Between 670 and 1,000 full-time employees of Encore Boston Harbor in Everett may be placed on furloughs due to the recent curfew hour imposed on casinos in the state, Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox told investors during the company’s third quarter earning conference call.
Curfew Will Force Furloughs
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, worried by the rising number of new daily cases of coronavirus, announced last week a stay-at-home advisory for state residents from 10pm to 5am, and ordered casinos, theaters and indoor recreation facilities to close business at 9:30pm.
“…more than half of our revenue is generated between — at night. So closing at 9:30 pm is going to have quite an impact.”
Matt Maddox, CEO, Wynn Resorts
In response to the curfew, Wynn Resorts is going to cut on its operating expenses at Encore by seeing the full-time employee number go down, between 670 and 1,000 members, Matt Maddox replied to a question from Barclays Analyst Felicia Hendrix.
Third Quarter at Encore
Encore Boston Harbor casino generated $116.6 million in revenue for the third quarter, despite being shut down for a period of 10 days at the beginning of July. The revenue number is 33.6% less than what the gambling establishment generated for the same operating quarter in 2019. In terms of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) Encore generated $26 million, significantly more than any other past third quarter.
Matt Maddox entered into further detail about how Wynn’s team at the casino property learned to be a super regional operator by focusing on how to run the casino differently, as obviously in the past something was not right.
The gaming and entertainment venue management pinned their efforts on the casino segment, focusing on what exactly customers want and how the casino is going to deliver, and results were astounding. Overall slot volume handle exceeded the one in Q3 last year, despite the number of operating slot machines being only 1,800 in the third quarter of 2020, compared to 3,000 for the three months in 2019.
Win per unit for Q3 2020 was above $400 million, well above the $219 million for the third quarter last year, Matt Maddox noted, highlighting that the resort began to understand the essence of the market, how to market it to customers and to monetize. The recently imposed curfew is a clear setback, the chief executive further pointed out.
The proposed number of furloughed employees due to the new type of restrictions will add to the 3,000 members of staff Wynn Resorts laid off in July. A significant portion of these workers were brought back to work by the casino operator when the re-opening of gambling properties was allowed by state authorities.