Boyd Gaming Gets Rid of the Shut Down Eldorado Casino Because It’s ‘Non-Core’

Article by : Helen Dec 29, 2020

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Updated: Apr 6, 2023

Boyd Gaming wastes no time optimizing its business and adjusting to the new realities of the casino industry. The most recent development in the company’s quest to do that is its deal with DeSimone Gaming – Boyd Gaming sold its Eldorado Casino to the casino operator that already owns two casino venues in the city.

In their brief press release sent to the local news outlets, Boyd Gaming discarded the property as “a non-core asset to the company,” adding that as Boyd has “continued to grow over the years, this property represented a very modest part of [their] overall business.” Boyd Gaming didn’t disclose any details about the deal, including how much DeSimone Gaming paid for the property.
Located in Henderson, Nevada, Eldorado Casino was shut down in March 2020, along with all other gaming venues in Nevada, in the wake of coronavirus’s first wave. It was never reopened after the restrictions were relaxed enough to let casinos operate at a limited capacity.
With 58 years of operations under its belt, Eldorado Casino was one of three Boyd Gaming’s properties that remained closed to the public since the statewide shutdown in spring. The other two were Eastside Cannery and Main Street Station. In August, Boyd Gaming went as far as requesting the Nevada casino regulators to make Eldorado’s gaming and liquor licenses non-operational until June 2021.
It’s still unclear whether the other two shuttered properties will ever open their doors to guests again – or whether they will be unloaded like Eldorado Casino was. Before the coronavirus muddied the waters, Eldorado Casino could boast a rich history. After all, it was the first venture Boyd Gaming’s founders’, Bill and Sam Boyd’s, into the casino industry.

Now that the deal is through, Boyd Gaming will still have 11 casino venues in Nevada and a total of 28 properties across the U.S.

All in all, the casino operator is weathering the storm better than some others. It managed to do well in the third quarter of 2020, with adjusted earnings of $43.5 million and net income of $38.1 million. The company’s revenue also wasn’t much lower in 3Q2020 than in the 3Q2019 – $652.2 million compared to $819.6 million the year before. Apart from being smart when it comes to reopening and offloading unprofitable venues, Boyd Gaming has its partnership with FanDuel to thank for its successful third quarter. FanDuel is an online sports betting platform that Boyd Gaming partnered up with back in 2018.

Once coronavirus hit the casino industry hard, the company expanded its partnership with the platform, therefore covering its losses from suspended or limited land-based operations. As per the agreement between the two companies, the cooperation spans six U.S. states, with the latest addition being Illinois. Earlier in December, Boyd acquired a site in Elk Grove where a ghost mall once stood. The 64-acre property remained unused for over a decade, with the ghost mall being an unfinished construction site that got stalled after the site’s developer, General Growth Properties, went bankrupt in 2007.

It was later acquired by Howard Hughes Corporation that had set out to finish the outlet mall and open it to the public; yet, those plans were never made into reality. Once Howard Hughes Corporation acknowledged to the city authorities it scrapped any development plans it had for the piece of land, the unfinished building was demolished. Boyd Gaming plans to develop a casino resort venue for the Wilton Rancheria Native American Tribe on the acquired property. However, the company hasn’t issued any press releases specifying the project’s timeline.