\nUNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) \u2013 The parent company of the Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut and Pennsylvania reported on Wednesday a nearly 32 percent drop in second-quarter profit, driven largely by lower slot machine revenue and a brutal winter that forced many senior citizens to stay home.<\/p>\n
\tMitchell Grossinger Etess, chief executive of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, said the Uncasville, Conn., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., casinos \u201cperformed quite well\u201d despite the weather and persistently weak economy that he said were beyond anyone\u2019s control.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe winter\u2019s been horrible and I can tell you I\u2019ve never been more excited about the arrival of spring,\u201d he said in a conference call with investor analysts.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBeyond the snow days we were also impacted by these very, very cold weather days that really seemed to never end,\u201d Etess said. \u201cWe know this impacts visitation primarily among the older demographics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe bitter cold also helped account for a \u201chuge increase\u201d in utility costs, he said.<\/p>\n
\tStill, Etess said the Mohegan casinos \u201cfared relatively well,\u201d particularly in comparison with other casinos.<\/p>\n
\tNet income for the quarter ending March 31 was $9.6 million, down 31.6 percent from the same period last year. Revenue was $316.7 million, down about 3 percent from last year\u2019s second quarter.<\/p>\n
\tOne bright spot was a nearly 10 percent increase in non-gambling revenue, such as entertainment and hotels, to $60.5 million.<\/p>\n
\tKeith Foley, an analyst at Moody\u2019s Investor Service, said it was more important to see gambling revenue pump up.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s a majority of what they do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tFoley said in an investor note that April gambling revenue numbers will provide a \u201ccritical signal\u201d of demand for casino gambling. The severe winter can be blamed for keeping gamblers at home, but \u201cbad weather may be masking a more fundamental shift in gaming demand,\u201d Foley said.<\/p>\n
\tA sizable drop in U.S. gambling revenue in April compared to a year ago could indicate that demand is down and \u201cgaming company earnings may be in for a rough ride\u201d for the rest of 2014 and possibly more permanently, he said.<\/p>\n
\tAsked about the Mohegan Sun\u2019s performance in April, Etess suggested not too much has changed, saying \u201cyou\u2019re basically seeing the same kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe said he is \u201cfeeling a little optimistic\u201d about May and June.<\/p>\n
\tFoley said consumer spending for gambling is easy to cut in a weak economy and although revenue has stabilized since the recession, it\u2019s \u201cnot shown signs that it has, or will, improve along with the broader economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIf the economy does not improve and boost casino gambling, Foley said casinos face difficulty paying off debt taken on to finance expansion.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) \u2013 The parent company of the Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut and Pennsylvania reported on Wednesday a nearly 32 percent drop in second-quarter profit, driven largely by lower slot machine revenue and a brutal winter that forced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}