Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corporation is going through a tough phase and this seems not to get over so easily. Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CZR) on Monday reported a loss of $643 million in its third quarter. The Las-Vegas based company said it had a loss of $4.38 per share and losses adjusted to account for discounted operations came to $26.80 per share. However, the casino operator posted revenue of $986 million for this period. Caesars shares have fallen 13 percent since the beginning of the year and in the final minutes of trading on Monday; shares hit $6.90, which is a decline of 22 percent in the last 12 months.
Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC) saw a revenue jump up 3% to $986 m in the three months ending September 30, while its adjusted earnings rose 9.3% to $269m. At the same time, its operating income fell from $88m in Q3 2015 to a $44m loss. The group has already filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2015, and the company’s Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) unit sold its Playtika social and mobile games business for $4.4b.
Caesars used to report to CIE revenue as a part of the Caesars Growth Partners (CGP) division, which also controls six brick and mortar casinos, real-money online gambling operations and the World Series of Poker brand. Through Playtika sale Caesars made $4.4b but most that were immediately diverted to bribing CEOCn’s holdout creditors to sign on to the divisions restructuring plan. Caesars also announced last week that it is looking to raise additional $3.8b in the third party exit financing to assure the bankruptcy deal goes through.
Caesars said in a statement that: it has enough unrestricted cash on hand to make it through the end of the year, but if it fails to raise new financing, or the COEC restructuring doesn’t go through “on a timely basis and under circumstances satisfactory to CEC,” then Caesars will be forced to seek its own Chapter 11 protections.”
Caesars CEO Mark Frissora said: the Q3 numbers weren’t helped by a “significant unfavorable hold” at its casino tables that reduced earnings between $30m and $35m. Perhaps that’s why the company issued a notice to staff in Vegas last month reminding them to be on the lookout for players wearing smart watches.
The Las Vegas Sun reported
“That Caesars’ notice specifically singled out Samsung smart watches, as they’re the only ones equipped with cameras. A Caesars spokesperson said the Samsung watch camera “can be used inappropriately in the context of a table card game.” But hey, if you confiscate enough of them, maybe you could raise some of that $3.8b via eBay resales.”
