Red Rock Resorts - Earnings Call - Q3 2025

Executive Summary

• Mixed headline: consolidated revenue of $475.6M (-$2.8M vs S&P Global consensus*), while Primary EPS beat (0.418 vs 0.385*), and company-reported diluted EPS was $0.68.
• Las Vegas operations posted record third‑quarter results: net revenue $468.6M (+0.8% YoY) and adjusted EBITDA $209.4M (+3.4% YoY), with consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $190.9M (+4.5% YoY).
• Capital allocation positive: regular dividend raised to $0.26/share and buyback authorization increased by $300M and extended to 2027 (remaining capacity ~$573M).
• Durango expansion catalyst: new $385M phase to add gaming and entertainment amenities; construction expected to start in January for ~18 months; near‑term disruption expected on north side.
• Near-term puts/takes: management flagged Q4 EBITDA seasonality up ~10–11% vs Q3, offset by ~$8M disruption at GVR and ~$1–$1.5M at Sunset; sports book hold normalized vs last year’s unusual Q3.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Record Q3 at Las Vegas operations: net revenue $468.6M and adjusted EBITDA $209.4M; consolidated adjusted EBITDA up 4.5% YoY to $190.9M.
• Cost discipline and mix: adjusted EBITDA margin expanded YoY; consolidated margin 40.1% (+110 bps); Las Vegas margin 44.7% (+110 bps).
• Strong cash generation and capital returns: 67.3% EBITDA-to-operating FCF conversion ($128.5M); dividend raised to $0.26 and buyback authorization expanded by $300M/extended to 2027.
• Quote: “Our Las Vegas operations once again set new records… ninth consecutive quarter of record net revenue and the fifth consecutive quarter of record adjusted EBITDA”.

What Went Wrong

• Top‑line miss vs Street: revenue of $475.6M vs $478.3M S&P Global consensus* (≈ -0.6%); Primary EPS beat but headline revenue miss is a modest negative*.
• Construction disruption: Q3 impact ~$2.5–$3.0M at GVR; additional Q4 disruption ~$8M at GVR and ~$1–$1.5M at Sunset; further disruption expected into 2026 at GVR.
• Sports segment variability year over year: reminder that Q3’24 had ~$4M unfavorable hold; this year normalized, but highlights ongoing volatility in sports hold.

Transcript

Speaker 6

Good afternoon and welcome to the Red Rock Resorts' third quarter 2025 conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Please note this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Stephen Cootey, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer of Red Rock Resorts. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Red Rock Resorts Inc.'s third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Frank Fertitta and Lorenzo Fertitta, Scott Kreeger, and our Executive Management Team. I'd like to remind everyone that our call today will include forward-looking statements under the Safe Harbor Provisions of the U.S. Federal Securities Laws. Developments and results may differ from those projected. During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. For definitions and complete reconciliation of these figures to GAAP, please refer to the financial tables in our earnings release, Form 8-K, and Investor Deck, which were filed this afternoon prior to the call. Also, please note this call is being recorded. The third quarter was another strong one for the company by every measure.

Our Las Vegas operations once again set new records, delivering its highest third-quarter net revenue and adjusted EBITDA in our history, while maintaining a near-record adjusted EBITDA margin. This marks the ninth consecutive quarter of record net revenue and the fifth consecutive quarter of record adjusted EBITDA, underscoring the strength, consistency, and long-term earnings power of our operating model. In addition to delivering strong financial results, we remain very pleased with the continued performance of our Durango Casino Resort and the revenue backfill at our core properties. Durango continues to expand the Las Vegas locals' market, drive incremental play from our existing customer base, and attract new guests to the Station Casino's brand.

Despite the disruption caused by the construction of our new high-limit slot room and covered parking garage, the property continued to demonstrate strong momentum within the quarter, with increased visitation and elevated net theoretical win from our core customers in the surrounding Durango area, as well as adding new customers to the brand. As discussed on prior earnings calls, construction continues on the current phase of our Durango Master Plan. This expansion will add more than 25,000 square feet of additional casino space, including a new high-limit slot area and bar. In total, the project will introduce approximately 230 new slot machines, with 120 allocated to the high-limit room. As part of this phase, we are also building a new covered parking garage with nearly 2,000 spaces, which will enhance customer access and provide infrastructure flexibility to support future growth at the company.

