Colorado casinos boost fourth-quarter revenues for Affinity Gaming

Casino operator Affinity Gaming grew revenues 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter, primarily through the company’s three casinos in Colorado that were purchased last year.

The Las Vegas-based company said Monday that total revenues increased to $97.7 million in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, compared with $93.4 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Affinity Gaming is facing a potential proxy fight over control of the company by its two largest shareholders, which have submitted separate proposals for changing the makeup of the board of directors.

Illinois-based private equity firm Z Capital Partners, which controls 30.5 percent of Affinity, intends to nominate three candidates for election to the company’s five-person board.

Silver Point Capital, a Connecticut-based hedge fund that owns 24.9 percent of Affinity, is proposing the board be expanded to seven members.

Affinity operates 12 casinos in four states: Nevada, Colorado, Iowa and Missouri. In Nevada, Affinity operates six casinos, including the off-Strip Terrible’s and the three Primm properties at the California-Nevada border.

Affinity said revenues of $6.9 million from the casinos in Black Hawk, Colo., which the company acquired in an asset swap with Golden Gaming, helped offset a $1.4 million decrease in fuel sales and related revenues in the company’s Primm properties.

Net income for the quarter was just $522,000, compared with $4.24 million in the same quarter a year ago.

For all of 2012, Affinity said, net revenues grew 6.5 percent to $403.2 million.

In addition to the asset swap with Golden, in which Affinity gave up its Nevada slot machine route operation business, the company sold several casinos in Northern Nevada.

“We spent a great deal of effort this year executing a transition plan that included entry into a new gaming market, divesting of our non-core operations, refinancing our long-term debt and most importantly, continually improving our properties and operating results,” Affinity Chief Executive Officer David Ross said in a statement.

Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.