Who can blame Full House Resorts for wanting to look forward?
The coronavirus crisis ravaged casino companies in the first quarter, shrinking revenue, leaving losses instead of expected profits. It’s hard to make money when casinos are closed, as they have been since mid-March, and potential customers are stuck at home, sheltering in place.
Although Full House’s first-quarter earnings statement showed a wider loss and lower revenue from a year earlier (both figures missed Wall Street forecasts), the Las Vegas-based company led with an eye on the happier thoughts, like resuming business.
The company’s Silver Slipper in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, is expected to be back up by May 22 and other properties by June 14.
“With the worst days of the pandemic hopefully behind us, we are now beginning to look forward to reopening our properties and safely welcoming back our customers,” Full House CEO Dan Lee said Wednesday “While the past several weeks have been challenging, we are beginning to see what we believe is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.”
Full House said its net loss was $4.4 million, or 22 cents per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, compared with a net loss of $1.6 million, or 6 cents per diluted share, a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Seeking Alpha had, on average, expected a loss of 7 cents per share in the quarter.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, a cash flow measure that excludes one-time costs, was a $1.2 million loss, reversing adjusted positive EBITDA of $3.6 million, a year earlier.
Revenue fell 23.8% to $30.9 million from $40.5 million. Seeking Alpha-polled analysts has expected $37.6 million in revenue.
The pandemic hurt the balance sheet and stopped momentum; results at the Silver Slipper and the company’s properties in Northern Nevada (Grand Lodge and Stockman’s) had tracked ahead of a year earlier. The crisis also forced a halt in construction for a new parking garage at Bronco Billy’s hotel-casino in Cripple Creek, Colorado, which was supposed to open midyear.
Lee said the company had used the shutdown to reflect on business and how the company can keep its properties safe and sanitized to customers.
When guests return, he said, their body temperatures will be screened with infrared thermometers and they’ll be kept the requisite six feet apart, especially at slot machines, which will get wiped down and disinfected often. Everyone, including guests and staff, will get gloves, face masks, and hand sanitizer.
Lee said his company also used the shutdown to reset and relaunch marketing programs at the Rising Star in Rising Sun, Indiana, and Bronco Billy’s. Both casinos were recently outfitted with new slot machine systems; Rising Star’s system hadn’t been replaced in 17 years, the company said. The new machines will yield better analytics and improve marketing, the company said.
Online sports wagering offered optimism, Lee said. In Indiana, one of the company’s three permitted sports wagering websites was up and running in the quarter. Full House said it expects its other two other websites in Indiana to launch shortly, given regulatory approvals. When all three websites are up, perhaps in the third quarter, Lee said he expects $7 million in revenue from them annually.
Full House shares fell 5 cents, or 3.33 percent, to $1.45 on the New York Stock Exchange. The share price has fallen by 54% in 2020.
Follow Matthew Crowley on Twitter @copyjockey