The total project cost, this is approximately $120 million, remains on budget and is expected to be completed in late December. With this phase nearing completion, we are now turning our attention to the next phase of Durango's Master Plan as we continue to build on the property's early success and strong customer demand. Supported by robust market fundamentals and the rapid development of the surrounding area, this next phase will expand the podium along the north side of the existing facility by more than 275,000 square feet.

The expansion will add nearly 400 additional slot machines and Android gaming to the casino floor, as well as introduce a range of new amenities designed to enhance the guest experience and deliver on what our customers are asking for, including a state-of-the-art 36-lane bowling facility, luxury movie theaters, a mix of new restaurant concepts and food hall tenants, and multiple entertainment venues designed to drive repeat visitation and broaden our customer appeal. Construction is expected to begin in January and will take approximately 18 months to complete. The total project cost is estimated at approximately $385 million and will be executed under a guaranteed maximum price contract.

We are excited to embark on this next phase of growth at Durango, and upon completion, we believe the property will be even better positioned to capture additional market share and drive sustained growth in the local market, which is expected to add more than 6,000 new households within a three-mile radius of the property over the next few years, complemented by the continued build-out of downtown Summerlin and Summerlin West, which together are projected to add approximately 34,000 new households. Now let's take a look at our third quarter. With respect to our Las Vegas operations, our third quarter net revenue was $468.6 million, up almost 1% from the prior year's third quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA was $209.4 million, up 3.4% from the prior year's third quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 44.7%, an increase of 110 basis points from the prior year.

On a consolidated basis, our third quarter net revenue, which includes $3.9 million from our North Fork project, was $475.6 million, up 1.6% from the prior year's third quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA, which also includes $3.9 million from our North Fork project, was $190.9 million, up 4.5% from the prior year's third quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 40.1% for the quarter, an increase of 110 basis points from the prior year. In the quarter, we converted 67.3% of our adjusted EBITDA into operating free cash flow, generating $128.5 million, or $1.21 per share. This brings our year-to-date cumulative free cash flow to $335.3 million, or $3.17 per share.

This strong level of free cash flow was strategically deployed to support our long-term growth initiatives, including our most recent projects at Durango Casino Resort, Sunset Station, and Green Valley Ranch, or return to our stakeholders through debt reduction, dividends, and share repurchases. As we begin the fourth quarter, we remain focused on our core local guests and will continue to grow our regional and national customer segments across the portfolio. Compared to the third quarter of last year, we saw continued strength in carded slot play across our database, including our regional and national segments. Robust visitation and net theoretical win helped drive the highest third-quarter revenue and profitability in our gaming segment in the company's history. Turning to our non-gaming operations, both hotel and food and beverage delivered another strong quarter, achieving near-record revenue and profitability in the quarter.

The hotel segment performed exceptionally well, generating near-record results despite the West Tower at Green Valley Ranch being offline for renovation, driven by our team's success in increasing occupancy across the portfolio. The food and beverage segment achieved record revenue and near-record profitability for the quarter, supported by higher cover counts across our outlets. In Group Sales and Catering, our teams delivered near-record third-quarter revenue, and we continue to see positive momentum in both business lines through the balance of 2025 and into early 2026. As we look ahead to the fourth quarter, we are seeing continued stability in our core slot and table games business within the locals' market and across our carded database. We've also seen a return to a more normal hold in our sports business as we start the fourth quarter.

While we do expect near-term disruption impact from our ongoing construction projects at Durango Casino Resort, Sunset Station, and Green Valley Ranch, we remain as confident as ever in the strength of our business and long-term growth prospects. Now let's cover a few balance sheet and capital items. The company's cash and cash equivalents at the end of the third quarter were $129.8 million, and the total principal amount of debt outstanding was $3.4 billion, resulting in a net debt of $3.3 billion. At the end of the third quarter, the company's net debt to EBITDA ratio was 3.89 times. During the third quarter, we made total distributions of approximately $27.8 million to the LLC unit holders of Station Hope, including a distribution of approximately $16.3 million to Red Rock Resorts Inc.

