Well, you can add Boyd Gaming Corp. to the race to operate a casino in Japan. CEO Keith Smith used a fourth-quarter conference call Wednesday to express Boyd Gaming’s interest in the potential Japanese casino market. The country is exploring casino legalization as a way to pay for infrastructure associated with being host of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“We’re always looking for ways to grow the business,” Smith said, adding that he and a development executive recently traveled to Tokyo to initially view the market. “We’re investigating … to see if it’s a good fit for us,” Smith said. “It’s very early in the process and the opportunity is in the exploratory phase.” Smith said it was too early “to worry about how to finance” a casino in Japan.
The comments surprised some analysts on the conference call. Smith said Boyd missed out on other international opportunities in the past, including Macau, because it was a small company. “We’re much larger today than we were in early the early 2000s,” Smith said.
Japan, which has shied from legalizing gaming in the past, is considered to be an untapped lucrative market by many in the investment community. The potential has attracted interest from MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands Corp., Caesars Entertainment and the Malaysia-based Genting Group.
Recently, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson said he would spend $10 billion “or whatever it takes” to win a license for a casino in Japan. Boyd Gaming said Wednesday it reduced its fourth-quarter net loss while growing revenue 9.1 percent. The Las Vegas-based regional casino operator said its net loss for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 was $47.3 million or 43 cents per share.
In the same quarter a year ago, Boyd recorded a net loss of $899.9 million, or $10.24 per share, which included a nearly $1 billion non-cash impairment charge on the former Echelon site, which was sold to Genting Group. The net loss wasn’t a surprise to the investment community.
Boyd Gaming pre-announced the company’s fourth-quarter results at the end of January, saying the loss was expected because of “several short-term factors in December” related to the Borgata in Atlantic City. The company said an unusually low hold percentage at the Borgata’s casino and severe winter weather during two weekends hurt business results.
Despite the pessimistic outlook, the Borgata increased revenue 6.5 percent in the quarter to $157.1, which included $2.2 million from the casino’s newly launched online gaming operations in New Jersey. This story on Boyd’s interest in a casino in Japan originally appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
