Why I want to own a Casino

I own one share in every public casino company so I can get the annual reports. They're fascinating. Plus I love to gamble. If I lived in Las Vegas, I'd need gambler's anonymous, I'm sure. Happily, I go there 2 to 4 times per year and stick within my budget every trip.

So in today's mail I got my annual report for Harrah's Entertainment.

Total revenues for HET were $7,111,000,000 -- yes that reads 7 billion dollars. Most of it, you know, is cash. ::drool:: Of that $6,071,500,000 were revenues from Casinos, another 1,097,500,000 from food and beverage. Can you imagine selling 1 billion dollars in food and liquor. Only 791,800,000 from room revenue. Of which they gave out in comps 1,351,300,000 -- yeah, they gave away 1.3 billion dollars. Baby, I love Vegas.

Let's talk about this. $16,634,246.58 in daily revenue. That's a staggering $16.6 million dollars in cash taken in every single day (over their portfolio of casinos). Now, you may think that's not that much. Remember the casino vig, as I recollect, is around 4% or so. Vig? Oh, let's say you're paying a 98% slot machine over time -- the casino will keep 2% of what you wager, or about $2 for every $100 you wager. $16 million is the 4% vig. That means actual wagering of $415,856,164.38 or $415 million dollars per day is wagered -- most of it given back to patrons with the casino keeping their 4% or $16.6 million.

HET is a great company and I admire them, spend money at their casinos, on their shows, and in their hotels. I love HET and I often do my best at their properties. However, I don't expect to get rich. You do not collect $7 billion dollars in revenue from people winning. When you go to Las Vegas remember that.