The company used its portion of the distribution to pay its previously declared quarterly dividend of $0.25 per Class A share and repurchased approximately 92,000 Class A shares under its previously announced $600 million share repurchase program. Prior to the earnings call, our board authorized an extension of our existing share repurchase program to December 31, 2027, as well as authorizing an additional $300 million to our existing share repurchase program, giving us $573 million of availability for future share repurchases. As a reminder, since we began purchasing shares either through our share repurchase program or the 2021 tender, we have purchased approximately 15.2 million Class A shares at an average price of $45.53 per share, reducing our share count to approximately 105.9 million shares. As mentioned on our previous earnings call, there was no estimated cash tax payment for Red Rock Resorts Inc.

in the third quarter, and we do not anticipate one occurring in the fourth quarter due to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this year. The capital spend in the third quarter was $93.7 million, which includes approximately $70.5 million in investment capital, as well as $23.2 million in maintenance capital. This brings our year-to-date capital spend to $240.1 million, which includes approximately $163.1 million in investment capital, as well as $77 million in maintenance capital. For the full year 2025, we now expect to spend between $325 million and $350 million, down $25 million from our previous earnings call, mainly due to the timing of capital expenditures. The full-year capital spend includes $235 million to $250 million in investment capital, as well as $90 million to $100 million in maintenance capital.

In addition to our continued investment in our Durango Casino Resort property, we are making significant investments in our Sunset Station and Green Valley Ranch properties. At Sunset Station, we continue to advance our podium refresh to better position the property for continued growth in Henderson, particularly from the master plan communities of the Sky and Cadence, which are expected to deliver over 12,500 new households at full build-out. The $53 million renovation includes an all-new Country Western Bar and Nightclub, a new Mexican restaurant, a new center bar, and a fully renovated casino floor. We are pleased to report that customer feedback and initial financial performance on the completed portions of the renovation has been overwhelmingly positive, reinforcing our confidence in the project's direction. The project remains on budget, with the new amenities expected to come online throughout the remainder of 2025 and into the first half of 2026.

At Green Valley Ranch, we've commenced a comprehensive refresh of our guest room suites and convention spaces, aligning the hotel experience with the recently renovated and well-received high-limit table and slot rooms at the property. Work on the rooms in the West Tower is currently underway and is expected to be completed by mid-November, at which point the East Tower will come offline. While we are still reviewing the East Tower and convention schedules, we now expect the timing for this portion of the project to extend into the summer of 2026. As with our other recently introduced amenities, we believe these upgrades will generate strong returns. However, we do anticipate some continued disruption at the property through the first half of 2026 as we bring these new offerings online for our guests. Turning now to North Fork, construction is progressing well.

We expect to have the facility enclosed by the end of the month and permanent power in place by December, keeping us on pace for an early fourth quarter of 2026 opening. The total all-in project cost remains approximately $750 million, is fully financed, and is being executed under a guaranteed maximum price contract. When complete, this best-in-class resort will feature approximately 100,000 square feet of casino space, with over 2,400 slot machines, including 2,000 Class III games, 40 table games, two food and beverage outlets, and a food court with many exciting options. At the end of the quarter, Red Rock Resorts Inc.'s outstanding note balance due from the tribe stands at approximately $75.2 million. We're excited about this project, very happy with the progress of construction, and look forward to providing further updates on future earnings calls.

Lastly, the company's Board of Directors has approved an increase in our regular cash quarterly dividends of $0.26 per Class A share, payable on December 31 to shareholders of record as of December 15. The decision to raise our regular quarterly dividend reflects the continued strength we are seeing in our business and the confidence we have in our long-term earnings power of our operating model. Including the dividend and the share repurchases completed during the quarter, we will have returned approximately $221 million to our shareholders year to date, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to disciplined capital allocation and delivering sustainable long-term value to our shareholders.

