Testimonals

  • Frank has been part of a gaming supplier executive’s workday for decades, whether through his research, commentary, analysis or interviews surrounding the gaming industry. His commitment and dedication to delivering insight and context to the ever-changing global gaming marketplace is greatly appreciated by our entire industry.

    Daron Dorsey
    AGEM Executive Director
  • Morning coffee without the Fantini report is no morning at all : )

    Earle Hall
    President & CEO, Axes.ai

  • Fantini is an absolute must read. It is my go to place for up to date information in the gaming industry!

    Alexander Havenick
    President, Magic City Casino
  • THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS to the entire Fantini team for 20 years in the business. You have been a resource to me since my Day 1 in Gaming and not a day goes by without reading your newsletter. 

    Tracey S. Chernay
    Senior Vice President, Global Casino, Gaming and Lottery, TransAct Technologies
  • Fantini is global, comprehensive and very informative. If you want to be plugged into the gaming industry there is no better means. Best to you on your 20-year anniversary.

    Larry Mullin

That means for a casino to earn as much from a typical nickel machine (one coin bet), would need minimum bets of $5 to $10 at a similar hold percent, to earn the same machine win. So it's unlikely that our younger players will ever lose as much at our casino games as their seniors. But as the Las Vegas Strip has shown us over the past 25 years, is that non-casino departments can produce as much or more in profit than the games themselves. So the secret for the casino industry, is to find non-gaming ways to attract this growing sector of our overall market, as we see some of our older customers less frequently.

Some of our Vegas casinos are using e-sports and various video game competitions just to attract the younger crowd, hoping that they can generate revenues and profits from millennials in the rooms, beverage, entertainment and restaurant departments, and maybe tournament entry fees.

In 1990, with the hosting of Comdex, Sheldon Adelson's Computer Industry trade show plus the opening of the Sand's Expo Center, the Las Vegas Strip began to look at other areas of a casino resort to contribute to company profitability. Prior to that year, most Las Vegas resorts preferred in-house conventions that never had to leave the property. But with Comdex, and 170,000 attendees and exhibitors, we needed many more rooms than the 800 available at the Sands, so as Sheldon's President/COO. I was given the task of finding enough rooms to house a group of computer nerds, that few casino resorts were interested in hosting.

So we proposed a deal. One, we would triple their current mid-week room rate of around $50. $150 was not an unreasonable rate for convention attendees at major US cities, and most Vegas conventions soon learned that attendance and the number of exhibitors grew in a resort with casino gaming and major entertainment. Second, we would rent all of the meeting space of the larger properties, the Hilton, Caesars, Bally and the Las Vegas Convention Center. Third, we would provide the host casinos with most of the profitable function business, and finally, for our 10 percent commission, we would also provide buses from each property to the various sites holding the exhibits and functions. I also advised the resorts that their gourmet restaurants would be filled with cash, not comp customers and also suggested that some casino employees might be given a few days off.

The only major casino company that refused our deal, was Circus Circus, and the day after the show started, Bill Bennett called me asking for our free buses. It seems our reservation personnel forgot to mention Comdex, when booking a Circus property.

That year we passed Chicago as the top convention destination in North America. But since 1990, the marriage of large conventions and trade shows, mid-week, with regular casino and tourism demand on week-ends, has continued to the benefit of most Strip properties. Since the average size of the larger Strip resorts has increased from 1,929 rooms in 1990 to 3,158 in 2017. The best comparison is one based on occupied rooms.

In 1990 the casino win, per occupied room, was $203.64 and in spite of 27 years of inflation, the win per room in 2017 had increased only 2.9 percent to $209.53. Table win was down $12.40, with slots improving $21.33 per occupied room, even though the casino department profitability had only declined from 44.9 percent to 35.6 percent. The casino departments contribution to total departmental profits (before A and G), had declined from 62.7 percent to only 27.3. The rooms department contribution jumped from 24.4 percent to 40.9, and food went from a loss to a 7.3 percent profit. The convention/retail/other department also more than doubled its contribution, from 8.6 to 18.0 percent. The extra mid-week demand allowed occupancy to climb to 93.1 percent annually, and the average room rate to increase from $62.74 to $171.60.

So the key for the industry, with the size of the millennial population growing, is to treat them like the convention industry, and offer non-gaming attractions that appeal to them - preferably mid-week. And hopefully our slot manufactures will come up with casino games that incorporate a level of skill that turns some our younger aged customers into casino players. But if not, let’s hope they find other reasons to visit our casino resorts and contribute revenue to other departments.

Let me count the ways!