In preparation for PENN's 4Q earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the recent pertinent forward looking company commentary.

DECEMBER 4: BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH LEVERAGED FINANCE CONFERENCE

  • “From a management team, we've been very focused on margins. I think we've done probably as good a job as anybody as in terms of holding or improving our margins during tough economic times.”
  • “I think it's Fortress' interest to stay as high a percentage ownership as they can within PropCo and OpCo for that matter.”
  • "Rationale for moving Perryville into the TRS for spin: “Maryland was because it's helpful in terms of mitigating some opportunities or creating some opportunities for OpCo to potentially acquire an asset in Maryland.”
  • “We are effectively finished with the IRS. That doesn't mean that some facts and circumstances couldn't change that might require us to go back, and I have to say that for attorney's purposes, but for all intents and purposes relative to the IRS, we're finished. We just need to get our gaming approval and get some financing done to obviously accommodate the spin.”
  • “The most compelling argument here is that the REIT, our PropCo, should have access to a lower blended cost of capital, which means quite candidly it would be much easier to bridge the gap between sellers' prices in terms what they would like to receive and what we might be able to pay for an asset”

YOUTUBE FROM 3Q CONFERENCE CALL

  • “We have over 200,000 accounts signed up in Toledo since we've opened and we're still very encouraged about the prospects as we move into 2013 there.”
  • “We're right now very pleased with the flowthrough coming out of Toledo and expect similar kind of results in Columbus as that property now is – today is day 10. The early results in Columbus are very much in-line with what we would expect in a market of that size.”
  • “The promotional environment is very, very stable in the Charles Town / Maryland live battleground”
  • “I characterize our businesses that have not been impacted by new supply as generally flat. We're seeing visitation trends year-over-year flat and spend per visit generally flat in markets that are stable. Really not seeing anything different than what we saw in the second quarter.”
  • 2013 outlook: “I think the initial feedback is most people seem to think that we're in a pretty stable environment, nobody is projecting or feels comfortable that we're going to get a hockey-stick recovery, nor do they feel like we're going to see any kind of significant downturn… Our thinking too, as we go into the fourth quarter and into next year that the promotional environment is going to be – going to remain stable”
  • ‘We have seen erosion of business from the Columbus and Dayton markets into Lawrenceburg, certainly that will continue as we now have opened in Columbus... Clearly we're doing a lot of things to reduce our cost structure in Lawrenceburg to maintain our margins as best we can and I think our efforts from that team there have been working, even though we are seeing the loss of visitation from those feeder markets that previously only had Lawrenceburg as a gaming option.”
  • Q: “Is the Marlyand lobbying expense projection in your EBITDA guidance for the balance of this year”
    • A: “No, the amounts that we're spending in Maryland are decisions made on the day-to-day basis as the tactics of the campaign unfold. And so, therefore, what we are not doing is trying to project exactly how much we're going to spend, nor do we want to forecast how much we're going to spend for obvious strategic reasons”
    • “Just to be clear on the $20 million lobbying that is in your current guidance, but the $11 million October to-date and whatever you go above that is not in the guidance? Correct.”
  • “Toledo is doing a little bit better than we thought and I think Charles Town is doing a little bit better than we thought and then there's some offsets to both of those in different markets across the United States. Clearly, the Gulf Coast area is a bit challenging, and clearly not exactly as healthy as we would hope, but those are relatively small properties.”
  • “Next spring when Horseshoe Cincinnati opens, I think it's going to be another inflection point where we're going to see another set of new business volumes that are going to cause us to react accordingly as well. So, I think there's a lot left for us to do in Lawrenceburg”
  • “I would generally say, so far so good, slightly less than we expected, but there's a lot more that has to evolve before we can make any conclusions on what our new business volumes will be at our Hollywood Baton Rouge property”
  • “We have been up looking at a number of different markets in the Province of Ontario and we are active in discussions with local governments and also the province themselves about, certain markets there. I think, there's no question that what they want to do is resolve the direction they want to head in Toronto before they do anything with the operations that are affected by the Toronto decision. So, most of what we've looked at to-date have been markets that have no effect on a Toronto decision. We don't see ourselves competing for Toronto because of the level of capital investment required”
  • “Right now our focus is in building our coalition, which includes business leaders in several key areas across Texas to continue that mantra of letting them put it out to the ballot. We think going in that the position should be for gaming where the footprint of gaming already exists, which is at the racetracks. And so, this may take various forms as we get through the legislative process, but first focus, let the people decide and then we'll get a little bit more specific in terms of the actual legislative vehicle as we get closer to the session.”
  • Ohio racetracks:  “We are waiting for the approvals from the lottery and racing commissions to relocate our tracks. We need to get that before we get this started, hopefully, that'll occur before the end of the year. We hope to break ground end of the year, early 2013, and we're talking about a first half of 2014 opening, if all goes well right now”
  • “We continue to show improved margins at the M, given a very flat revenue environment there. And I don't think as we look into 2013, that's not going to change it all. We don't see any kind of robust recovery in Las Vegas right now. Construction continues to move very slowly there. The general economic conditions for 2013, I think are going to be very similar to what we saw in 2011 and 2012.”