Golden Entertainment - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Q2 2025 revenue was $163.6M and Adjusted EBITDA $38.4M; diluted EPS was $0.17. Results were driven by strong Nevada locals performance but offset by unusually low table game hold in Laughlin and a June slowdown at The STRAT tied to Strip softness.
• Versus consensus: EPS slightly beat ($0.17 vs $0.16*) while revenue missed ($163.6M vs $166.9M*) and Adjusted EBITDA was roughly in line/slight miss ($38.4M vs $38.7M*). The revenue miss was primarily attributable to <10% table hold at Laughlin, which reduced EBITDA by ~$1.5M.
• Sequentially, revenue and EBITDA increased vs Q1 2025 ($160.8M revenue, $37.6M Adjusted EBITDA), while year-over-year trends were down vs Q2 2024 ($167.3M revenue, $41.2M Adjusted EBITDA) due to tavern promotions and Laughlin hold impact.
• Capital returns remained a key catalyst: $14.6M buybacks (514K shares at $28.47), $0.25 quarterly dividend paid July 9 and authorized again for Oct 3; $77.2M remains under buyback authorization.
• Management expects stabilization in Strip bookings from August and tailwinds in Q4/Q1’26 from convention recovery and Nevada tax legislation (tips/overtime relief; accelerated depreciation), with tavern EBITDA stabilizing in July as promotional intensity recedes.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Nevada locals casinos delivered segment EBITDA growth for a third straight quarter, with margins up 170 bps YoY to >46%; Las Vegas locals casinos grew EBITDA >9% YoY.
• Cost discipline at The STRAT mitigated lower midweek volumes; weekend occupancy remained 90–100% and service scores improving; ongoing direct booking efforts reducing OTA mix.
• Capital allocation: continued dividends and active buybacks; ~$77M remaining authorization, low net leverage (~2.6x) affords capacity to return capital.

What Went Wrong

• Laughlin table game hold was <10%, creating a ~$1.5M EBITDA headwind; without this anomaly, Resorts EBITDA would have been stable YoY.
• Las Vegas Strip softness in June pressured The STRAT occupancy to 60% (vs 76% LY) and EBITDA down ~5% YoY despite cost controls.
• Tavern revenue down 7% YoY amid heightened competitive promotions and lower late-night volumes from Strip workers; reinvestment increased modestly but remains below peers.

Transcript

Speaker 6

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Golden Entertainment second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal remarks. Please note that this call is being recorded today. Now, I'd like to turn the conference over to James Adams, the company's Vice President of Corporate Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker 1

Thank you very much, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. On the call today is Blake Sartini, the company's Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, and Charles Protell, the company's President and Chief Financial Officer. On this call, we will make forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or otherwise. During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures and talk about our performance. You can find the reconciliation of GAAP financial measures in our press release, which is available on our website. We will start the call with Charles reviewing the details of the second quarter results and a business update. Following that, Blake and Charles will take your questions.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Charles.

Speaker 3

Thanks, James. In the second quarter, our operations generated revenue of $163.6 million and EBITDA of $38.4 million. Our results were impacted primarily by a significantly lower table game hold in Laughlin and the widely reported summer slowdown on the Las Vegas Strip. Our Nevada Locals casinos continued to demonstrate strong performance in Q2, posting their highest quarterly EBITDA over the past two years and growing EBITDA for the third consecutive quarter. Revenue increased 3% the prior year, with EBITDA up 7%, largely driven by the performance of our two Las Vegas Locals casinos, which grew EBITDA by over 9%. Margins improved as well, up 170 basis points from last year to over 46% for this segment.

