Golden Entertainment Inc., which owns and operates almost 60 traditional taverns in Nevada and eight casino resorts – seven in Southern Nevada and one in Maryland — and through its distributed gaming business in Nevada and Montana operates video gaming devices at almost 1,000 locations reported third-quarter earnings Wednesday.
Company: Golden Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:GDEN)
Revenue: Net revenues for the third-quarter of 2017 were $108.3 million, compared to $104.2 million for the same quarter last year, an increase of 3.9 percent.
Income: For the third quarter of 2017, net income was $8.6 million, compared to $1.3 million for the same quarter 2016.
Income per share: For the third quarter of 2016, income per diluted share was $0.38, compared to $.06 per share for the same period last year.
Takeaways:
With its purchase of American Casino & Entertainment, Golden Entertainment exposed itself to the effects of the Oct. 1 mass shooting, company executives said in a conference call with financial analysts to discuss its third-quarter earnings.
Golden finished the acquisition of American on Oct. 23, just a few weeks after the shooting. The purchase included the Stratosphere, along with three other Nevada casinos, Arizona Charlie’s Decatur, Arizona Charlie’s Boulder and the Aquarius Casino Resort in Laughlin.
“It is still incredibly early,” Golden Entertainment CEO Blake Sartini said in response to an analyst’s question about the possible effects of the shooting on his company. “We only just took ownership of the property in October. We’ve seen some near-term rate disruption in part at the Stratosphere. At our other properties, we haven’t seen anything.”
Sartini said he expects results at the Stratosphere to improve in the first quarter next year.
Neither Sartini nor other Golden executives offered any other details on plans for the new properties other than saying they are working to integrate the casinos into the larger company. In the past, the company has said it would look at adding convention and meeting space to the Stratosphere.
Golden Entertainment expanded its distributed slot route business in Nevada by purchasing another smaller slot route operator in a bankruptcy sale, Sartini said.
Golden’s CFO Charles H. Protell said there is a chance for the company to take advantage of other similar opportunities in Nevada.
“It’s opportunist for us based on what the size and price is,” Protell said. “In Nevada, we’re in a unique position. We have very large market share in the state with numerous avenues to growth not available in other jurisdictions.”
Because Golden has a more vertical structure than other companies — owning both taverns and a slot route company — it could grow by building or buying taverns or by purchasing other third-party slot-route operators, Protell said.
“We’re usually the first one called (by companies) based on our market position,” he said.