Even after adjusting for low Baccarat hold, May Strip numbers were ugly. This comes on the day I received an offer from Excalibur for a $24 hotel room.
Nevada just announced gaming revenues for May. While the Locals market grew, Strip GGR fell a whopping 18% YoY. The bulls will no doubt point to low Baccarat hold of roughly 8% versus normal of around 12%, but slot hold was very high: 8.0% versus normal of 7.3%. Normalizing hold yields negative GGR growth of -11%. This is even worse than the mid-single digit drop we were expecting and below investor expectations of a slight increase. MGM's numbers look like they will need to come down and we were already below the Street.
- Slot handle fell 7% off of a relatively easy comp
- Slot win lost 3% despite higher than normal hold
- June hold may be below normal due to end of month on Saturday
- Bacc win fell 47%, on hold of 8.2% (TTM: 12.5%); baccarat volume fell 22%
- Table win ex bacc fell 18% on below average hold of 10.3%;
- Table volume ex bacc grew 2%
- Hold-adjusted total win was -11%
There is a bit of a divergence here with the Las Vegas Locals market which actually increased 7%. Probably a positive for BYD.
