Nevada gaming regulators used a recent licensing hearing for the new general manager of Golden Entertainment’s three casinos in Laughlin to ask when the Colorado Belle would reopen.
The riverboat-themed hotel-casino closed three years ago on March 18 when the state’s gaming industry shut down for 78 days due to the pandemic. But unlike the company’s two other Laughlin casinos, Aquarius and Edgewater, Colorado Belle has remained shuttered.
General manager Jeremy Jenson, who took over the Laughlin casinos last year, said the Laughlin market has been “stable” in the past two years.
“It’s something we continue to look at and evaluate and see what we want to do with that property,” Jenson told the Gaming Control Board, which recommended unanimous approval for his gaming license. “It’s something we have internal conversations with the team and we’re just weighing our options at this point.”
According to the control board, Laughlin’s nine operating casinos and seven satellite sportsbooks produced $500.7 million in gaming revenue in 2022, a 3 percent increase from 2021. The figure was still 2.2 percent below the pre-pandemic 2019 total of $512.2 million. The single-year gaming revenue record for Laughlin was $631.2 million in 2007.
Laughlin and North Las Vegas are the only gaming markets statewide that remain below pre-pandemic revenue totals.
Golden didn’t break out the revenue from its two operating Laughlin casinos in its most recent earnings report, which was included in the $406.9 million from Nevada resort operations that also covers The STRAT Hotel, Casino & SkyPod.
Last year, Golden Chairman and CEO Blake Sartini called the Colorado Belle’s location along the Colorado River “a one-of-a-kind piece of property on the riverfront and has a multitude of potential uses.” The 1,200-room casino is the second largest of the company’s three properties behind the 1,900-room Aquarius and the 1,052-room Edgewater.
Jenson, who has been licensed four times by Nevada gaming regulators, previously served as general manager of Golden’s two Arizona Charlie’s casinos in Las Vegas and the company’s three casinos in Pahrump.
