Nevada-headquartered casino operator Boyd Gaming saw net revenues rise 12.1% to $633.1m in Q1 2012, based primarily on the strength of its properties outside of Nevada. EBITDA was up 19.7% to $133.8m and net income was $5.8m compared to a net loss of $350k in the same period last year. CEO Keith Smith credited “double-digit EBITDA growth at a majority of” its non-Nevada properties for its early 2012 success. Net revenues at Boyd properties in the Midwest and South regions, including the recently acquired IP Resort Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, were up 32.4% from 2011. Revenues at Boyd’s Las Vegas properties were up slightly but EBITDA was off 2.9% to $38.5m, dragged down in part by lower table game hold.
Gaming device maker and online poker hopeful International Game Technology saw an 8% drop in net profits in its fiscal Q2. The Nevada-based company posted revenues of $541.2m (+13%) and net income of $62.4m for the three months ending March 31. The company credited its revenue boost to its newly acquired interactive operations and a 32% rise in replacement units in North America. Operations revenue was up 11% to $300.4m while product sales revenue rose 16% to $240.8m.
Privately held gaming machine designer, manufacturer and operator American Gaming Systems (AGS) has been granted licenses by Nevada regulators to manufacture and distribute gaming devices and to operate a slot machine route.
On a less positive note, the Institute for Economics and Peace has dubbed Nevada the country’s most violent state, with 654 violent crimes per 100k residents. Adding insult to injury, the Washington-based research body’s 2012 United States Peace Index also labeled Nevada the ‘third least peaceful state’. Only Louisiana and Tennessee ranked lower than Nevada. Nevada also has America’s eighth worst homicide rate and the 14th worst incarceration rate. In a separate ranking of peaceful cities, Las Vegas came a lowly 56th out of 61, and second only to Detroit in terms of violent crime rates. Nevada cops protest that the results, drawn from the Federal Bureau of Information’s Uniform Crime Report statistics, are skewed by the state’s constant influx of outsiders. Outsiders? You mean like those European public gaming company execs that have been dropping off applications for online poker licenses? What happens if some of these applications are denied? (Note to Gaming Control Board members: don’t make 888 Holdings’ new CEO Brian Mattingley angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.)