With a third record quarter behind us, strong momentum from the start of the year has continued, and we remain confident in the strength and resilience of our business. Durango Casino Resort continues to validate our long-term growth strategy and highlight the value of our own development pipeline and real estate bank, which includes more than 450 acres of developable land in highly desirable locations across the Las Vegas Valley. Combined with our portfolio of best-in-class assets and premier locations, this pipeline positions us for significant long-term growth and allows us to fully capitalize on the favorable demographic trends and high barriers to entry that define the Las Vegas locals' market. Looking ahead, we remain focused on executing our development pipeline, maintaining operating discipline, and enhancing shareholder returns through a balanced and consistent capital allocation strategy.

Finally, we want to take a moment to sincerely thank all of our team members for their continued hard work and dedication. Our success begins with them. They are the driving force behind the exceptional guest experience that keeps our guests coming back time and again. Thanks to their efforts, we are proud to have been recognized with multiple accolades, including being voted top casino employer in the Las Vegas Valley for five consecutive years, certified as a great place to work for four years running, and named one of America's best in-state employers by Forbes for the second year in a row. We are also honored as a top place to work by USA Today and recently recognized by Newsweek as one of America's greatest workplaces in Nevada. Lastly, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to our loyal guests for their unwavering support over the past six decades.

With that, Operator, we're happy to open the line for questions.

Speaker 6

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speaker phone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, our first question will come from Dan Pulitzer with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. First, Durango, I guess we can call it phase three, if you will. Can you maybe talk about the rationale there for, you know, adding on, as you kind of finish up this initial phase, the disruption impact and maybe how to frame returns, just given there is a big component of this project that's going to be clearly non-gaming.

Speaker 3

Sure. This is Lorenzo. Obviously, as you know, Durango opened two years ago, very strong two years ago. You know, guests really have taken to the property, and we've been very happy with the results so far. Going back to the overall premise of the Durango investment, looking at the fact of where the location exists, there's no competition within three miles in a growing market, submarket in Las Vegas. When we looked at demand there, particularly for entertainment assets at that property, we felt like there was the ability to drive additional traffic and additional guests by adding some additional capacity as well as additional entertainment assets there.

The reality is that from a return standpoint, we expect to get similar returns on the expansion that we have gotten so far on the initial build, which is right in line with what we had communicated to everybody when we announced the project.

Speaker 2

Of all the customer surveys that we've done since we opened, the one thing that our customer base expects is all these other entertainment amenities like movie theaters and bowling and things of this nature. We're basically giving our customers what they're asking for, and that's really what we build: regional entertainment destinations in the best locations with the best amenities at the facilities. That's what's allowed our company to grow the way that it has.

Got it. That makes sense. Just in terms of the quarter, Steve, I think you alluded to something along the lines of sports betting hold. I don't know if you can quantify what that might have been in the quarter, and then along those lines, any way to kind of get a sense of what that disruption impact, you know, where we stand year to date versus, I think, that $23 million, although given, you know, it sounds like they're there.

It's really that last year wasn't like a not normal sports hold last year, given the way the NFL had most of the favorites winning every game.

Yeah, if you recall, last October we announced that we, you know, last third quarter call we announced we had a $4 million of unfavorable hold. I just wanted to remind everyone that, you know, we're back to a normal hold as Q4 is progressing. In terms of disruption, I think this quarter was a really outstanding quarter by every measure, even despite the disruption we had at both our Green Valley Ranch where the hotel remains offline through mid-November. It probably impacted our results about $2.5 to $3 million to the quarter, after which the East Tower will then go right down. We also did experience some disruption, especially during peak parking times at Durango Casino Resort, and at Sunset Station during peak construction times. As mentioned, with the Green Valley Ranch project extended, we expect that disruption to extend beyond 2025 and into 2026.

For Q4, we're estimating in Green Valley disruption probably around $8 million. Got it. Thanks so much for all the detail.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Brant Montour with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks so much for the question. Steve, you called out, in the hotel business, exceptional success. Obviously, one of your peers has an asset that's a little bit closer to the Strip that was feeling it right from the sort of Las Vegas softness. I know you guys are running a different model, perhaps a different customer, a different regional location, but maybe you could just comment on what you did see in terms of the Strip weakness over the summer in your business. You guys have been taking share from the Strip on VIPs. Did that kind of hold its own, even with what's going on over there?