We are seeing the strong performance of our local properties continue as we move into Q3 and anticipate this segment will be the biggest beneficiary in 2026 from recent legislation providing tax relief on tips, overtime, and additional tax deductions for seniors. In our casino resort segment for Q2, revenue was down 3% and EBITDA was down 5%, mostly related to our low table game hold in Laughlin. We had a stronger event calendar in Laughlin this quarter that featured a concert and a rodeo, which drove higher revenue, but our table games held less than 10%, which negatively impacted EBITDA by $1.5 million. Normalizing for our unusually low hold would have resulted in increased EBITDA in Laughlin and stable year-over-year EBITDA for our Nevada resorts segment. At the STRAT, EBITDA increased over the first two months of the quarter.

However, we experienced a meaningful slowdown in June, consistent with other Strip properties. STRAT occupancy for the quarter was 69%, down 4% from last year, but in June alone, occupancy fell to 60%, down from 76% compared to prior year. EBITDA for the STRAT was down only 5% year-over-year despite the challenging environment, as we aggressively managed costs to mitigate the impact of lower revenue. Weaker Strip demand continued into July, but we are seeing stabilization of bookings in August and remain optimistic about the outlook in Q4 and Q1 2026, where we should benefit from increased attendees at the Las Vegas Convention Center and overall group business in the city. For our tavern business, we had mentioned on the Q1 call that the promotional environment could negatively impact our performance in Q2, and it did.

Revenue was down 7% year-over-year, even with some of our own increased reinvestment in the quarter. Our reinvestment rate remains at levels well below our peers and lower than our casinos, and we do not anticipate increasing our tavern reinvestment beyond where we are currently. We saw the largest declines in revenue in April, where in addition to declining volume, we experienced lower hold than normal. We're also experiencing lower volume during our late-night shifts, which caters to Strip workers in tip positions, but we expect this to improve with improved Strip business in Q4 and in 2026. In July, we've seen tavern EBITDA stabilize compared to last year as promotional activity in the market has been reduced. We are confident that we will see improved tavern performance in the back half of the year, and we have two new builds scheduled to open over the next six months.

Moving on to our capital structure, we ended the quarter with $432 million of funded debt outstanding, $52 million of cash, and $200 million of remaining availability under a revolving credit facility. In Q2, we opportunistically repurchased over 500,000 shares of our common stock for $14.6 million. Since the start of 2024, we have purchased 3.7 million shares, representing 17% of our free float, totaling nearly $115 million, and paid out $41 million in dividends. We currently have $77 million remaining on our current buyback authorization, which we will continue to utilize opportunistically throughout the year. With low net leverage of 2.6 times, we have plenty of capacity to continue to return capital to shareholders, and we see no better use of our capital at this time.

Strategically, M&A has been a lower priority for us recently given the uncertain business environment and elevated interest rates, which we expect may continue for the near term. We see the business volatility of the summer abating in the fall, and we believe there will be meaningful tailwinds from increased Strip visitation, as well as the recent tax legislation that will support near-term organic growth at all our properties. We have a diverse portfolio of assets with exposure to various markets in Southern Nevada, including our hyper-local taverns to our Strip property, in addition to our Las Vegas Locals and Nevada Regional casinos that will benefit from these dynamics. In the interim, we're focused on managing the cost structure of our business, investing our own assets, and returning capital to shareholders. That concludes our prepared remarks. Blake and I are now available for questions.

Speaker 6

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. We do ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Your first question comes from the line of Barry Jonas with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Barry Jonas. Thanks for taking our questions. Do you guys expect any other impacts from the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill, and any chance you could quantify or give more color on the no tax on tips benefit? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Sorry, Jeremy, I didn't catch quite the first part of your question. Can you repeat that?

Speaker 2

Just any other impacts on the Big Beautiful Bill, aside from the ones that you mentioned?

Speaker 3

Look, I think we're going to benefit a little bit from getting some of the accelerated depreciation. For us, if you were to quantify, it's probably an extra $10 million to $15 million of tax shield, so call it $2 million to $3 million of cash flow off of that. That's one. Starting in 2026, there's an increase in the reportable limit of slot winnings, which will be somewhat meaningful for the taverns just in terms of the volume of those transactions that we get in terms of jackpots.

