Golden Entertainment executives, while expecting conditions to improve in 2025, said they remain focused on investing in their assets like The Strat and pursuing potential strategic opportunities.
“We’re confident in our business prospects for 2025 with expected organic growth to come from improved performance at The Strat, stabilized revenues at new taverns, and the rest of our portfolio benefiting from the continued strength of Nevada’s economy,” said Charles Protell, president and chief financial officer. “We remain committed to exploring all options to maximize value for our shareholders, including traditional M&A, as well as modernization of our real estate holdings. In the meantime, we continue to focus on operational efficiencies, investing in our assets, and returning capital to the shareholders.”
Blake Sartini, chairman and CEO of Golden Entertainment, said they continue to be proactive in pursuing all options when it comes to M&A as a way to grow shareholder value.
“We continue to believe we’re well positioned for strategic alternatives,” Sartini said. “We continue to be proactive in pursuing opportunities.”
Protell said they won’t be looking at any greenfield developments or single-asset acquisition that are $40 million to $50 million in EBITDA. They’re open, however, to all types of M&A.
“If and when we do something, we want to move the needle,” Sartini said. “We don’t want to go into small operations that are capital deferred to the point it doesn’t make sense. Given where we sit with our capital structure, we can continue to be patient. What we’re not patient with is our share price continuing to lag. That’s motivation for us to be proactive. We would pursue a transformation activity, not a piecemeal approach.”
Protell said if they look outside Nevada, it would be at multiple properties. They’d consider single assets only in Nevada.
“We won’t go buy a one-off riverboat in Iowa that’s doing $15 million to $20 million of EBITDA, but things are part of a larger portfolio,” Protell said. “If there’s an aspect of future growth and development with existing cash flowing operations, we would look at those opportunities.”
As for Golden’s five to six acres across Las Vegas Boulevard from The Strat, Protell said they continue to see that as a “great opportunity” with a blank canvas.
He lamented the lower occupancy citywide for the FI race in November that impacted rates. The Strat continues to benefit from the overflow of convention business and with the Las Vegas Convention Center finishing the third phase of its expansion by the end of the year. That additional traffic will help, he said.
Slot play at the Strat has continued to improve, even with midweek challenges. It’s approaching 55% carded play, which was non-existent when they took the property over, Sartini said. The direct bookings also continue to improve. “We’re seeing greenshoots and making progress in the gaming side of that property, given the occupancy challenges, which we believe is very positive.”
Protell said their Nevada locals casinos had an increase in revenue and EBITDA over the fourth quarter of 2024, as well as sequentially from the third quarter. Margins also improved to 46%.
Arizona Charlie’s Boulder, which caters to value-oriented guests and has been the most pressured in recent quarters, had an improved performance that Protell called a “positive sign” for continued stability and growth in the locals market in 2025.
“The top tier of our database continues to be strong in terms of visitation and spend, but the trend we saw in the third quarter was the lowering of the database by almost double digits,” Protell said. “That has moderated and was growing in January.”
Nevada tavern performance was negatively impacted by their seven most recent additions, six of which were acquisitions that are being revamped, Protell said. He added the performance has been slower than expected, but continues to improve every month and should stabilize by the end of the year. Tavern revenue was up 6% from the third to fourth quarters, he said.
