Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg knew that during a recent earnings conference call he might field a question or two about how pricier utility expenses in Nevada sliced into the company’s cash flow.
After all, he had privately discussed the issue weeks earlier.
Several analysts said he brought up high energy prices on the Strip during background meetings with investors while they were in Las Vegas for the Global Gaming Expo in October. Caesars’ cash flow from its Las Vegas casinos in the third quarter was $480 million, a 4 percent decline from a year ago.
“If you normalize utilities, which was primarily rates in August alone, that’s virtually the entire gap between the third quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2021,” Reeg said.