MGM Planning Mid-Week Change of Schedule for Strip Casinos

MGM revealed that it may change the mid-week schedule for some of its Las Vegas Strip casinos. Upon releasing Q3 results, the operator marked a 68% net revenue decrease for the Las Vegas Strip properties when comparing year-on-year results.

MGM May Introduce Mid-week Change of Schedule for Some Strip Properties

The gaming industry giant MGM Resorts may close some of its Las Vegas Strip properties during the middle of the week, reported Las Vegas Sun on Thursday. In an earnings call outlining the company results for the third quarter of 2020, MGM’s Chief Executive Officer and President Bill Hornbuckle outlined that the company has returned 29,000 of its employees to work.

Furthermore, he added that the company will go through an “exercise” while a discussion is currently ongoing as to what may close or remain open. After the earnings call, a spokesman for MGM Resorts explained that if any closures are introduced, they may affect only the midweek operations of the properties. With that in mind, Hornbuckle said that MGM will keep a “really close eye” on the situation going forward.

“There are certain amenities, there are certain towers, there are certain brands potentially that will face closure for mid-November prep time frame, give or take, through the holiday season, we’ll see how it goes.”

Bill Hornbuckle, MGM Resorts Chief Executive Officer and President

Hornbuckle stressed that the company is analyzing the results from last week and thinks about what will happen next while at the same time, MGM continues to improve. Moreover, he acknowledged that the next couple of weeks are the “unprecedented election season” and it remains unknown what can be expected in terms of bookings.

MGM’s Strip Properties Revenue Decreases in Q3 2020

MGM’s net revenue reached $1.1 billion for the three months ending September 30, 2020. This marked a 66% revenue decrease for Q3 2020 when compared to results from Q3 2019. The operator outlined that the primary factor for the results were the partial operations for certain properties as well as the restrictions introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Focusing on MGM’s Las Vegas Strip properties, the operator outlined a net revenue decrease of 68% when comparing year-on-year results for the third quarter. In Q3 2020, Las Vegas Strip properties revenue reached $481 million. According to the operator, this is a “result of operational restrictions related to the pandemic and a partial quarter of operations at The Mirage and Park MGM“.

Earlier this week, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) revealed its latest report about the visitor volume and hotel occupancy for September. Although the visitor number in Las Vegas has increased since August and reached 1.7 million in September, a year-on-year comparison for the same period revealed a staggering 51% decrease in visitor volume.

According to the LVCVA report, the midweek occupancy in Las Vegas reached 38.5% in September. This marked a 46.6% decrease when comparing the results for the same period last year. With that in mind, while MGM is considering a possible change in its mid-week operations, Wynn Resorts already implemented a similar change earlier this month. Reporting reduced customer demand, the operator cut the working days of its Encore property to four days a week.