Full House Resorts Delivers Golden News With Silver Slipper Reopening

Full House Resorts (NASDAQ:FLL) generated some buzz Thursday on news that its Silver Slipper Casino & Hotel in Hancock County, Miss. is joining other Magnolia State gaming properties in reopening.

Rivals are also reopening casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi. But the move is particularly vital for Full House because the Silver Slipper accounted for 44 percent of the operator’s 2019 revenue.

The Company continues to work closely with its various regulators and government leaders on the reopening of its other properties,” according to a statement. “It continues to expect that all of its properties will have reopened by mid-June.”

In addition to the Mississippi venue, Full House operates two gaming properties in its home state of Nevada, and one apiece in Colorado and Indiana.

Assessing the Timeline

Full House’s Silver State venues are Stockman’s Casino in Fallon and the Grand Lodge Casino at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa and Casino in Incline Village, which is operated under an agreement with Hyatt.

Colorado is the potential wild card in Full House’s reopening plans, because officials there aren’t yet offering up a time line for when the state’s more than 30 casinos can again open their doors.

Last week on the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Dan Lee said all of Full House’s properties were performing well prior to the shutdown forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the call, Lee forecast that Silver Slipper would be the first of the operator’s venues to reopen, while noting “it’s hard to say” regarding when Colorado will sign off on casinos getting back to business.

Why Reopening Matters

In the first month of coronavirus closures, Full House burned through about $5 million, according to Lee, a figure pared to $3 million in the second month due to staff furloughs.

Still, those are large numbers for a company with a market capitalization of just $51.12 million. As Casino.org reported last week, Full House procured more than $5.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans – $3.4 million for the Rising Star and $2.2 million for its Colorado venue.

The chief executive, whose wife is Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV), said on the conference call, “It’s possible that some of that loan would qualify for forgiveness, depending on what our payroll is over the next eight weeks, which in turn depends on when we’re actually able to open.”

The company had $24 million in cash and cash equivalents as of March 31. On volume that was more than double the daily average, shares of Full House lost 1.56 percent today, as markets sold off late in the session. The stock traded higher for most of the day on the Silver Slipper reopening news.