Richmond-headquartered Great Canadian Gaming (TSX:GC) reported $11.3 million net earnings on $102.1 million revenue for 2013’s second quarter – 1% better than the same period last year.
In its August 14 financial report, Great Canadian recorded $42.6 million net earnings for the first half of 2013, on $202.6 million revenue. That beat the $29.2 million loss from a year earlier, although year-to-date revenue is down 1%. Of the company’s first-half revenue, gambling accounted for $143.4 million, a 4% decline from a year earlier.
Great Canadian’s flagship is River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond and the company also operates Hastings Racecourse. Racetrack division revenue fell from $8.1 million to $7.1 million for the half-year.
CEO Rod Baker said the Port Mann Highway 1 Project continues to harm the Boulevard Casino’s bottom line, but relief is coming. The fourth quarter will mark both the end of construction for the highway and the relaunch of Boulevard as the Hard Rock Vancouver. He said the four years of tie-ups have cost the property 30% to 35% in revenue.
“As challenging as things have been, this property was the star property in the Lower Mainland a number of years ago,” Baker said. “We're creating something that's very different from all of our other assets and other assets in the industry.”
Baker said that the company’s $13 million first-phase renovation has “exacerbated” transportation-related problems for the casino.
“We're creating something that's very different from all of our other assets and other assets in the industry,” Baker told analysts in a conference call.
He said construction hoarding has reduced slot machines from 990 to 817. Ultimately, the litmus test will be from how far people travel to visit Hard Rock for gambling, food and beverage and entertainment.
BC Lottery Corp.’s annual report shows Boulevard’s gambling revenue for 2012-13 was $139,261,000, down from $144,064,000 the previous year. Only River Rock ($315,719,000) and Grand Villa $167,359,000) reported more revenue in 2012-13 than the previous year.
Boulevard forwarded almost $7.4 million of host city royalties to City of Coquitlam last year.