Speaker 2

Hi, Grant. This is Scott. Maybe I'll take this one. For the quarter, we were very happy with the hotel performance. We look at the choppy market in the city, and we felt like we were very resilient in regard to the performance. One thing to caveat, you look at hotel revenues being down. It's largely a function of the Green Valley Ranch rooms being offline. If you take that out, we actually performed quite well. Occupancy was up about 244 basis points. When you look at RevPAR, we were only off by about 1.3%. If you added back in the Green Valley Ranch rooms to that RevPAR, we probably would have been positive in RevPAR for the quarter. Probably the one thing that you're most interested in is ADR.

We kind of mirrored the rest of the city where you saw luxury properties performing a little bit better in ADR year-over-year comparison to, say, something that's more two-star or three-star level. We saw the same thing. If you look at overall ADR for our company against the Strip, we outperformed them by about 25% on an ADR basis.

Okay, great. Thanks for that. Just to circle back, I want to Dan's questions. I don't know if I caught it, but phase three Durango disruption potential. I mean, not that big of a deal. It's on the north side, so maybe it's not a big deal, and you guys didn't, but you didn't talk about it, making sure we didn't miss anything there.

No, Brant, you didn't miss anything. I think we're still working through the details as we're getting for the construction launch in January. We do feel that disrupting the north side of the resort is going to cause some significant disruption.

Excellent. Thanks, everyone.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Steven Moyer Wieczynski with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Hey, thanks. Just to follow up on Brant's question about the Strip, just maybe more broadly, how do you think about the health of the Strip and its impact on your business? Should we be thinking that maybe historical correlations are not potentially useful at this point?

Yeah, Steven, I guess I know there's been a lot of discussion, particularly since G2E, about the recent softening trend for the Strip and really, you know, whether these things are going to spill over in the locals' market. I think the first thing to do is really differentiate the business models. For the past 50 years, we viewed the Las Vegas locals' market as just a fundamentally different business. One, unlike the Strip, it doesn't rely on heavy tourism, doesn't rely on conventions, nor is it hotel-driven. Instead, our locals' market is anchored by a gaming-centric business model that offers value propositions to both local guests as well as out-of-town guests. At its core, it is supported by incredibly loyal guests who, in our case, over 50% of our carded revenue sees guests come over eight times a month.

Further, the market continues to display resilience and stability within this market. We believe we're best positioned to capture our fair share of that market in the Las Vegas Valley. This is demonstrated by our financial results. We had nine record quarters of revenue and five record quarters of EBITDA.

Makes sense. You've got a lot on your plate, I recognize, with the different projects. As we look further out to some of the new development opportunities out there, just given the confidence that it sounds like you have in some of these projects, does it change how you think about either the magnitude or what projects or even the ROIC that you could have on some of the land that you could still develop going forward?

Speaker 2

That's a great question. I don't think that anything has really changed in our view and what we've said in the past. The announcement of Durango North is really just about the fact that Durango North is shovel ready. It's the quickest project we can get in the ground. That does not slow us down in any way in our master planning, entitlement, or cost analysis of the other projects that we've talked about, namely Cactus and Inspirata.

Speaker 1

the Durango Casino Resort hotel rooms.

Yes, Lorenzo, we're continuing to plan and design and move forward with entitlements, and we're as bullish as we've ever been relative to the future development of the company and our ability to generate returns.

Great, thank you so much.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from David Brian Katz with Jefferies LLC. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just to follow on to that a bit, I know, Steve and everyone, we've had the discussion about potentially having, you know, two projects kind of in the ground and spending at once. That was possible, you know, but it didn't seem all that likely. Can you sort of give us your updated perspective on that?

Speaker 2

Look, we definitely could have two projects in the ground at the same time, but I don't think that would be more than a minor overlap, in my opinion. One project may be winding down with another project starting up.

