Gaming Roundup: Industry Is on the Move

In Part I, we took a look at the quarterly earnings reports of WMSIndustries and Station Casinos. Here, we update openings, TV deals, and moves in the industry.

Casino hotel opens on the Strip
The 696-room Hooters Casino Hotel opened this week on the Las Vegas Strip, complete with Hooters girls and nine restaurants and bars. The revamped hotel and casino replaces the old San Remo brand, and is located behind Aztar's Tropicana and across the street from MGMMirage's (NYSE:MGM) MGM Grand. The casino -- with 30,000 square feet of gaming space and a mere 700 slots and 32 table games -- is a relatively small one. But with its famed Hooters brand aimed squarely at males ages 25 to 54, the niche casino looks to be a hit. The grand opening began Thursday evening.

Boyd completes $170 million expansion
Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) said Tuesday that it has opened its new Blue Chip Casino on the Indiana side of the Chicagoland market. The property's $170 million expansion -- which began in April 2004 -- features a new single-floor casino with 2,170 slot machines and 51 table games over 65,000 square feet of gaming space, replacing a three-story riverboat. The property also includes three new dining outlets, an entertainment lounge, and a new 950-space parking garage.

The expansion is necessary because the Blue Chip is the competitor farthest east from Chicago, and thus the worst-positioned.

Harrah's Horseshoe Hammond is the closest to Chicago and led the Indiana side casinos with $375.8 million in gaming revenues in 2005. Resorts East Chicago, which Harrah's sold before it acquired Caesars Entertainment last year and is located just a few miles east of the Horseshoe, is the second-best player. Farther east is a pavilion shared by Trump Entertainment Resorts and Majestic Star. Back in November, Trump agreed to sell its boat to Majestic Star for $253 million; the two boats combined for third place on the Indiana side in 2005, with Boyd's Blue Chip dead last.

Complicating matters, WPT Enterprises (NASDAQ:WPTE) parent Lakes Entertainment and the Pokagon band of Potawatomi Indians are set to begin construction of a 3,000-slot, 100-table game facility in nearby New Buffalo Township, Michigan. Lakes Entertainment announced this week that the federal government "took official action to acquire the Pokagon Band's 675-acre parcel of land" into a trust for the band. The company expects construction to begin by June 1.

Chicagoland Market, Indiana

WPT Enterprises Deal
WPT Enterprises said Monday that it had finally struck a deal with Discovery Holding's (NASDAQ:DISCA) Travel Channel to air its Professional Poker Tour (PPT) series. WPT Enterprises previously had a three-year deal with Disney's (NYSE:DIS) ESPN before the Travel Channel -- which airs WPT Enterprises' World Poker Tour television show -- threatened to sue last fall.

The Travel Channel says it now has 44 weeks of new World Poker Tour and Professional Poker Tour episodes combined each year, and WPT Enterprises will finally recognize revenue for the PPT, for which the company has already recognized expenses. With the deal in place, WPT Enterprises is a good bet to turn 2005's losses into a profit for 2006.

Shuffle Master delays filing again
Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection Shuffle Master (NASDAQ:SHFL) said Wednesday that it would again delay the filing of its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2005. As noted a couple of weeks ago, the issue was a matter of the timing of a transaction at its CARD subsidiary. The company said that the transaction would be "properly recognized" in the first quarter, rather than the preceding fourth quarter.

Shuffle Master's 15-day extension on its 10-K filing expired Feb. 1. However, while the company has determined that no material changes to the fourth quarter and fiscal 2005 "are now contemplated," it has yet to complete its internal review of its data collection process and internal controls. It will release its 10-K once that it is completed. (Let's just hope it doesn't take too long.)

Isle of Capri moves
On Sunday, riverboat casino operator Isle of Capri (NASDAQ:ISLE) officially announced that it would relocate its corporate headquarters to St. Louis. The company will relocate 150 corporate positions at an estimated cost of $10 million over the next eight months, with the process beginning in the summer.

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Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns shares of WMS Industries. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.