Penn National Gaming contemplates further investments in Tropicana

Operators of the Tropicana in Las Vegas will take a wait-and-see approach through the first half of 2018 to determine whether it will invest more in the Strip resort, company executives said Thursday in a quarterly earnings call.

Tim Wilmott, CEO of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based Penn National Gaming Inc. told investors that the company is opening celebrity chef Robert Irvine’s first signature Las Vegas restaurant, the Robert Irvine Public House, at the Tropicana Thursday and there are plans for a new Asian restaurant at the property by the end of the year.

Once executives gauge customer reaction to the new non-gaming amenities they’ll make decisions on whether they’ll do more.

The hotel-casino has been hampered by poor pedestrian access as a result of construction on the new restaurant and repairs to a pedestrian bridge linking Tropicana to the MGM Grand.

“While Tropicana Las Vegas faced significant construction disruption in the first half of 2017 related to the buildout of the new Irvine restaurant and the city’s renovations of the pedestrian sky bridge over Tropicana Avenue leading to MGM Grand, the walkway has now been reopened and the observed incremental foot traffic has been significant,” Wilmott told investors in the conference call.

It was a hit-and-miss quarter for Penn, which operates 27 properties in 17 locations, including the Tropicana and M Resort in Las Vegas.

For the quarter that ended June 30, the company reported a 3.5 percent increase in revenue to $796.5 million, but a 49.7 percent decline in earnings to $17.1 million, 18 cents a share, as the company focused on debt retirement and share repurchases.

Penn missed Wall Street analysts’ estimates of 27 cents a share in earnings, but surpassed revenue projections of $790.9 million.

The company’s shares have increased in value by 55 percent since the beginning of 2017 and 48 percent in the last 12 months.

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Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.