Up is down, black is white and Kim Kardashian isn’t a soulless fame-whore. Those are the conclusions we’ve drawn from Wednesday’s news that Wynn Resorts saw revenue at its Las Vegas casinos rise in the third quarter of 2012, while revenue from Macau fell. Overall Wynn revenue was flat at $1.3b, of which $112m qualified as net income, a drop of 12% over Q3 2011. The drop is attributed in part to a $19.7m loss in debt extinguishment and growing interest charges. Nonetheless, Wynn declared an $8 per share dividend and will double its regular quarterly dividend to $1 per share come 2013. After all, gotta do something with the $2.7b in cash the company is sitting on besides those weekly money fights between chairman Steve Wynn and Prince Harry (or so we’re told).
Wynn’s operations in Las Vegas reported an 11.8% revenue gain to $388m. Net casino revenue rose 22.6% to $155.6m, while non-casino revenue was up 5.3% to $280.1m, despite the hotel occupancy rate falling to 85.7% from 88.3% last year. Adjusted property EBITDA rose 29.7% to $110.4m. Table game turnover rose 13.1% to $682.3m with a win percentage of 21.9%. On the other side of the globe, Wynn Macau revenue fell 4.3% to $910.5m, while EBITDA fell a more modest 1.3% to $292.2m. Turnover at VIP tables fell 12.1%, while the mass market table figure rose 8.3%. Bucking recent regional trends, slot machine handle fell 13.2%.
While Wynn is proceeding with its plans to build its new resort casino on Macau’s Cotai Strip, Steve Wynn is looking north as well as east. The Toronto Sun reported that Wynn was in Hogtown last month scouting possible locations for the casino that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. is preparing to award to one lucky casino mogul. The Sun claimed Wynn checked out several potential sites, including the Toronto Convention Centre, Port Lands, the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds and Woodbine. It’s not Wynn’s first stab at putting down roots in Canadian soil: Wynn had expressed interest in building a gaming joint in T.O. as far back as 1994, back when Toronto’s idea of gambling was church bingo and beaver racing (not nearly as much fun as it sounds). A Wynn spokesman declined to speculate on Steve’s plans.
