzinger added: “Underlying customer trends remained stable in the quarter with retail customers as well as low end customers still being weak. This is mostly due to macroeconomic factors and wallet softness in our markets as low end consumers continue to be squeezed by inflationary pressures. We do, however, see the mid and upper tiers performing quite well with their number of visits as well as the spend per visit up slightly compared to last year. However, with no construction or renovation disruptions and the opportunity to realize returns from our recent growth capital initiatives, we believe Adjusted EBITDAR and cash flow will improve in 2025 as compared to 2024.”
“Overall, the Missouri and Colorado segment did a great job in maintaining operating efficiencies with property level margins between 35 and 40 per cent during the quarter. The East segment, which includes the Mountaineer Casino in West Virginia and the Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Maryland, we had a more challenging quarter. Revenue of the segment was down seven per cent. Moving to the West segment with the Nugget Casino Resort in Nevada. Gaming revenue was down 10 per cent, which was impacted by low slot hold.
“In Canada, revenue was down by seven per cent, EBITDA 17 per cent down. We experienced lower table hold of 15 per cent as compared to 17 per cent last year and strong FX headwinds also impacted results.”
“In Poland, we reopened the casino in the city of Wroclaw during the fourth quarter. That casino had been closed for almost a year and is now gaining traction, but the ramp up is taking longer than expected. Another license for the city of Cracow has not been re awarded to us and we had to take on closing expenses of close to $1,000,000 in the fourth quarter. We are still committed to divesting of our Poland operations. The sales process has suffered not only from the war in The Ukraine, but also from the fact that we cannot sell 100 per cent of the Polish company, but only the two thirds that we own.”
“Most interested parties have wanted 100 per cent ownership, and we started talks with our minority partner, Polish Airport Company, with a goal to agree on something like a drag along provision.”
