Why I want to own a Casino 2.0

This will be my third annual why I want to own a casino post in which I marvel at obscene amounts of money and rip on Donald Trump. Previous posts are here: 2006 and 2007.

Today we'll use the Wynn as our example. The Wynn is a lovely place, though they do not get my patronage due to their high table limits and overpriced rooms. They have one in Las Vegas and a brand new one in Macau, SAR, China. The one in Macau is spectacular and I did spend the night there in 2006, but that's another story (part 1 and 2).

All data, as always, is from the 10-K forms filed with the SEC. No arguing these numbers.

Income for Wynn, just one hotel in Las Vegas, is a staggering $2.9 billion dollars. Of that $1.9 billion dollars is from the casino. That's an average take of $5.3 million dollars per day just on the casino -- out of which winnings are $3.2 million dollars per day. That leaves $2.1 million dollars per day in profit.

To be fair, "doubtful accounts" are budgeted at $100,000 per day. These accounts are owned the skeletons they found in the desert, back in the day. I maintain that trained monkeys could operate a casino. Trump bankrupted his. Why do people respect this man?

Another property is Boyd Casinos. It's a chain. Wynn makes as much as their entire chain. But Boyd operates "locals" casinos for the most part, though they're building a strip resort called Echelon now. And they own part interest in Atlantic City's Borgata. Still $1.7 billion annual income on casino against $752 million paid out still leaves about a billion left over for the year. What could you buy with a billion bucks? A tank of gas. Maybe even two.

The rest of the operation is profitable too. But we don't need to discuss that. I wish some brave company would let me run their casino for a few years. I know casinos, I know gambling (for better or worse) and I could run one. They probably can't afford me. :)

I am going to visit Mom on mother's day. I got a ticket. It's embarrassing what a plane ticket costs now. Then again, after filling up my car maybe it's not so unreasonable.

More "I want to Own a Casino"

In a previous post I wrote about why I wanted to own a casino -- mainly because only an absolute idiot can lose money while owning one (that idiot being Donald Trump). Most of my point can be found in my previous post, but I have more numbers to drop.

I got my MGM/Mirage annual report today. Net Revenues were $7.1 billion dollars with net assets of $22.1 billion dollars ($21,146,238,000) and debts including leases of around $13 billion dollars. That's a lot of leftover money and if they want to throw some my way, that would be cool.

Revenues are as follows: Table Games ($1.2 billion), Slots ($1.8 billion), Other Gaming ($108 million), Rooms ($2 billion), Food ($1.5 billion), and Entertainment ($1.1 Billion). They gave away $620 million dollars in comps. Yes, you will go to Las Vegas and win. If you believe that, you are Donald Trump. Think of a business where you give away a half-billion dollars and still turn a multi-billion dollar profit. That intrigues and excites me, but we all know the barriers to entry are impossible.

Casino revenue of $3.1 billion was offset by casino operating costs of $1.6 billion. That means they kept around half of the money wagered. That's your money, bud. That means at their properties and average of $8.2 million dollars per day goes through the casino or $343,000 per hour, or $6,000 per minute. Of which they keep half, so they are making $96 per second 365/24/7. Do you make $96 a seconds NET? Hell, most people probably don't make that much in a day.

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.

Trumped!

Wow. Trump filed for bankruptcy for his casino operations. Why is this in my blog? I'll tell you why.

I know a bit about casinos because (A) I am a gambler and (B) I own stocks in lots of casinos. The one thing I can tell you is that all well-run casinos make money. Lots and lots and lots of money. This tells me that Mr. Trump is not a good manager. Trust me, anybody with an ounce of common sense who has some experience gambling could run a profitable casino. It's hard not to be a profitable casino. Really hard.

If you gave me $100 million dollars and told me to return $110 million by the end of the year running a casino, I could do it easily. I bet I'd pocket a good $10 million or more after that as well. It's all percentages. Steve Wynn and George Maloof have done it superbly. You don't build billion dollar mega-resorts because people come and win. People lose.

Just because you're famous doesn't mean you're smart. I think Trump's bamboozled people for a long time. He's just a jerk. He's great at real estate, but keep in mind this is not his first bankruptcy. I just wanted to rant about this.

-- Eric