M Resorts’ nearly doubling of room capacity in December with the opening of a new tower has accomplished what Penn Entertainment Inc. set out to do — expand gaming and group revenue in Las Vegas.
The Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based regional casino giant said Thursday it expanded retail revenue 6.3 percent to $137.6 million for its Western division of properties, with much of that attributable to record gaming volumes in December as a result of the opening of 375 rooms, bringing hotel capacity to 765.
Penn CEO Jay Snowden told investors on a fourth-quarter earnings conference call Thursday morning that the company capitalized on minimizing labor costs by having much of its hotel infrastructure in place before the doors to the new tower opened on Dec. 1.
“We obviously have housekeeping, front desk and hotel services and the M Resort property was built for more hotel rooms,” Snowden said.
“We didn’t have to invest in expanding any of those areas as part of that project,” he said. “A lot of unmet demand that we couldn’t handle at M Resort. And we cultivated these relationships with a lot of these groups and conventions that would come through. And then it would just outgrow us because we only had 390 people.
“We’ve basically almost doubled the capacity pretty close to 750 total rooms at the M now and so we have groups both coming back and new large groups coming in for the first time, we can deliver a level of service and personalization that they just don’t find on the Strip because these hotels are so big and those groups can get lost.
“If you look at the M Resort results, which we do every day, and you look at occupancy and you look at (average daily room rates), you almost don’t even realize that we doubled the number of rooms because occupancy has been almost as strong as it was last year with half the rooms. So we feel really good about M Resort.”
Snowden, without specifically naming the groups, said there were two events in December that proved the point. The new tower actually opened weeks earlier than originally planned, giving the resort the ability to serve guests for early December’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and to host New Year’s parties at the end of the month.
The M Tower’s success and the company’s August relocation of its Hollywood casino in Joliet, Ill., boosted Penn’s revenue from $1.67 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to $1.8 billion in 2025 and cash flow from $165.2 million to $225.8 million.
Due to debt and other expenses, the company still posted a net loss of $73.4 million, 55 cents per share, in 2025, compared with a net loss of $133.3 million, 88 cents per share, in 2024.
Snowden said the favorable results from Penn’s recent capital expenditures encourage him for the future with relocation of the Hollywood Aurora casino in Illinois and construction of a new tower in Hollywood Columbus, Ohio, both coming in the second quarter of 2026, and relocation of the Hollywood Council Bluffs property in Iowa in late 2026 or early 2027.
Snowden also noted that the winter weather has also affected the company’s operations with properties in New England having to close briefly as a result of recent snowstorms in the first quarter.
This is a development story. Check back for updates.
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