Speaker 1

That said, David, when you talk about major developments, like we just announced Durango Casino Resort, which we view as an extension of a new build. At the same time, we're doing an extensive remodel at Green Valley Ranch. We're doing an extensive remodel at Sunset Station.

Speaker 2

We are working on our Greenfield projects.

Okay. Lots of balls in the air. Steve, I just want to make sure I heard correctly. You know, fully loaded leverage is 3.89 times. You know, just looking through the next 12 months, is that a neighborhood that we should expect you to kind of stay in, or does that start to ramp up in your model?

Speaker 1

Right now, I can tell you we're very comfortable with the leverage. This quarter marked the sixth quarter in a row of deleveraging. As I mentioned earlier, we converted 67% of our EBITDA to free cash flow. We do plan on funding these resorts out of free cash. Leverage, if it does spike up because of the development of these projects, would be temporary in nature as we get these projects up and running, particularly our Green Valley Ranch and Sunset Station projects online and generating cash.

Speaker 2

You don't expect to be a cash taxpayer in the near term?

Speaker 1

No. I think as Frank alluded to, the tax bill has been, is going to be incredibly favorable for these development projects. When we took an initial look, and there's still some wood to chop in this analysis, we would expect 100% of the Sunset Station project as currently scoped to be allowed to accelerate depreciation, about 40% of the Green Valley Ranch project to be accelerated, 40% of the Durango Casino Resort North project to be accelerated, and about 10% of the current Durango Casino Resort South garage to be accelerated. When you kind of put all that together, that's a little bit over $300 million of capital that we're going to put to work that will be able to accelerate depreciation and take advantage of the tax bill.

Really helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Benjamin Nicolas Chaiken with Mizuho Securities USA LLC. Please go ahead.

Hey, just to follow up on the tax benefit that you were just running through. I guess now that you have a better view of what the capital outlays will look like in 2026, could you help us with the free cash flow conversion next year, EBITDA to free cash flow?

Speaker 1

We're still in the throes of actually doing our operating budget and our capital planning for 2026. What I was able to focus on is our capital and our existing projects. That's really where the extent of it is. As you've seen over the last several quarters, we've reduced capital outlays by $25 million, namely due to the timing of those projects. These three same projects, the Sunset is currently scoped, Green Valley, the hotel and convention, as well as the Durango South, the garage, which is going to be opening in mid-December. About $175 million of capital related to those projects will spill over into 2026 just as a matter of timing. Hopefully, that helps, Ben.

Yeah, that's very helpful. Appreciate it. Just kind of like more modeling related, in the past, you've, last couple of quarters, you've given us some seasonality color. Is there anything notable we should consider as we close out the year? I think you mentioned $8 million of construction disruption. Just anything else you'd flag?

No, I mean, typically, Q4 to Q3, I mean, Q3 to Q4 seasonality is usually up about 10% to 11%. Right now, at least, we haven't seen anything that would argue differently. As you've mentioned, that's going to be offset by there's some Green Valley Ranch disruption, about $8 million, and probably Sunset Station to the tune of $1 million to $1.5 million.

Thank you.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from John G. DeCree with CBRE Securities LLC. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Hi, good afternoon, guys. Maybe a question operationally. You talked a little bit about on the hotel side, the performance on luxury versus, you know, more value-oriented options. I wonder if you could speak to the gaming business, perhaps the database. And Steve, you may have touched a little bit on this in the prepared remarks. What are you seeing across the database, kind of upper tiers versus lower tiers, and any trends in kind of unrated play? It's not a huge piece of your business, but you know, from a consumer perspective.

Speaker 2

Hi, John. This is Scott. I'll take that one. For the quarter, we saw meaningful increases in carded and uncarded slot win. It's really been consistent and stable performance. It's really a function of us prioritizing investments around our higher-valued customers, whether that's having some of the best-in-class high-limit rooms in town, new relevant amenities, best-in-class assets, keeping them clean and fresh, and really.

Location?

