Caesars Entertainment Inc. doesn’t expect Nevada’s newest mask mandate to slow things down.
Total occupancy for the quarter at the company’s strip resorts reached 89 percent, the company said, and Caesars expects those numbers to rise for the remainder of the year.
“There might be bumps along the way in terms of masks and protocols that we need to follow, but the demand is extraordinarily strong and has continued to increase. So we feel good about where we are in brick and mortar business, ”said Tom Reeg, CEO of Caesars Entertainment, on Tuesday during a quarterly phone call with investors.
After Nevada dropped the mask mandate in early May, Nevada re-enforced the requirement last week in 12 of 17 counties identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as areas of high transmission of COVID-19. Key metrics, including infection rates, hospital admissions and deaths, have risen since mid-June as the more contagious Delta variant became the dominant strain in Nevada and the state’s vaccination rate, which is below the national average, stagnates.
Despite the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in southern Nevada, the company expects its Las Vegas resorts to remain in the low to mid 90 percent occupancy range going forward, Reeg said.
“What happens to the mask mandate is far less onerous than the constraints we looked at last quarter,” Reeg said.
Big quarter
Caesars posted net sales of $ 2.5 billion worldwide for the quarter ended June 30th. The company reported net income of $ 72 million from these revenues for the most recent quarter, compared to a net loss of $ 100 million in the same quarter of 2020.
The company noted that the quarter’s good performance occurred while the Strip properties remained in place through March and April and part of May, including capacity limits, social distancing requirements, and the original mask mandate.
Much of that success came as the increasingly important convention and group business trips, which usually drove up resort occupancy during the week, were only just returning to Las Vegas. With these types of travelers returning, business at the company’s strip resorts should only improve, said Anthony Carano, president and chief operating office of Caesars.
Carano said group and congressional revenue for the second half of 2021 was up about 18 percent compared to the same period in 2019, a time before the pandemic broke out.
“We remain encouraged by the booking trends for the second half of 2021. We expect the group business to return to Vegas, with each month getting better as the second half of the year progresses, ”said Carano.
Sale still in sight
Reeg said the company still plans to sell one of its eight strip hotels, a move planned since Caesars Entrainment merged with Eldorado Resorts.
“Nothing has changed there,” said Reeg. “We are still looking to sell an asset on the Vegas Strip and I would expect that sale to take place in 2022.”
Reeg also said he was “not interested” in expanding Caesars Entertainment’s presence to Chicago, which published a quote request for a new casino in the country’s third largest metropolitan area in April.
The company was also optimistic about its sportsbook plans, citing Caesars Sportsbook’s redesigned mobile betting app and nationwide marketing campaign launched Monday as part of a rebranding initiative following its acquisition of sports betting giant William Hill earlier this year Year was started.
Reeg said Caesars plans to spend more than $ 1 billion over the next two and a half years building its customer base in the sports betting market.
“We realized that we are in a competitive world and that we have to go in and compete,” he said.
Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.
