By JOSH RESNEK
Wynn Resorts stock as of Tuesday was $73 a share.
Its market cap – the value of all its outstanding shares – stood at slightly over $7.9 billion.
This is a far cry from last year’s all time high of $135 and its all-time low of $35.
On or around October 15, we will find out how much money Encore took in during a four week span.
The August report was almost robust with about $42 million being generated by a smaller number of slot machines and a lesser number of table games.
That’s not bad for a company, and industry under siege because of the pandemic.
One of the advantages of the pandemic is that Wynn Resorts, and Encore, have dramatically cut the number of employees in their workforce–so much so–that it is likely that the Everett operation is almost cutting the mustard when it comes to what is going in and what is coming out.
With so many fewer employees to pay and the place itself largely underutilized, costs of running the operation are much lower.
Rumors persist that Encore could be for sale and that casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, and associates, are right now strategizing about how exactly to pull it off.
Adelson supposedly wants a piece of the Wynn Resorts Macau operation. Others working with him are said to desire owning the Encore property.
First reports are that Encore would fetch something like
$800 million to $1 billion on the open market at today’s going prices.
To this end, new lawsuits are apparently being readied and will shortly be filed in Massachusetts against Wynn Resorts by Adelson’s subordinates.
What all of this points due is a precipitous devaluing of the Encore property because of the pandemic as well as the property not turning out to be what company executives expected it to be.
The five-star rating for Everett Encore is out the window.
Things might have been different if Steve Wynn still headed up the company he founded.
Casino gaming is a volatile industry.
Its best figures come from national economies that are vibrant and growing.
Right now, everything is going the other way with no real end in immediate sight.