Weak income stunts casino’s revenues
By JOSH RESNEK
The Wynn Resorts gaming empire is struggling right now with vastly reduced income figures in Macau, Las Vegas, and Everett.
The city of Everett is paying no heed to all the warning signs that all is not well with Wynn Resorts during this difficult time, when in fact the city should be stowing away whatever income it receives from Encore in the understanding the situation could all change in a nano-second if things don’t return to normal, and soon. The COVID-19 virus is causing business to evaporate almost entirely in Macau, where the gaming giant is not only fighting the virus but Chinese political dealings with the Trump Administration. Seventy-five percent of Wynn Resorts cash revenues come from Macau.
The last report out of Macau two weeks ago indicated revenues remained almost as low as they can go, and that traffic from the Mainland and Hong Kong, which is only 35 miles away, remains restricted and difficult as tanking numbers reveal.
In Las Vegas, Wynn Resorts and its Encore properties, the hotels and casinos are struggling.
Attendance is way down. Hotel occupancy is negligible, and Wynn Corporation has just reduced operations there to four days a week because of severely reduced occupancy.
Thousands have been laid off to bring income into line with expenses, but the effort is basically doomed if business doesn’t return.
Add to this a recent spate of violence that changed the face of the Strip during the past two months since it reopened for business.
Shootings, stabbings, large fights, and gang-related incidents spreading to the gaming floor of the casinos have significantly altered the almost peaceful and family-like quality of the Las Vegas entertainment experience.
An added police presence has not succeeded in defusing the new situation entirely.
Now comes Everett, where the Encore facility is dead during the week, and the hotel already on an abbreviated schedule from Thursday to Sunday.
Figures released last week by the Gaming Commission reveal despite a small gain in income, figures for the $2.6 billion Wynn Resorts investment are flat.
Without the return of large crowds and conventions, the hotel and the casino floor will remain largely underutilized.
Thousands have been laid off.
The virus is appearing to make a comeback here and in nearly every state. This does not bode well for the short-term future.
Analysts watching the industry and studying it doubt it will come back.
The question is when?
In the meantime, the Everett city government has not dealt with the harsh new reality that Encore is struggling
and that the city should consider putting aside some of the income or all of it that it receives from Encore to prepare for a possible rainy day.
Instead, the city continues to spend whatever comes in at a dizzying rate with a “What me worry” kind of attitude.