Speaker 2

Got it. Thank you.

Speaker 6

Your next question comes from the line of Chad Beynon with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Hi guys, this is Sam on for Chad. Thank you for taking our questions. I was hoping you guys could provide a little color on the growth outlook for the second half of the year. I know last year there were some moving parts with some disruptions given the presidential election distraction, and we have a new F1 season this year. Obviously, some major volatility in the consumer strength in locals, but some weakness in the Strip. Any color you could provide just for how we should think about growth in 2H.

Speaker 4

Yeah, Sam, if you take the parts of our business sequentially, to answer that question, Charles mentioned in his prepared comments, we see a very positive outlook continuing for the local economy, which I think benefits both obviously our local properties as well as our taverns going forward. Laughlin continues to be a consistent market. You mentioned, Charles mentioned the hickey we sustained, a significant one in Q2 with the table game hold. The market is consistent and our outlook is positive there. The one that's hard to give any detailed forward-looking comments on is the STRAT. We are seeing improvement post-Midsummer. We're seeing some positive green shoots in August. It's hard to look beyond that given the uncertainty in the macro environment in town. From my perspective, if I could get a little more color on that, I think you're going to see some recovery in demand.

I think the demand dynamic in terms of occupancy is going to show some improvement. The question is, would rates settle in on that additional demand and occupancy? That's a tough one for us to try and gauge. Again, I think our diverse portfolio, if you take it in pieces, we're very positive on the particular parts of it. The STRAT, I think, is the one that's hard to give kind of a concrete look forward.

Okay, great. Thank you for that. As a follow-up, hoping you guys could just maybe elaborate a bit on the strategy to mitigate, I guess, the recent depressed prices and rates on the Las Vegas Strip and just kind of how you're thinking about it heading into the second half.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, I think like most other operators, we're really focused on the cost structure of the business given the lower volume. You'll see that in terms of restaurant hours being curtailed during the midweeks, certain services, whether it's valet or baggage, those types of things, during the times when we're not busy and we don't have the occupancy during the week, and we bring some of those services back during the weekends when we do have the occupancy. I think if you step back, and as Blake was saying, look at the business and components, 75% of our EBITDA is flat to growing, which is effectively Laughlin, the locals, and the taverns as we look into the back half of the year. Really, the weakness that we're seeing at the STRAT is July and August. If you look past that, we see that stabilizing with others.

If you look into Q4 and the Q1 of next year, when you have ConExpo and a better convention schedule.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I think a bit more color, just a bit more. Weekends continue to be pretty solid. I say that, you know, relatively speaking, I mean, we're in the 90% to 100% occupancy range pretty much every weekend. Notwithstanding, again, rates sometimes, you know, are challenged in a sequential comparison year over year in this current environment. As Charles mentioned, midweek, I will just add on the fixed cost side of the business, we're as efficient there as we have been since our ownership. We've made significant strides on that end of the business, and we are positioned well to force multiply on a revenue growth side of it when it does occur. I think Charles' comments speak to that in terms of, you know, broader citywide conventions, more sports and entertainment options coming in the fall and first quarter.

We're well positioned from a cost standpoint to do well at the property.

Great. Thanks, guys. I'll jump back in the queue.

Speaker 6

Your next question comes from the line of David Katz with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. It's been a while since we've, maybe it's only been 90 days, I don't know, talked about kind of the M&A landscape and the opportunity set for you to acquire. I wonder if there's any notable change or difference. You know, stocks are up a little bit. Updated thoughts and boundaries would be really helpful.

Speaker 3

Yeah, as far as the landscape goes, I think there is a landscape of, you know, potential targets for us or combinations for us that could make some sense. I think from an environment standpoint, until you get some, like the debt capital markets are strong right now, as many of you know. I think, again, valuations have improved, you know, slightly, although that seems to be, you know, fluctuating on a weekly basis. I think we're going to get better tailwinds when we get some rate cuts from the broader market. We anticipate, like others, that happens by the end of the year. I think for us right now, you know, our focus is, as I mentioned in my comments, as Blake mentioned, is stabilizing the operation of the business, which, again, we are seeing in all of our assets right now, except of our Strip property.