That's what I was just going to say is the fact that we're positioned in these high-net-worth, high-growth areas on arterial freeways is really shining through in the database. When you look at our local, our regional, and our national customers, all of those groups or those categories are up meaningfully, with particular growth in VIP, regional, and national, while the lower-worth segments remain stable. I also mentioned, and you caught that, uncarded is also up for the quarter.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Scott. That's all really helpful. Maybe an easy one on the promotional environment. Las Vegas is kind of a separate market, but we're kind of seeing and hearing outside of Las Vegas regionally a little bit of uptick in promotional activity. Have you guys noted or seen anything throughout the summer or currently in terms of changes in competitive behavior in the market?

Speaker 2

No, it's been business as usual for us. It remains very constant and rational.

Speaker 1

Great. Thanks, Scott. Appreciate it, guys.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Chad C. Beynon with Macquarie Research Division. Please go ahead.

Afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Flow-through in the quarter was slightly better than, I think, what most expected given the disruption that you called out. OpEx per day was down for the first time in several years. Can you just talk about if this is sustainable from a cost standpoint and anything else that we should be thinking about from a labor, utility, etc., standpoint for expenses in the next couple of quarters? Thank you.

Speaker 2

I can take the OpEx part. Maybe you take the free cash flow part. Really, you said it. Overall operating expenses were flat to down for the quarter. When you look at COGS as a percentage of revenue, we were flat. When you look at utilities and repairs and maintenance, we were down slightly. Payroll, we were up a bit, but that was a function of us giving a 3% raise in the middle of the year to salary and hourly employees, which is really kind of a CPI-pacing pay raise. Fundamentally, as long as marketing remains rational, which it has for the last several years, these are completely sustainable efforts. A shout-out to our operating teams in the field. They're incredibly focused on margin control and expense management, and the GMs and their teams out in the field do a great job.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Just to add to piggyback what Scott said, I was going to say I'd give a similar shout-out on the revenue side. I mean, this is really, it's about operating leverage and a flow-through operating leverage. As Scott mentioned, the database is healthy. The business is healthy despite some disruption at three of our properties. We keep that up. Flow-through should be sustainable. I mean, consolidated flow-through chat is probably a little bit wonky, just given the fact that there's the North Fork development fee embedded in that. Other than that, it's business as usual.

Thank you. Actually, a good segue to my next question. Just in terms of the fee, you said opening for North Fork, you said Q4 2026. When will you start to receive kind of those top and bottom line economics? Do those flow through as the property ramps, or are there any deferred payments in terms of how that's structured?

I think the first thing I think you'll see is that, you know, we've been accruing. We accrued $10 million of the development fee last quarter, $3.9 million this quarter. We expect to accrue $3.4 million pretty much through the opening. That obviously is non-cash. Once the resort opens in Q4, per the development agreement, I would consider, you know, think about there's going to be an influx of cash from that development fee upon the resort's successful opening. There's probably going to be.

Speaker 2

The note receivable.

Speaker 1

The note receivable, there's probably going to be a true-up of that development fee. I would say probably a quarter behind that as we true-up the construction costs. As Frank's mentioning, the $74.5 million note payable goes cash interest immediately upon cash open. We will look to recoup that note as soon as the property starts cash flowing, at which point our seven-year management agreement kicks in the day we open. We expect, you know, if we're going to give guidance to that resort, to generate $40 to $50 million in management fees upon stabilization over that term.

That's great. Thanks for the color. Appreciate it.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Joseph Robert Stauff with Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Just two quick ones. I was wondering if you can maybe just give us an update on the backfill process at Red Rock. I know there are a couple of things moving around in the quarter, you know, with Green Valley Ranch out, the hotel offline, but I was wondering if you could comment on that. Just clarify, Scott, I think you had mentioned in a previous answer that both regional and national demand were up in the quarter. Is that right?

Speaker 1

That's correct. Okay, on the backfill, that's the, you know, we're on track. As you know, when we kind of kicked off the Durango process in December of 2023, we said that we would experience cannibalization. We did. We expected within three years to backfill Red Rock, and so we are, you know, we're in, we're kind of in year two, in the throes of year two, and we're on track to do just that.

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Steve Pezzella with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Just a couple quick ones. Within locals, can you talk about if there was anything to call out from a cadence perspective interquarter?