We expect that to happen into Q4. From our perspective, you know, M&A really doesn't come into focus until you have the confluence of those two things. We see where we've stabilized in terms of our one Strip asset, and we get some better tailwinds in the market that we think come with a lower interest rate environment.

Got it. Understood. Thank you.

Speaker 6

John, your line is open.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Charles, Blake, maybe to ask another question about the consumer at the STRAT. We've talked about kind of occupancy midweek and where rate might settle in. For the customers that are coming and staying, how would you characterize their spends on property? Is it similar to prior year period? Are they still spending? Spend per trip's the same? We're just seeing less people in the door. Any color you could give there would be helpful.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I mean, that's a good question. There are several bright spots within the challenging environment there. Our casino is showing good momentum and good progress, particularly on the table game slot side, obviously, which makes up the majority of it. We are seeing improved metrics there. That, I think, is a result of our focus on direct bookings through our casino efforts and marketing efforts at the property versus the, you know, broad net OTA direction. We've worked very hard on that, and it's showing good signs and good positive trends in the casino. We are seeing, even with less people, I guess, additional spend without quantifying it. I think that's fair to say. Additionally, our Top of the World restaurant remains one of the best attractions in town.

We do 600 to 700 covers up there on a good weekend, and that remains consistent and strong and drives a lot of traffic through the building. We are now receiving rent from Atomic Golf, which has performed fairly well. They're not public, but suffice it to say they've generated a pretty significant amount of revenue through their first six months of, or through the last, excuse me, six months of operation. There are pockets of opportunity and good signs there. Again, as you mentioned, midweek, as Charles mentioned, we have established a very good baseline, best that we've ever had in terms of fixed costs during midweek and have just basically gone the fixed cost route to mitigate the lack of revenue midweek. Weekends and some of the amenities I mentioned are driving traffic that we are seeing some positive signs.

Thanks, Blake. That's helpful. Maybe one kind of broad question on Laughlin, which is a big asset for you, and it sounds like it's doing quite well. Can you give a little bit of oversight as to kind of where the growth is coming? I think it's a little bit of a snowbird destination, and we've got some tax breaks in the one Big Beautiful Bill that might help. What's your outlook on Laughlin and where you're seeing some growth at that property?

Yeah, I think we are the growth in the market there with our locations and our amenities. We pretty much have the prime location and prime market share in that market. We have established a new marketing momentum going forward with smaller events, but more frequent. That seems to be paying off for us. Our LEC center, I think, is 2,000 or 2,500 people versus the event center versus the LEC, which was 11,000 or 12,000. We've been able to pursue a more quantity and quality strategy, and that's working. More player events down there are working. We're very bullish on that market. We're very solid in that market with our position and with our revamped approach to marketing down there.

By the way, I think the overall attraction to that market is the value versus whether, you know, certainly Las Vegas is currently in terms of what the consumer is paying for rooms and food and beverage and things down there. I think it's a very attractive market and continues to be so. Through those more frequent events, that value-driven consumer, and our market-leading position down there from an amenity and location standpoint, we're in a good spot.

Speaker 3

I would just add to that, John, that those properties down there have our highest level of rated play. It's about 70% rated play for us within the portfolio down there. We know all these players. We know how to market to them. They actually should be those ones who are benefiting certainly from the tax break to seniors. You're going to find, I think you're going to find some increased discretionary spending for a majority of our customer set down there once we get to the April tax season.

Interesting. Yeah, I would agree, Charles. Thank you. Thanks, Charles. Thanks, Blake.

Speaker 6

That concludes our question-and-answer session. With that, today's conference call does conclude. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.