Speaker 1

Yeah, Cadence.

Speaker 2

Sorry, Cadence Crossing?

Yeah, no, Cadence.

Speaker 1

No, no, it wasn't Cadence over the quarter.

Speaker 2

No, it was.

Speaker 1

No, I think it was pretty.

Speaker 2

Pretty normal.

Speaker 1

Pretty normal quarter. Yeah.

Thank you. I might have missed it. Did you give a sports book hold impact for the quarter if there was one?

No, we didn't. What we did, I think, prior question, we referenced it during the script because if you recall last year, during the third quarter call, we held unusually poorly. We called a $4 million number out last October. We just wanted to remind folks that the hold is normal through today.

Okay, makes sense. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Jordan Maxwell Bender with Citizens JMP Securities LLC. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Hi, everyone. Thanks for the question. Maybe drill down on margins one more time. If I look at casino margins, they continue to improve to levels we haven't seen in, you know, over two years. Is this a function of mix? Is it Durango continuing the ramp or anything else you would kind of point us to to say, you know, this is kind of the right level for your casino margins looking forward? I think it's a function of, you know, some mix, but also, I think the team has done a great job managing expenses.

Speaker 2

I think it's been the shift in our approach to the market post-COVID.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 2

We shifted towards high-limit slot rooms, high-limit table games. I think we're doing a much better job post-COVID on attracting the high-end value customer.

Speaker 1

Understood. Just on the follow-up, the dividend increase, you know, went up a penny a quarter. I mean, is there any kind of calculation behind, you know, why that went up a penny? Or was it just arbitrary? That's kind of what you guys landed on? It's a whole number to start. It took some condensing, but it's a penny a quarter, so $0.04 a year. I think the board recognized, you know, and the management team recognized the continued strength of the business, and the long-term earnings power of the platform. The board continues to evaluate its dividend policy every quarter, and I think they set something up so that in the future, they could reevaluate, you know, quarterly earnings and dividend increases. Perfect. Thank you very much.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Barry Jonathan Jonas with Truist Securities Inc. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. It's Patrick Keogh on for Barry tonight. Thank you for taking our questions. First, zooming out on the construction impact, you had previously pointed to around $25 million for the year. Where would you say you're at cumulatively, and any reason to think you'd be tracking above or below that number for the full year? Thanks.

Speaker 1

I think we're tracking below that number, and I kind of walked you through it. Sunset, we have seen marginal disruption in the past quarters. I expected $1 million to $1.5 million this quarter. Durango, Dave and the team down there have done an amazing job managing the disruption, so there's minor disruption there. It's tough to quantify because it's mainly peak parking time. Green Valley, I kind of walked you through it. I think this quarter was about $2.5 million, $3 million. Next quarter, I anticipate $8 million, or, sorry, this quarter, Q4.

Sounds good. Thank you. As a follow-up, we'd be interested to hear any early thoughts on the tavern business. How many do you have open at this point? How have they performed relative to expectations? What does your pipeline look like? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Hey, Patrick. This is Scott. We've got eight under contract. Two are operational. We've got five coming online, starting the early part of next year and all the way through to the summer. Early indicators are we're ramping to our investment thesis, so we're happy with the performance of the two taverns. If we go back to the thesis a little bit of why we like the taverns, it tends to skew a younger audience. As we grow our database, we're seeing that come to fruition, that it's a younger customer base and a customer base we're trying to attract. Also, because of the locations of the two open taverns, we're finding a pretty strong penetration into unknown customers in those zones.

We're kind of reaching out and finding new customers that we didn't have in our bloodstream, and we are seeing those customers now migrate to our large box properties as well. All of those original reasons why we got into the business, we're starting to see green shoots on. It's early days. As we open up more of the taverns, we'll kind of solidify the performance and the kind of attributes of what we like about the taverns. So far, we're pretty excited about it.

Speaker 1

Did we lose you, Barry?

Speaker 6

This will conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Stephen Cootey for any closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker 1

Thank you very much for joining the call, and we look forward to talking again in about 90 days. Take care.

Speaker 6

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.